Have We Gone Too Far?

I stood still outside of the front door for a moment. The car wasn't on the drive so I knew dad was out, which was good, mum’s a lot easier to get around than him. I opened the door and walked inside, she was waiting for me.

“Drinking!” she yelled at me and shoved me back against the door. “Why have I had a call about you DRINKING?”

I stared at her; she pretty much had the answer already. She‘d only get a call about me drinking if I’d been drinking, so there, she already knows the answer.

“You stink of it,” she hissed at me. “You’re a flaming disgrace!” she yelled as her open palm slapped across my face.

I had to flex my jaw for a second to make sure it was still working. Trust me when I say this, my mum is no push over and she has one hell of a slap.

“Leave me alone,” I hissed as I pushed her off me and opened the door again.

I felt her hand grab onto my wrist and squeeze it, clenching her long fake nails into me, which sent a surging pain through my entire right arm.

I pulled again, trying to get out of the house but her nails were really digging in now. When I was finally out of her grasp, a familiar car pulled up on the drive and an angry man jumped out swearing and yelling at me. I knew all of our neighbors were getting a good view of what was happening, but they’ve watched mum and dad be pushed around by me in the past, so they’re happy that they’re taking back some control.

I tried to run past dad but there was no chance of that happening, he grabbed onto my already sore arm and started pulling at it, trying to get me back inside the house. At one point he loosened his pull, I thought it was my chance to get away, but then he quickly and fiercely yanked it. I let out a low yell when I heard it click, and cursed under my breath.

Dad quickly lifted me up onto his shoulders and carried me into the house. I felt so embarrassed, at least none of our neighbors are around my age or go to my school, then there would be a problem.

As we walked in, mum locked the door and slipped the key into her pocket.

“Why can’t you just leave me alone?” I shouted, clenching tightly to my arm.

“You’re an embarrassment to this family,” my dad grunted at me. “Binge drinking at school, what were you thinking?”

“Oh, like you never did it,” I hissed, making him push me back against the wall.

I tried to shield my arm but there’s not much I could do to stop it hurting when I collided with the wall.

“Don't talk to your father like that,” mum shouted, giving me another slap. “Make sure he’s quiet tonight.”

That was the queue for dad to ‘take care of me’.

“I'm going out,” I hissed as I ran towards the back door.

“It’s already locked, Zacky,” dad chuckled at me.

I’ve lost my only chance of escape now, so I’ll have to just take whatever he does to me.

He slowly walked over to me and stared into my eyes. I knew he could see fear so I tried to act a bit tougher.

“Why were you drinking?” he asked.

“Because my dad made it look pretty fun,” I said.

Suddenly a fist hit me in the jaw. They hated hearing me swear but how can you not when someone as strong as my dad hits you in the face like that.

“What did you say?”

“You heard me,” I said, well tried to say, my jaw was too sore for me to talk properly.

Then it went quiet, he grabbed onto shirt and pulled me up the stairs to my bedroom. Once he’d shut the door, he slammed my body against the adjacent wall to it. As soon as I hit it I dropped down to my knees; it could only get worse from here.

“Please, dad! I'm sorry!” I cried out.

I always try not to show any weakness in front of him but it hurt so much that I couldn’t fight back the tears anymore.

“I won’t do it again.”

“That’s what you said last time,” he said as he took a run up, and then kneed me in the chest, making me cough over and over. It hurt so badly.

He then picked me up again, but I quickly squirmed away from him and jumped onto my bed. I’ve no idea why I felt safer there, I just did.

As he came closer to me I lifted my knees up to protect all of the organs he could probably damage otherwise. It didn’t make much difference though because he grabbed hold of my arms and just lifted me up and flung me onto the floor like a rag doll. I screamed as I landed on my right shoulder, which I'm sure dad dislocated earlier.

“Get lost!” I screamed at him, but of course he didn’t.

“Why were you drinking?” he shouted looking down over at me.

“I don’t know,” I cried.

“Wrong answer.”

His large feet started kicking me. Kick after kick after kick after kick.

