Broken Home
Hey guys! So, it's been a while since the last imagine I wrote. That's why I thought I'd write one now. I've been having a bad writers block with anything that isn't a preference lately so bear with me. This one was inspired by the song Broken Home by 5 Seconds of Summer. I hope you guys like it~.
Summary: She never talked, never made a sound either. All she did was sit quietly and listen to what she was told or just have flashback of memories during class. She was never happy, never smiled, just had a blank look. Her eyes were lifeless and it soon got worse through the years. Then, the boys came along, staying with her through the rest of high school. But she still was broken, inside and out. She just wanted it all to end.
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/"Mommy! Mommy!" a five-year-old girl yelled, running over to her mother as school let out.
The mother smiled and picked up the young girl, placing her on her hip. "Hello, my little Perla. How was school?" she asked, walking to the car.
"It good! I gots a hundred on math test!"
"A hundred? That is good. I guess that means that we can ask daddy to cook your favorite tonight," the mother said, putting her daughter in the car seat.
"What is daddy going to do?" her father asked from the driver’s seat.
"I gots a hundred on the math test," the girl repeated, smiling as she held up the paper.
"Oh! That is something that should be rewarded," he said, chuckling softly.
"Yay! Chicken nuggets please!" she cheered, giggling softly. /
She quietly walked through the halls of her school, gripping her binder to her chest and her bag bouncing against her hip as she walked. She tried to ignore the voices around her, pulling her sleeves of her jacket down over her wrists as she stopped in front of her locker. She opened it and came face-to-face with a family picture on the inside of her locker door.
She looked passed it as she grabbed her books and put her bag in, shutting the door softly with an inaudible sigh. As she turned around, she jumped as a group of boys stood in front of her, smiles on all their faces. She hugged her books close to her chest as she looked at them, their faces unfamiliar to her.
"Could you help us? We're having trouble finding the office," the curly haired boy asked, chuckling nervously as he scratched his cheek.
"I wouldn't bother," a girl next to them said, closing her locker with a laugh. "She's mute; talks with her hands." The girl smirked at her before walking to her class.
She looked down, thinking they were going to leave to ask someone else until the same boy asked again, "Could you?"
She looked up, blinking before she slowly started to give him the directions. When she was finished, she was surprised when he started to repeat them back to her. "Alright. So, down the hall, to the left and it's the last door on the right?" he asked, smiling as she nodded slowly. "Thank you. Hope to see you around."
The others nodded before they walked towards the office. She watched them before heading to class herself, hugging her things to her chest.
It wasn't that she was mute, she used to talk a lot but she suddenly stopped one day. No one knows why because she never said anything about what caused her to stop. She barely made a sound or smiled since she stopped talking. Being mute and emotionless got her bullied by the bigger kids or the popular girls.
She sighed silently as she took her seat in the back of the classroom, getting her things out as people started to arrive. She looked up as a shadow hovered over her, blinking as she saw the boy from earlier.
"Looks like we have the same class together," he said, smiling as he sat next to her. "Um, is it alright if...?"
She nodded before he could finish, placing her binder in front of her as he got his things out. She took out a piece of paper as he started to speak again. "My name's Ashton by the way."
She nodded and started to write something before moving it towards him. /"Perla."/
"That's a nice name," he said, watching her nod. "Do you think you could give my friends and I a tour during lunch? This place is big."
/"I can't tell you guys the places like the others can," she wrote, looking at him.
"You can use sign language and I can translate for the lads. Please? You're the first not to try to get us to go out with you," he said, sighing.
Perla blinked and tilted her head slightly before shrugging. /"I guess it couldn't hurt."/
"Thank you so much," he said, smiling as she nodded.
During Lunch
She jumped as she felt an arm wrap around her shoulders. She looked over to see Ashton smiling with the others there beside him.
"So, how about that tour?" Ashton asked, ruffling her hair slightly.
She blinked and nodded slightly, still a bit unsure about if she should give them a tour as she gripped her binder to her chest tightly.
