New Step Brother, New Family, New Life? Thanks for Nothing, Dad

It has been a few days since I came to St. Josephine's hospital. And it had been the roughest few days of my life. I have never been so poked, prodded or interrogated in my life. But what was I supposed to say?

I couldn't rat out Jackson. Not if my life depended on it.

My dad was angry, I could tell. Not at me, he couldn't be. But at whoever did this to me. I swear, he probably put a gun under both his and my beds.

I just told everyone I didn't remember any of it. But my friends knew.

The police told me everything I already knew; I was assaulted by a group of men on the street and pushed down a hill into a creek. My ribs were fractured (again), I had a little bit of internal bruising and a whole lot of external bruising.

They assured me about every five minutes that they would find the people who hurt me. But I highly doubt that. Psycho and his minions will be found when they want to be.

The good thing is most of the bruises should be yellowed or completely gone by the day of the wedding. Anne 'did not want a discolored bridesmaid.' Those were her exact words. Ha! She had only come to see me once. Oh well.

All my friends practically lived in my hospital room for the whole time. Smokey and Josie slept on the extra bed, Alexandra stole the couch, Tyler claimed the recliner that never left the side of my bed. The hospital even kindly provided three small cots for Ethan, Trent and Kris.

It was like another infamous friend party. Only...in a hospital. Yeah.

Anyway, I was dressed and leave this antiseptic, too white place. As I sat on my window seat in my hospital room, waiting for my father to return with the discharge papers, I couldn't help but look outside. It couldn't be a prettier day. I looked down to the street and there he was.

Psycho.

He was standing on the sidewalk across the street, smirking up at me. He knew what room I was in. And then, like in one of those creepy stalker movies where the ominous music should be playing right at this moment, a bus passed in front of Psycho and he disappeared.

I didn't notice I was holding my breath until someone touched my shoulder, causing me to exhale sharply.

"Oops! Sorry to startle you," Josie said, a little too cheerfully for my taste. I turned to her and smiled.

"Don't worry about it. Where are the others?" I replied, glancing to the doorway. As if on cue, my friends all filed in to the way-too-small room.

"Right here! And we bring gifts!" Ethan exclaimed, lounging on my bed lazily, thrusting a paper bag at me. I stared at him cautiously before hesitantly reaching out and taking the bag. Surprisingly, it was quite heavy for its smaller size.

"It's not going to like... explode, right?" I questioned him slowly, glancing between Ethan and the excited gazes everyone had trained on me.

"Just open the damn bag!" Smokey exclaimed happily. I narrowed my eyes at her and sighed, unrolling and opening the paper sack. Inside was the greatest treasure of all time.

Tootsie pops.

"Ohemgee! No way!" I exclaimed, pulling out an orange chocolate candy-filled sucker. "How did you guys know I loved these things? There are flavors I've never even heard of in here!" It was true. There were banana, pomegranate, mango, even peppermint and caramel. Except there weren't any chocolate ones. I hate those.

Alexandra spoke first, "Smokey, Josie and Kris told us they were your favorite candy--"

"And basically favorite food!" Trent cut in happily.

"Of all time," Alex finished, shooting Trent a glance for interrupting her.

"So we drove to pratically every store in this part of the state to find every, and I mean EVERY flavor possible," Tyler commented, a small grin lighting up his face.

"Except for chocolate, 'cause we know how much you hate those," Kris added, shrugging. See, do my friends know me or what?

"Oh, I almost forgot! Uncle Rick said he's done with the paperwork and we can all leave now!" Josie said. I face-palmed.

"How could you almost forget that?" I asked. They knew I had been wanting to get out of this hell hole since I first got here. Josie just shrugged and smiled. I rolled my eyes and stood, stretching then wincing.

I ignored my buddies's stares of concern and unwrapped an orange-flavored sucker, popping it in my mouth. I picked up my bag of belongings and handed it to Ethan with a smile.

"I'm the crippled one," I said with a smirk, earning a glare from Ethan and a laugh from everyone else. Then, I turned on my heels and nearly sprinted from the room. Nearly, meaning if I did sprint, I would probably hurt myself.

I couldn't wait to get home.

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Being home sucked.

Anne was making so many last minute wedding preparations that I didn't get to see my dad, Ethan, Trent or Tyler very often. Smokey was wisked off a time or too for emergency dress fittings, even though her body hadn't changed a bit since we first tried dresses on. Josie had to go home to see her mom for a few days before the wedding started. Alexandra had to go home and see her father, since she hadn't in a while. And Kris had both a job and an avid career at Kletka.

So I was home alone a lot.

I went riding a few times, but it was painful. I played my guitar, but practicing got boring. I watched movies, but I didn't like just sitting around. What in the world was there possibly to do on a huge farm? Swimming was out of the question. Though it wouldn't put pressure on my injuries, it would move them too much.

Ugh. I was utterly bored.

That is, until I found Tyler playing video games in the entertainment room.

I walked up behind him and silently leaned over the couch, until my mouth was right next to his ear. "How did you get in my house?" I asked, causing him to jump and nearly throw his controller half way across the room.

"Uh...the door was unlocked," Tyler said, half guiltily, half surprised. He probably expected to hear a lecture about walking into someone's house unannounced was rude, but I'm not the lecturing type. That's Smokey's job. So, instead, I hopped over the couch and plopped down next to him.

"Well then, what are we playing?" Yes, I said 'we.' I don't play video games often, but once I get the hang of it, I can kick some serious ass.

"Halo Reach," Tyler explained with a smile, handing me a controller. I have never played Halo, of course. So, Tyler spent like an hour teaching me everything there was to know about it. So, by the time the others rolled in late at night, we were screaming at the TV, fighting off people.

"What the hell are you guys doing?" Smokey asked, glancing at us with a tilted head.

"Halo?" Tyler tried, before we all burst out laughing. From there, it turned into an four vs four Halo battle. Me, Tyler, Kris and Alexandra on a team, and Ethan, Smokey, Josie and Trent on the other.

Of course, my team won.