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She felt a hand smack her cheek as she walked through the door. Her father snarled at her as she fell to the ground already knowing what he was gonna do. Her little brother hid under the table.
"How dare you leave without my permission" he said kicking her irately over and over again.
She didn't even try to fight it, the less she did to fight the quicker it would all be over. All she could get out were a few sorries through her sobs. But he continued to kick her letting out all his rage.
When he finally stopped he stumbled toward the living room sitting on the couch. "Fix my dinner" he spat in a drunken slur.
"Yes sir" she said as she attemted to get up. She couldn't. Her torso felt like it had just been weighed down with 1,000 cinder blocks and her legs, well she couldn't even feel her legs anymore.
"Kayla" she heard Johnny whisper.
"Johnny go to your room, I don't want you to get in trouble" she whispered softly as Johnny slowly crept up the stairs to his room.
Kayla lay there for a moment not really knowing what to do. She just laid there.
After a while the feeling came back in her legs she could stand again but it hurt like h-ell. She wished they were still numb. She went into the kitchen to fix dinner. Spaghetti and meetballs.
It didn't take long to make it. When she was finished she brought it out to her father on a tv tray while he sat on the couch and watched tv. She slowly crept back out of the room hoping not to hear him yell anymore.
She fixed a plate for Jonny and herself and ate in the dining room. They said grace and ate quickly. She ran Johnny bath and headed into her room. It was in the attic away from eveyone.
She pulled out her sketch book and drew a picture of a girl. She was crying and had flowers all around her. Kayla wrote underneath the picture, something surrounded by such beauty can have such pain.
"Kayla" she heard Johnny call out. She helped him out of the tub and got his pajamas ready for him. She tucked him into bed and told him a good night story like every night.
"There once was a princess and she was really sad." she began.
"But one day a fateful prince came and tried to save her and her little brother from the mean and nasty monster that were keeping them locked up in his castle" she said moving her hands around to represent a monster.
Johnny pulled the covers up to his nose while she continued the story. "Although the monster tried to fight him off the love he had for the princess helped him defeat the monster and the boy and girl and her little brother lived happily ever after" she said with a smile and giving him a kiss on the forehead.
"Goodnight sis" Johnny said his eyelids becoming heavy, "Goodnight little bro" she said turning off the lights.
She made her way back to the bathroom to take her shower. She undressed herself staring into the mirror. Bruises covered her body. The warm water massaged her body making her feel somewhat better. She quickly dryed off putting on her pajamas, some sweats and a big t-shirt.
"Kayla" she heard her father call out.
"Yes sir" she said as she walked back into the living room.
"You know I love you with all my heart, it's just sometimes I take thinks overboard" he said drunkenly staggering over to her.
"No hard feelings" he said standing in front off her touching her shoulders.
Like always Kayla took his apology, even though she didn't want to. He walked away to his bedroom while she made her way to the attic.
She heard her phone ringing, when she entered.
"hello" she said a boys voice greeting her back.
"Joe" she asked confused to who it was.
"Yeah i thought i might give you a call if you're not busy?" he said she could hear the nervousness in his voice.
"Sure" she said with a giggle. Wow she thought to herself, I just giggled.
They talked for a while most of it just talking about stuff they wanted to do overtime and things that they liked, just stuff they hadn't covered at the park earlier that day. They found out they were both born on the same day and that they loved music from all different aspects.
She told him about her infactuation with Chris Brown in which he replied with a laugh at how much of a teeny bopper she sounded when she mentioned his name.
"Oh be quiet" she said with a laugh, "your the one who likes Jessica Alba, like that's ever gonna happen" she replied sarcastically.
"You just killed my self esteem" he said laughing.
Kayla heard the usual stumble in front of her door and began to feel nervous.
"Joe i think I'm gonna have to call you back" she said, Joe could hear the panic in her voice.
"Are you ok?" He asked concerned.
Kayla saw the door handle turn, "Joe I'll call you back tomorrow" she said in a whisper.
Joe didn't even get to reply she had hung up the phone. She lay down pretending that she was sleep. She knew that wasn't going to stop him. She felt him touch her legs as he lay in the bed next to her.
"God help me" she thought to herself.
But like every other nights he hadn't answered her prayers.
