Page 5 of Break Me Gently

I glanced upstairs as they vanished into the kitchen.

Amber.

I climbed the stairs, two at a time.

Chapter 3

Amber

I was still dragging the clothes airer out of his room when he came charging down the hallway. It was like a horror movie. You blinked and the monster was there, breathing down your neck before the metal wire sliced your head off.

Oh, fuck this.

I screamed, let go of the airer, and ran to my bedroom, slamming the door behind me—only to realise there was no lock on my door.

He pushed. I held on. Then, with one massive shove, the door flew open and I landed on my rug. It shouldn’t have been possible, but he seemed taller than before. His thick waves of hair had been tamed into a more mainstream style.

He ignored me and walked around my room.

Instead of getting up, I got comfortable and lay flat on my back. I could see the faint outline of the glow stars and planets on my ceiling, there ever since we’d moved into this house.

When I was eight, and Zach was thirteen.

❧ ❧ ❧

“Move,” he said, shoving me out of the way.

He barged past me, leaving me staring after him. Mum said we would be one family, but Zach didn’t treat me like a sister.

“Do you like your new room?” I asked from the doorway.

He stood with his back to me, facing the window.

“I’m not your real brother, and your mum isn’t my real mum.”

I frowned. Zach wasn’t being kind. Miss Shaw told us all to be kind to one another at school, and if you saw someone being mean, to tell a grown-up. But Zach would be living with us. If I told Mum, it would upset her.

Zach did have a mum, but he didn’t see her.

I was about to tell him that we could share when the door slammed so hard the house shook. I slapped my hands over my ears.

“Stay out of my room,” he shouted through the wooden door. “Or else.”

I slowly walked down the hall to my room, thinking about my new big brother. He made me feel sad because he was sad. When Mum and Clive met, we played fine.

I stepped into my new room and did a full circle. It was perfect.

❧ ❧ ❧

Zach tapped my foot.

“Why are you keeping my dad’s photo on your memoboard?”

“Because for a long time he was my dad too,” I whispered.

He reached down and grabbed my sweater, hauling me off the floor until my feet kicked uselessly in the air.

“You kept him away from me,” he said, his voice shaking with anger. “He was my dad.”