***

Around ten minutes later he was finished with me and I was aching all over. I looked over at the clock from where I was sitting in agony on the floor. It was seven thirty already, Liza’s party started half an hour ago.

I stood up and cradled my bad arm. The pain I had everywhere else was easing but my arm was only getting worse. I knew it was dislocated, it had to be. I had a brief idea of how to pop it back into place, but I knew it would hurt like hell, but I had to try.

I screamed out it pain, it was worth it though. My arm went numb for a few moments, and then started throbbing. I tried to relax again but I couldn’t, my arm was still killing, even if it was where it should be now.

I knew I’d feel weird doing this but I had to see how big of a mess I looked right now. I looked in my mirror and cringed a little. I was bright red around my eyes and down my cheeks from the tears and I was slightly blue around my jaw. It wasn't really noticeable and the redness will calm down soon.

I then slid off my shirt and looked at my right arm, it looked terrible! It was red and black and blue and purple all at once and then there was the dry blood round my wrist from my mum’s ridiculous nails.

“Looks like I’ll be wearing long sleeves tonight,” I sighed.

However, when I looked in my wardrobe I didn’t have anything decent with long sleeves so I had to wear a jacket with a pair of jeans instead. After I was dressed, I fixed my hair into place and smiled at myself in the mirror. I really don’t look too bad after all of that. Dad’s clearly not as powerful as he thinks he is.

By the time I was ready it was nine o’clock, so I knew my mum and dad would be too drunk to notice me leaving. The hard part was that all of the doors were locked, so I had to find a window.

I chuckled lightly to myself when I saw the window in the kitchen still had the key in the lock. I thought it was a bit stupid leaving an exit right there for me to use. Then again, they’re not that clever when it comes to things like that. It’s not like this is the first time I’ve snuck out.

I lifted myself up onto the ledge, turned the key, pushed the window open and jumped out onto the ground bellow me. It was a pretty good landing today, even if I do say so myself.

I knew Liza’s house wasn’t too far away, so I managed to get there at about twenty past nine, let’s just say she was glad to see me there.

“I started thinking that you wouldn’t come,” she said, almost in tears for some odd reason. “I'm so glad you’re here.” She then pulled me into a hug and smiled gratefully at me.

“I wouldn’t miss tonight for anything,” I lied.

Some people would call me a jerk for lying to people so often, but I'm sure they’d rather I gave them a nice little lie than told them the truth. It’s like when someone asks you if you like their new hairstyle and you say ‘yes it’s amazing. I love it’ when you really mean ‘How long until it grows back? I recommend you wear a hat until then’. You have to lie because otherwise they’ll feel uncomfortable or paranoid over something stupid that they really don’t need to worry about.

“Where have you been?” Liza asked me in a flirty type of voice.

Nosey cow! I mean nice, lovely ‘friend’.

“Nowhere really, I just got held up,” I said, trying not to let on that I’d rather just go and find my mates than make small talk with her. “Family stuff,” I whispered.

“It’s alright,” she sighed. “Have you got me a present or anything to make up for it?”

She’s not just nosy she’s cheeky in all. Why would I get her a present? One, I don’t like her. Two, I’ve only just managed to get out of my house and now she’s expecting me to go searching around town for some sort of gift to apologize for having to deal with my crazed parents for the past few hours.

I sighed and let out a deep breath. Liza doesn’t know any of this stuff. She’s probably just trying to make conversation. Calm down Zacky!

“I'm sorry,” I smiled at her.

“Don't worry about it; you can make it up to me later.”

That’s definitely going to happen. And after that I’ll climb into my private jet and fly to my beach house in Antarctica. What am I on about? Who the hell would build a beach house in Antarctica? Santa! Ho, ho, ho merry Christmas!

“Are you alright?” Liza asked, making me grin.

I'm a lot more insane than I let on. Does Santa even live in Antarctica? I groaned quietly to myself. Santa isn't real! Why am I thinking about this?

