Where You Are is Where I Want To Be

By: IAMSOAP

Chapter 5: Open Wounds

Mitchie watched as the next few weeks seem to fly right by her, they were now into November and soon December would arrive and the darkness that had been Mitchie's life for the last three months would just get a little bit lighter.

Mitchie was very cautious around the house and made sure to stay in her room whenever she was home and was not making or cleaning up the dinner, and whenever Mitchie was around her father she made sure to make no sound at all.

By her being silent and out of the way kept her father is a pretty stable state or as stable as he could be when constantly drunk.

Thinking of what her father had become over such a short period of time made her heart break a thousand times over. Mitchie considered herself an orphan she had lost her mother and now had lost her father as well.

The man he used to be was gone and now all that was left was a broken man who drowned his sorrows in alcohol.

This thought also brought about other feelings from Mitchie, anger. Mitchie was so angry with him, how could he let himself become that way. She had no idea how he was going to survive after the small amount her mother had left him ran out, at this point even though Mitchie felt a little bad for thinking it, she didn't care what her father would do after he was evicted. By then Mitchie would be moved out and making a life for herself and he wouldn't be part of her life ever again.

Though things were going pretty smoothly Mitchie was still very tense, and very cautious.

Not only was she worrying about keeping her father appeased, she also had to concentrate on keeping her grades at a B+ average so that she could get into any school of her choice and possibly received some bursaries to help her through at the least the first two years.

Another issue in Mitchie's life was that she still had not spoken to anyone about the situation of her father and his abuse towards her, she was still worried that if anyone got involved that they would only get hurt in the process and Mitchie wanted to do her best to, at least for the time being, keep everything under wraps.

Besides, she had reasoned with herself, as long as she stayed out of her father's way her was doing no harm to her so why tell anyone?

-WishingIwasSomewhereElseTakingallyourAngerOutonMeSomebodyHelpmeSomebodyhelp-

It was two weeks later nearing the end of November that things started to go wrong.

Mitchie`s day started off rough to begin with, she had been running late for school, luckily her first class was gym so she still had an extra couple minutes which were given so students had time to change into their gym strip.

Unfortunately, being late also meant that Mitchie didn`t get the chance to grab a change stall, ever since she had been kicked by her father the large bruise across her side was taking a very long time to heal, it was almost gone but still visible enough that would cause concern if anyone saw it.

Mitchie stood looking at the full stalls not really sure what to do, should she wait for a change stall and risk being late for a class and possibly getting a detention? Or should she just change out in the open like she used to? But changing out here meant that Sierra might notice Mitchie's bruise and start asking questions.

During this point of indecisiveness Sierra had seen Mitchie and came over to her.

"Mitchie what are you staring at? Just change out here like everyone else. It's not like you have anything to hide."

Mitchie looked over at her best friend, someone managing not to let out a sarcastic reply of 'Oh You have no idea.' And instead replied with a nod and moved over to a far corner of the change room so she could at least hide the view of her left side.

Before changing she turned to Sierra and smiled at her. "You go on ahead and I will catch up in a second."

Sierra smiled and shook her head. "Nah," she replied, "I will just wait, and you know that Mr. Loss is never in a rush to start anyways."

Mitchie sighed and nodded, she couldn't argue more than that because Sierra would know right away that something was up.

With that thought in mind Mitchie decided to change her shirt really quickly so that Sierra would have a very hard time seeing the bruise, but in her rush to get changed Mitchie lost her balance and was going to fall, but she put her left arm up against the wall to stop herself.

Immediately pain shot from her stomach all the way to left shoulder and Mitchie groaned and slowly slide to the ground.

"Oh my-! Mitchie are you okay?!" Sierra exclaimed and ran to Mitchie's side.

Mitchie couldn't reply and just clutched her side.

Sierra frowned and looked at her best friend very sternly.

"Mitchie Torrez you tell me what is going on right now! You have been acting weird since the beginning of the semester! What is wrong?"

Mitchie sighed and turned to her friend, trying to stop her eyes from watering.

Sierra's face turned from angry to concern as she saw the look on her friend's face.

"Mitchie, please just tell me, I am your best friend, you can tell me anything."

Mitchie let out a shaky breath and shook her head. "I can't tell you Sierra. You shouldn't get involved."

By this time everyone else had left for the gym and the only two people who were left were Mitchie and Sierra.

"But why Mitchie? We used to tell each other everything! What is so horrible that you can't even tell your best friend?"

Mitchie sighed and again, she was right. She should have told Sierra long ago maybe she could help, maybe she could- no. No, she wouldn't let any harm to come her best friend.

"It's for your own safety Sierra, please things are just too complicated to talk about it right now."

Mitchie was crying now, things were once again becoming too much to handle.

Sierra sighed, and hugged Mitchie just like an older sibling would.

"Mitchie, I don't know what is going on, but if you don't tell me, I won't be able to help you, or fix what is wrong."

