Joey rose up from the floor, walking hesitantly towards the big man who was supposed to be our guardian. The second she reached him, he tilted her face up, smiling at the tears that left track marks across her face. “I always knew you wanted me, girl,” he said triumphantly, as he grabbed her hand, tugging her toward her door.
“Joey! No!” I yelled, throwing open my door. “I can take it. Let him take it out on me, not you.”
Joey’s eyes widened, the fear in them evident as she tried to hold back her tears.
“Stay out of this, Boy.”
“That’s my sister, asshole! If you think I’m going to stay out of this, you’re sadly mistaken.” I charged Mr. Sinclair, throwing my thin body at him like a missile, but bouncing off of him like he was made of rubber. The force sent me flying into the wall, my head hitting it so hard that I started to see spots.
He raised his hands at my sister and smiled. “I didn’t touch him.”
I was in a daze, the room spinning as a throbbing pain hit my head. Black spots swarmed my eyes just as Mr. Sinclair disappeared into my sister’s room. She sent me a pained look, then held up the Murdock universal sign for everything was okay.
Everything was definitely not fucking okay.
My sister was sacrificing herself to save me from getting beaten, and before I lost complete consciousness, I heard her door lock just as my head sank into a numbing void of darkness.
Chapter Two
“Dillie, please talk to me.”
Staring at the faded and chipped wall was more appealing than speaking to my sister at the moment. I was still fuming over what she did last night, doing my best to process why she would make such a careless and reckless decision. I knew she was just trying to save me from getting hurt, but opening her legs for someone as vile as our foster parent, Randy, was downright unnecessary. I knew she regretted it, even if he could be considered handsome. There was so much guilt hanging over her that she wouldn’t even look up from her breakfast plate. I wasn’t sure if that was because she was afraid to look at me or Alisha, but now that both Alisha and Randy were gone shopping, she was doing her best to try to talk to me.
Reluctantly, I turned over, my eyes blaring with so much anger that I could feel it rushing through my veins like hot, molten lava.
She looked so sad, like the weight of the world was sitting on her shoulders.
“Why did you do it?”
She shrugged. “Because I didn’t want him to hurt you, and it’s not like it’s the first time it’s ever happened.”
My eyes widened. “What do you mean?”
“I’ll do whatever I have to in order to protect you, Dillie. Sometimes that means doing things I’m not so proud of. I lost my virginity at the age of twelve… at the Kennedy house…” she hesitated before she finished her thought, “…to Mr. Kennedy.”
Bile rose up my throat at my sister’s confession. I thought I was the only one that endured that kind of pain there. I was wrong… she did too. But it wasn’t Mr. Kennedy who touched me, it was his son… and I’m just now realizing that we both lost an innocence there, that we’ll never get back again.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because I didn’t want you to look at me with the shame you’re looking at me right now with. Everything I’ve ever done, it’s been done to protect you, Dillie.”
Tears formed in my eyes as I tried to think back on all the times she probably tried to protect me over the years. God, there were so many, but also way too many she failed at.
I was wearing the only hoodie I owned, the same hoodie I wore every day to hide my scars. Nobody knew what was hidden underneath the thinning fabric, and normally I kept it that way. But not today. Today I was going to show her my pain.
Rolling up my sleeves, I presented her my arm, showing her the fresh burn mark.
“What the hell, Dillie? What happened?”
“This is what happened before you got home yesterday.”
She fingered the mark, hissing when I sorta flinched. “H—h—he did this to you?”
“Yes…”
“And this one?” she asked, motioning to another scar higher up on my arm.
“One of the scars left behind from our stay in the Kennedy house…”
