A/N: Once again, thank you all so much for the great reviews. You have no idea how happy it makes me to know that you guys are enjoying this story. This chapter is kind of an emotional one for Peyton. Can't wait to see what you guys think! Oh! By the way, I might not be able to update this one tomorrow for all of you because I have a party to go to. I'm really sorry. I've been trying to update my stories at least once a day for all of you. I'll try really hard to get to it!

xoxox

Gianna

Chapter 5- Truth comes out

The next morning, I woke up in a bedroom that was surely not mine. I looked around the room and saw blue walls with posters of the Honorary Title. Where the hell was I? I stepped out of the bed slowly and peeked my head out of the door. Still, I wasn't sure of my surroundings. I walked down the hallway and into the kitchen where Lucas' mom was cooking breakfast; eggs, toast, sausage, bacon, pancakes, waffles, french toast, biscuits, various types of fruit. I must have stayed at Lucas' house last night.

"Oh, good morning dear," Ms. Roe says smiling at me.

"Hi," I say wondering where Lucas is.

"I wasn't sure what you would like for breakfast so I made you some of every type of breakfast food I had."

What an amazing woman. She had a warmheart and a compassionate smile. Everything about her was welcoming.

"Thank you. Thank you so much," I whisper.

"Your welcome," she says handing me two plates with mountains of food on them.

While I ate my food, Ms. Roe was watching me carefully. I didn't want to look up and meet her gaze so I kept my eyes on my food. I knew she was looking at all the black and blue marks that were in fully exposed.

"Would you like some orange juice?" she says breaking the silence.

"Yes. Thanks."

"Mmhmm," she responds while pouring the juice into a cup.

"So Lucas tells me that you are an artist. Is their anything specific that you draw?" she asks.

"Umm, I really don't draw anything specific."

"I see."

I finish the rest of my breakfast in stillness because I wonder what my parents are thinking right now. My mother probably doesn't notice I'm gone, but my father will after he's finished battling with her.

"Where's Lucas?" I ask.

She turns away from the kitchen sink to look at me. "He's running some errands," she says.

"Oh," I say nodding my head. There's another awkward silence between us. "I appreciate what you're doing, but I think I should get going now."

I know that I have to go home, no matter how much I don't want to.

"No!" she yells loudly. "I mean no. That's not necessary. You should stay."

I begin to understand why she all of the sudden doesn't want me to leave. She knows.

"Lucas told you?" I ask.

She takes a deep breath before answering. "Bits and pieces, yes. Not everything," she says, "Do you want to talk about it?"

I watch as she comes and sits next to me. I swallow the hard lump in my throat.

"It's ok, if you don't want to. I mean you barely know me so-"

"No. It's fine. I want to."

I decide to tell her the WHOLE story that Lucas doesn't know. She was a mother, so maybe she'd understand better.

"It started when I was around five years old. Before that, my family never acted this way. My mother was a kind woman who would take me to the park and my father was a hard working business man. He loved his job more than anything in the world. Then, he came home and told my mom that he had gotten laid off from work. It started as a civilized conversation between two married people, but then they started screaming at eachother. I was in my room, and I ran down the stairs to hear what was happening, and my Dad almost tripped over one of my toys. He picked up the toy and threw it as hard as he could at me. He grabbed me by my wrists and started to shake me while yelling 'Don't you know you're not supposed to leave toys around?!' My mother tried to pull him away from me, but she couldn't. Out of nowhere, he slapped me with the back of his hand. I didn't cry though. I was just...shocked and petrified. Once my Dad turned to drugs and alcohol for comfort, so did my mom. I had to eventually learn how to take care of myself."

I stopped talking to look at Ms. Roe who was already in tears. She put her right hand on my back and soothed me, so I continued.

"After that day, things just turned so bad. I started losing my friends and my father would hit me at least once a day, and I just let him. I couldn't stop him even if I wanted to so I learned to just take the beatings. He would yell and scream in my face. The smell of alcohol was always in his breath. His eyes would be blood shot and his speech would be slurred. Both of my parents were always either stoned or drunk."

"Oh honey," she cried while she continued to rub my back.

"I can't go back there. I just can't," I say.

"You don't have to. We can go to the police and-"

I cut her off. "No! We can't do that!" I ran my hands nervously through my hair and got up to start pacing. "I shouldn't have said anything. Oh God. My father's going to kill me if they throw him in jail."

"Peyton, he's hurting you. That's where he deserved to be," she says.