“I'm fine,” I laughed. Control yourself man! “I didn’t get much sleep last night,” I said to try and make Liza feel less puzzled. You should have seen her face.

“Okay,” she said sounding pretty freaked out by my random laughing and pathetic excuse. “I think Kyle, Jake, Beth and Ellie are outside if you want to go and see them.”

“Thanks Liza,” I said politely as I made a quick dash for the back door. That was a close one.

When I walked outside I saw Jake and Ellie doing what they do most of the time when they’re together: Snogging each other’s faces off. It’s not a pretty sight, but I know how much Jay likes her so I'm not going to spoil it for them.

“Zacky!” Kyle shouted as soon as he saw me.

“Kyle!” I mimicked him as he pulled me into a guy hug.

God I love this! It was hard to fight the urge of letting my hand travel down his muscular back, but I somehow managed to.

“Do you want a drink?” he asked me as we separated.

“I can’t exactly say no.”

I grinned as I watched Kyle leave to get me a drink from the cooler. I didn’t really understand why he went to get it for me, but I wasn't complaining.

You need to take it easy tonight Zack. You don’t want to end up like you were earlier. You can only have ‘one’ drink tonight. One! Well, maybe two.

“I was worried about you!” Beth shouted as she pulled me into a hug. “Ajay told me that you walked out in maths and then completely disappeared! Where the hell were you, Zack?”

I hate it when Beth gets worried about people because she generally does get upset and starts panicking in case anyone is hurt.

“I was feeling a bit ill so I went for a lie down.” I suppose that’s partly true.

“Why didn’t you tell me? Or at least call me so I knew you were okay?”

Beth one of those really protective friends who worry about every little thing that happens to pretty much anyone she knows. I love her though, as a mate (of course).

“I'm sorry,” I sighed. “How worried were you?” I asked in a teasing tone of voice.

“I was petrified. You could have been dead in a gutter for all I knew.”

“That’s a bit over the top, don’t you think?” I said, laughing at her.

“I'm being serious! I knew about all of the booze you had with you and Liza said you were looking a bit upset...”

“What are you trying to say?”

“I thought you’d ran away to ‘drown your sorrows’, but then got lost in the middle of nowhere and because you were so drunk you collapsed and couldn’t move and a load of wolves came and ate you.”

“Wolves? What the...”

“Don't Zacky! You know how worried I can get and you should have called me!”

She’s so cute when she’s angry. Beth has a lightly tanned face and big brown caring eyes that match her silky maroon locks. She had her hair curled today and it looks amazing, and I think she’s wearing a new outfit as well. It’s quite tight but it doesn’t look at all slutty on her.

“I'm sorry I’ve got you all worked up.”

“You should be!” she smiled at me. “Are you feeling better now?”

“Yeah,” I sighed. “I like the new look, by the way.”

I smiled as her cheeks went pinker. I love making people blush; they just look so weak and adorable when that happens. I'm not sure if that’s just me, or not, but you can’t not find it cute when someone goes pink because of something you’ve said.

“Thanks. I had my hair done earlier this evening and the dress is from my sister,” she grinned.

“Sweet, that necklace looks incredible with it.”

I stopped talking about clothes and accessories when Kyle reappeared carrying a bottle of chilled larger.

“Thanks man.”

The party went fairly well from there, well, until Liza’s parents walked in. They came home early for some bizarre reason that no one’s told me yet. So basically we all had to watch while Liza stood there, bright red with her mum yelling at her. Then after that we were kicked out.

“Where should we go now?” I asked the group as we walked down Liza’s street.

“I’ll probably head home,” Ellie sighed and Beth and Jake said they’ll do the same.

“You better not be leaving me Kyle,” I hissed.

“My parents aren’t as laid back as yours Zacky, they’d kill me if I stay out any longer; it’s already gone midnight.”

“Only just.” I knew I’d have to beg if I didn’t want to end up wondering the streets on my own. “Please Ky, the night’s still young!”

“I'm sorry, mate.” He patted me on my shoulder and walked off in the general direction of his house.

And now I'm alone.