Mitchie sat there for a moment, not really sure what to say or do.

Should she tell someone about what was going on in the Torrez household? Could anyone do anything to stop her father or at least get her out of there?

No, Mitchie decided. If she was taken out of that house now she would probably be moved away to some foster home and would lose Sierra and not being able to see Shane in December. But maybe she could still tell someone about it, and then if things got to rough she could leave a little early.

"Okay." Mitchie replied quietly. "I will tell you but you have to swear not to tell a soul until I say it's safe to do so. Okay?"

Sierra looked down at Mitchie and smiled, and nodded. "Okay, but before you tell me let's just ditch this class and go somewhere where we can talk in private."

Mitchie smiled, nodded and after picking up their things, the two best friends left the Gym and headed towards the courtyard on the other side of the school.

When they arrived in the courtyard, they found a slightly more private spot where they wouldn't be interrupted or over heard by others and sat down.

"Before I start, I need you to promise that you won't say a word until I am finished because this is going to be hard enough as it is." Mitchie said, looking at her friend very closely.

Sierra nodded and then motioned for Mitchie to continue.

Mitchie sighed took a deep breath and then told Sierra all of what she had been keeping a secret for what seemed like an eternity.

-AndYouCan'tStopMeFromFallingApart'CauseMyself-DestructionIsAllYourFault-

After Mitchie finished she couldn't look at Sierra and kept her eyes focused on her feet.

She didn't know how Sierra was going to react to all the information she had just told her, Mitchie gave her a minute to absorb it all.

As Mitchie sat there realizing that she had just told someone what she had wanted to tell somebody, anybody for so long, it felt like very large weight had been lifted off of her. She let out a small whimper and began to cry.

Sierra sighed and hugged Mitchie not really sure what to say to her. "Oh Mitchie. Why didn't you tell anyone before now?"

Mitchie just shook her head. "I don't know." She stuttered, "I wanted to believe that things would get better once he got used to my mom being gone, but things only got worse!"

Sierra just sighed and held her best friend until she calmed down.

"So I am going to ask my parents if you can move in with us, it shouldn't be a problem." Sierra said after a long pause.

But Mitchie just shook her head.

"I can't do that, if I leave before I turn 18 I will lose the money my mom left for me and I need that to get my own place and then start my first year of University."

Sierra looked concerned. "But Mitchie, what if things get worse and your dad could get even more violent and possibly hurt you enough to kill you!"

Mitchie shook her head. "Don't be so worried Sierra, as long as a stay out of his way he doesn't hurt me. Plus it's only six months until school is over, once we graduate I am home free."

Sierra still didn't look convinced. "I don't know Mitchie; I just have this feeling that things could go horribly wrong."

Mitchie finally gave Sierra a small smile.

"Thanks for looking out for me Sierra, but seriously, I will be fine AND if things get too dangerous I swear I will get out of there."

Sierra stared at Mitchie for a very long moment before finally sighing and nodded.

"Okay, I still don't like it but okay."

Mitchie hugged her and smiled. "Thank you. Now on to more fun things! I have a present for you that I got from Shane and the guys yesterday!"

With that Mitchie took out the concert tickets and backstage passes, and Sierra let out a squeal.

"No way, backstage passes!! That is so awesome! When is the concert again?"

Mitchie, even though she had known Sierra would react like this had to laugh.

"January tenth." She replied. "But Shane, Nate and Jason are going to be spending the last two weeks of December in town!"

Sierra looked at Mitchie with a look of mock anger. "Mitchie Torrez I am so jealous! You are like best friends with the Connect 3 and also possibly the lead singers love interest!"

At this comment Mitchie's face turned an almost tomato red color.

"Sierra! Shane and I are just friends!" Mitchie cried.

Sierra snorted. "Yeah right you guys were basically dating the last days at Camp Rock!"

Mitchie just looked down without a reply. Unable to deny the fact that was basically true, but because of the distance and with Shane on tour they hadn't really discussed an actual relationship.

Sierra poked her friend in the side which made Mitchie look up with a giggle.

"We will just have to see what happens when Shane comes to visit in three weeks. I have a new mission and that is to get you two together before New Year's!"

"What? Sierra no!" Mitchie exclaimed but Sierra just giggled and ran off.

Mitchie stood, smiled and slowly followed her energetic best friend to lunch, which would be starting in five minutes.

As Mitchie left the courtyard, she sighed with content, now that she had told someone things should get a lot easier. And now she also had the visit of Connect 3 to look forward to as well.

(Yes!! Another chapter, again not as long as I wanted it to be, but this one didn't take me almost 3 months to complete! I was going to make this chapter a lot darker than most but I decided to brighten it up and bit and leave the darker stuff for the next couple of chapters! So tell me what you guys think! I am already starting on Chapter 6!! Expect in the next few days, I want to get it up before Midterms in two weeks because I wont have time during then and the weeks after that! Enjoy! Please give me lots of feedback and reviews! They keep me going!!)