"No. I can't put him in jail. You don't understand."

"Well, then help me to because the way I see it is that your father takes his stress and anger out on you for no reason at all."

"He just can't go to jail!" I yell.

She stops and looks at me. I'm in tears mostly because if they send him to jail, I know he'll find a way out. He always manages to get out of situations like that.

"Ok," she says forfeiting.

Just then Lily walks into the kitchen. I look over at her, and she looks confused. I watch as she looks at her mom and then back at me. It's obvious that she has no clue what is going on.

"Peyton, what's wrong?" Lily asks.

I shake my head as I fall to my knees. I cry into my hands when both of them run over and embrace me into the arms. Both of their holds on me is very loose almost as if they think I'm going to break.

I see Lily look over at her mom while mouthing the words what happened? Ms. Roe just shakes her head.

"Peyton, we won't say anything for now, but if you don't do something about this soon, then things are going to get worse. Do you understand me?" she asks.

I look into her eyes and I see fear. She's very worried about me, and I start to feel awful for making her so concerned.

I nod my head in agreement.

"You can stay here with us," Lily says even though she still doesn't know what's happening.

"Thank you," I say as I rub my tears away with my sleeve.

"Your welcome," Ms. Roe says

"I need to go and get some of my stuff from my house," I mumble.

"What? You can't go back there," Ms. Roe says turning my face to look at her.

"I just need a few things and then I'll be back."

Lucas walks into the kitchen to find Lily, Ms. Roe, and me kneeling on the floor. He sighs looking at us.

I get up from where I am kneeling, run to Lucas, and hug him tightly. It's my way of saying thank you. He holds me just as tight while rubbing my tense back.

"You okay?" he asks.

I nod while sniffling.

"Peyton, if you go back to your house, then we are coming with you," Mrs. Roe says.

"That will just make things worse," I say.

"Wait! Why are you going back there?" Lucas asks looking completely shocked.

"I'm not. I just need to get a few things. Your mom said I could stay here for a while."

Lucas nods his head. "I'll drive you."

When we start to walk toward the front door, Lucas' mom stops us.

"Peyton!"

"Yeah?"

"Just be careful," she says.

I walk over to her and embrace her like I've known her my whole life.

"I will."

Lucas and I drive in pure silence. I know he doesn't want to talk because he's afraid he'll say the wrong thing.

After a five minute drive, we arrive at my house. Lucas turns to me. "Do you want me to go in with you?" he asks.

"No. I'll only be a minute. Just stay here," I say while I unbuckle my seat belt.

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah. I'll be ok."

"Alright, just hurry up."

I open the car door and walk slowly up the path. My palms were sweating, my heart was racing, and my legs were weak. I look back at Lucas before I open the front door. He nods his head and I nod back. I take a deep breath before I step inside. Normally, I would look to see where my parents were, but there wasn't time for that so I ran straight for the stairs. I walked up quietly and went straight into my room.

There, I found my things thrown everywhere. My drawing were torn into little pieces, my CD's were smashed, me bed looked like someone threw it from the top of the Eiffel Tower, and my clothes were thrown out of my closet. I wanted to cry, but I couldn't. Everything that was mine was now gone all because my father is crazy. I turned around when I decided that there wasn't anything here for me anymore. To my surprise, there he was standing less than four inches in front of me.

"You weren't planning on leaving, were you?" he asks when he grabs the bag from my hands.

"I'm not staying here anymore," I say nervously trying to sound confident.

"Wrong!"

"Right!" I yell back.

I try to walk out my door when he grabs a fistful of my hair.

"Dad stop! Let go!" I scream trying to defend myself.

"You were going to try and throw me in jail were ya?" he says.

He took me by my throat and slammed me onto the floor. I felt my head hit the corner of the bed as I went down. I tried to curl into a ball and rest my hands on my head, but he woudln't let me. He bent down and punched me three times, each time a little harder than the time before. I could taste the blood on my lips, and I could feel it seeping from my nose. I pleaded for him to stop, but he ignored my cries for help. He picked me up off the floor and threw me against the wall. I tried to get up and run, but I only got to the stairs. I tripped over the carpet and landed on my stomach. I couldn't get up. He took this time to kick me in the stomach. I closed my eyes tightly when suddenly I heard the front door open.

I knew it had to be Lucas.

My father then pushed me down the stairs as hard as he could. I saw Lucas running toward the stairs while yelling my name when I went tumbling down, but unexpectedly everything turned black.

I wondered what might have happened. ;P

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