Chapter Two
I wake up and rub my eyes. I get out of bed, putting my pyjama shorts on then walking out of my room. I walk down the hall and see if the boys are in there rooms, which they're not. I then walk down stairs and into the kitchen. When Danny appears. He storms towards me, puts his hand around my neck, his body on me and holds me against a wall.
"I need money, where is it?" he demands, I can smell the alcohol on his breath.
"I don't have any! Mum took it for pokies!" I assure him.
"Your lying!" he screams in my face.
"I'm not!"
"You are pathetic! You can't read, you can't write! You can't get me money! I don't know why I haven't just sold you to someone else yet so you can be there mistake! You're pathetic! he assures me.
"I'm not pathetic!" I yell back at him.
"You are now where is the money I know you are lying!" he shouts, knocking my head on the wall hard, then putting his grip around my throat tighter.
"I'm not lying!" I shout in pain.
"Oi! Get off of her!" I hear Brax yelling.
Danny is thrown off of me and I see Brax and Heath standing in front of me, Danny on the ground in front of them. Brax gets money from his wallet and throws it at him.
"Now piss off" Brax demands.
Danny glares and then makes his way to the back door, stumbling a few times. Brax and Heath turn back to me and look concerned.
"Billie are you okay?" Brax asks walking towards me.
"I'm fine, I gotta get ready for school" I sigh and start to walk off.
I feel someone grab my wrist and I turn around to see Brax, Heath behind him.
"What did he say to you? He always says bad stuff when he's drunk, what did he say to you?" he asks worried.
"The truth" I admit chuckling but in a sad way.
I continue to walk up to my room, I get changed into my school stuff and then quickly sneak downstairs without seeing Brax or Heath. When I get to school I go to my locker, then to home room and I walk to the back then at down next to Nic and Lewis.
"Holy shit Billie, what happened to your neck?" Lew asks quietly.
I look at him confused, then he gets his phone out and puts the camera on facing me so I can see myself. My neck has tiny scratches and big red marks from Danny. I sigh and lift my collar up.
"I had a visit from Danny this morning" I state.
"Are you okay?" Nic asks concerned.
"Yeah I'm fine, Brax and Heath came before anything got out of hand" I note.
"Out of hand? Bill, if he was choking you that's already out of hand" Lew exclaims.
"I'm fine alright, can we drop it now?" I ask.
They both nod reluctantly, they are worried about me.
"Do you have my homework?" I ask Nic.
"Yeah here, all your homework done and dusted" he nods.
"Thanks" I smile.
"It's all good, so this weekend, catch up again to work on school stuff?" Nic asks.
"Yeah I'm good" Lew answers.
"Me too" I add before the teacher walks into the classroom and we all be quiet.
After school, we head down to the beach again. When I get there, I see al the River Boys, Heath and Casey but no Brax.
"I'll be back in a second" I say to Lew and Nic before walking over to Heath and Casey.
"Hey Bill" Casey smiles.
"Hi, where's Brax?" I ask curious.
They both give me a look, a look like they don't want to tell me. A look lurk they don't want to tell me because it will make me sad.
"He's at the station isn't he" I sigh pissed, "What for?" I ask.
"He got into a fight with Hammer" Casey answers.
"Where were you two?" I question.
"Back at the house" Heath responds.
"What was the fight about?"
"We don't know" Casey states, "Look he's going to be fine, just go hang out with the boys"
I nod and walk back over to Nic and Lewis. We look quietly at the ocean. I let out a deep breath.
"He told me I was pathetic and a mistake. Which I know I am, but, it's annoying when your Dad says it to you whilst choking you" I admit.
"Bill you are both pathetic and you are not a mistake. He is. He's just so dumb he can't see it" Nic assures me.
"Yeah, don't listen to Danny Bill, he's a worthless piece of trash and isn't worth it" Lew adds.
"Thanks guys, you boys better head off, it's getting late" I note.
They both nod and I hug them goodbye before they leave. All the River Boys are gone apart from my brothers, because we are waiting for Brax. I go and sit next to Casey, Heath is on the other side of him. We all watch the waves crash. Suddenly, Brax sits down next to Heath.
"I promise I'm going to stop being an asshole to you Bill, I'm going to be a better brother to all of you. Your school is merging with Summer Bay High next week, when that happens, we are all moving there" Brax announces.
"Seriously?" I ask confused and shock.
"Yep, we are going to get away from this place and the enemies we have in it" Brax adds.
"What to make new enemies in Summer Bay" Casey chuckles jokingly.
"Hopefully not" Brax laughs.
"I'm in" Heath nods.
"Me too" Case adds.
"Me three" I smile.
"Good, now let's head on home" Brax sighs.
We all stand up and make out way home. Brax stops me outside the door.
"How is school going? You know with you dyslexia?" Brax asks quietly.
"Alright, I got and talk about all the homework and stuff with Nic and Lew on the weekends. Then Nic writes down what I say and brings it to me on Mondays" I explain.
"Are you practising to read and write?" he asks.
"Yeah, but in my own time" I respond.
"That's good...I'm sorry I wasn't here this morning with Danny dropping by-"
"Brax, you couldn't have known he was going to be here. It's fine, lets go inside and have some food" I smile.
He nods and we both walk in then join Heath and Case at the table. I get a text from Lew saying that he got into a fight with his dad and doesn't want to stay there the night.
"Hey Brax, can Lew come over here tonight? He got into a fight with his dad" I state.
"Yeah, of course" he nods.
"Tell him I'll beat his ass at the Xbox again" Case smirks.
"Alright" I laugh.
I text him saying he can come over, then when I hear a knock on the door I walk over to it and open the door to find Lew.
"Who's ready to play some Xbox?" he smiles goofily.
"Come on in" I smile.