Chapter 4:

At home, Raven cried her eyes out just thinking about what happened earlier, and how her bastard father had reacted. Now she was suspended, grounded, and away from the boy she wanted to see so badly. Now he was there, with that…Terra. Suddenly the phone rang, and Raven jumped across the bed to answer it.

"Raven my friend. It's Starfire," a voice across the phone said.

"Star, what are you doing home?" Raven asked quietly, so as not to wake her now sleeping father (who had drunk himself to sleep soon after they got home.).

"Suspended," she said quietly, "Terra cracked one of her stupid jokes about you and your father. We all saw the fight. I slapped her, and broke her nose. She cursed at me really bad, got herself suspended as well. We both got the same amount as you."

"Well that sets some troubles to rest," Raven said, smiling slightly.

"Huh?"

"I'll tell you later. The point is, our parents work, and us being suspended for a couple days, we might be able to sneak to the mall and do some other stuff," Raven whispered, making sure she didn't let her father, still snoring loudly in his chair in the living room down the hall.

"It's definitely worth a try," Star laughed, "That foreign film, Battle Royale, is playing at the theater downtown. Want to see it? I hear it's a gore-fest, but is really cool."

"Alright, it's a deal!" Raven cried out, suddenly covering her mouth, remembering her father.

"Well, I'm off. My Dad is back. He dropped me off, after a talking to and grounding, of course, and went to get some coffee, or something," Star told her.

"Alright, see you Starfire," Raven said, and hung the phone up.

Raven, lying at the time on her stomach on her bed, rolled over onto her back, and stared at the ceiling.

"Maybe I don't have to worry so much after all," she said quietly.

Suddenly, out of the corner of her eye, she caught sight of a dark figure standing in her doorway. One hand was holding an empty bottle of bourbon.

"Dad…" Raven tried to speak, but was cut off.

" Shut the fuck up," he cursed loudly.

Raven tried to move back a little, but soon hit the wall. Her father kept moving forward.

"Think you can hide things behind my back. Talking to your little friends, thinking about all the boys at school you'd love screw, not even thinking about what you could get into. But that won't happen with ME around!"

And with that, he raised the bottle of bourbon, and swung it back down toward his frightened daughter.

TO be continued…