Chapter Seventeen

Around two hours later, there lay only empty bottles and filled ash trays in front of us. I was extremely high and so was Tevoris. I snuggled against him, closing my eyes and getting comfortable against his body. He held me against him and hugged me close. Putting his left hand into my top and cupping my breast, he  started speaking, "Girl, you are the most wonderful person I have met in this town till date. I just wish I had met you earlier. Max honey, you're...", and he trailed off. I lifted my head and looked at him, only to see that he had dozed off. I smiled to myself and went back to lying down on his chest with my eyes open.

About fifteen minutes later,I felt Tevoris ruffling my hair. I tried to get up but with his other hand, he pressed me down. "You were supposed to tell me what happened in school today. How you came back early and shit," I heard him say. I rolled my eyes knowing he couldn't see me. Tevoris always cared too much about me. I lifted my hand, placed it over his and replied, "Oh that. I got involved in a fight at school. Hurt two or three. Now, I Didn't start it. You know I don't start fights, don't you? I just finish them. I mean, I wouldn't have gotten myself involved if it wasn't my friend getting bullied." Tevoris snorted. "Friend eh? How come you never told me you had a friend in school?" "The last time we met was a fortnight back. I started considering him my friend after that", I replied.

With a laugh, he asked, "What's so terrible in that? You were pretty down when I saw you and this is no big reason. So, what else haven't you told me yet?"

"Well", I continued, " It's just that the principal asked me to bring an adult with me tomorrow to school and I don't know what I should do. Since I enrolled on my own, it just needs to be someone over the age of twenty . You know, whenever I did something like this in school earlier , I didn't have to go around trying to find someone older than me. My brothers would march me to school and speak on behalf of me to everyone. Now , I need to stay out of trouble because otherwise I will need to find people to act as adults responsible for my actions." With that, I let go and burst out crying. Every single tear was worth a thousand emotions I couldn't express in words.

"Mom and Dad left us to fend for ourselves as kids", I babbled on. "Dad couldn't fucking own up to the responsibility of raising us, you know. Faggot went and suicided because three kids was too much responsibility at the age of twenty two. Shouldn't he have thought about it when he made us? I was just five when he died. Mum did her best. I know she did. She didn't have to marry Alex though. WHY DID SHE?",I practically screamed.

"Tenis begged her not to, but obviously she did not listen. Our stepfather was nice only to Tenis. Aze and I were just vermin in his eyes. But, my Tenis, he never liked him. He used to tell us to not go near Alex because apparently he was not a nice guy. Next thing I know, my mum goes and gets into an accident and gets herself killed. With her gone, it was just the three us for ourselves. Alex went and got married to this female named Zoe and brought her and her son Brandon into our lives. That's when the real abuse started. Zoe and Alex used to beat us up every opportunity they got. They used to blame one of us for being the reason to the other two's punishment. They tried everything to separate us, but we were inseparable. Brandon never did anything to us. He was just an easy lay whose every waking dream consisted of sleeping with women. But over time, Alex and Zoe made our lives so horrible that Tenis left home; that Azeus left home. One thing I haven't understood till date is why the fuck didn't both of them realize that they had a younger sister who depended on them; that their sister did not have anyone else in the world other than them. From the age of 5 to 15, my brothers had become my world and if one day that world broke apart, what was this child supposed to do?"

With that, I removed Tevoris' hand from around me, stood up,walked over to the fridge and took out a beer from it. With the bottle in my hand, I went to my room and sat at the edge of my bed. I could hear Tevie calling out to me but I just wanted to be alone. I wanted to pass out. I had always held everything inside- bottled up my emotions. Now that I let everything out, I felt weak. I had let my guard down and I had no one to protect me anymore. All I wanted was at least an explanation, but it was like I was searching for people who didn't want to be found. I took out my bottle opener from under my pillow, popped open the cap and downed the entire beer in one go. The last thing I remember was closing my eyes and lying down on my bed.