He sent a smile her way, his eyes sparkling as she nodded, but all she did was stare at him, didn’t smile back. He pushed it aside for now before patting her head. “Lead the way, my lady,” he said, bowing slightly as the boy with the lip ring chuckled and did the same.
She turned slightly and watched them, tilting her head to the right a bit before pointing to the boys, not know who they were.
“Oh. Right. Forgot about that, huh?” the curly haired boy joked, chuckling before he pointed towards the boy who had bowed with him. “This is Luke. The one with the pink hair is Michael, he’s gay~.”
“I am not! It was a dare! You were the one who dared me to dye it this color wo nights ago so don’t go there!” Michael yelled, narrowing his eyes at Ashton who just laughed.
“And the Kiwi is Calum,” Ashton finished, smiling at her.
She nodded and sent a small wave towards them before turning around and signaling for them to follow as she started to walk out of the cafeteria, fixing the bag on her shoulder as she heard the boy’s footsteps following her, Ashton coming up on her right. She looked at him before stopping and looking down a hallway, seeing the band room doors open. She pointed down towards it before looking at Ashton and signing to him.
“Band room down this hall on the left. It’s going to be shut down during winter break because the school can’t pay for it and kids don’t care much for it anymore,” he told the others, watching her turn towards the others and nod to confirm it.
“Why? I mean, you would think people now a days would be into making music or something,” Michael mumbled, raising an eyebrow.
Perla stood there, looking at him before shrugging and turning away, starting to walk again.
She took them around the whole school, showing them the shortcuts to all their classes and even showed them all the places they could use to sneak in if they were late and in a hurry. The last place she showed them was where the abandoned library was, signing to Ashton about it.
“Really?”
She nodded and tilted her head.
“What?” Calum asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Oh. She said that a few years ago, some kids were in here after hours. Apparently they had too much to drink and was playing with fire or something and ended up setting the whole library on fire. School was shut down for a few weeks while they tried to salvage what they could and started to work on a new library,” Ashton explained, looking at the others.
“That’s wrong,” Luke said, leaning against the door before it fell in and he fell on his side, groaning.
“She also said that the structure is a bit weak on the outside but is okay on the inside.”
“You couldn’t have told me that before!”
“I was about to but you decided to lean against it,” Ashton said, chuckling as Michael and Calum grinned.
Perla watched them carefully as they argued with each other, raising an eyebrow slightly as she did. She wasn’t use to friendly banter like this, never being around others for years. She didn’t see how it was funny either when Ashton started to laugh at Luke kicking his shin and acting like a child.
/“No! You said I could stay up!” a young girl said, pushing her bottom lip out in a pout.
A man chuckled and picked her up, placing her on his hip as he kissed her small forehead. “I know I said that, love bug, but your mom has to work late and I have an important business meeting tomorrow so we have to go to bed early.”
She frowned and crossed her arms over her small chest, puffing her cheeks out slightly. “Not fair. You and mommy said it was alright,” she grumbled.
“I know, baby, but how about I give you a deal?” he asked, rubbing her cheek with his thumb softly. “If we go to bed, tomorrow, I will let you have dessert for dinner. Yeah?”
She looked at him, trying to continue pouting before letting out a giggle when he started to tickle her. “Y-Yeah! I like that deal, daddy! She yelled, wrapping her arms around his neck in a bug hug. “Can I sleep with you tonight then? Just for a little bit?”
He smiled and kissed her forehead softly, nodding. “Of course, love bug. The mean monster in your closet again?”
She nodded as she yawned softly, closing her eyes as he started to sway slowly, holding her carefully as he walked to his shared room and laid down with the young girl cuddled into his chest, a smile still on his face. /
Perla was brought back to reality when Luke stumbled into her, knocking her into Ashton who helped her catch her balance. “You okay? You looked like you zoned out,” he said, raising an eyebrow.
She nodded and stood back as the bell rang, quickly walking off to get to her last class of the day, waving a quick bye to the boys.
Two weeks Later
Perla stumbled as she was pushed against her locker, looking over to see the cheerleader laughing. She sighed silently and took her bag out of her locker only to have it taken from her. She turned around, ready to take it back, but blinked as she stared at a smiling Michael, his hair bright blue. She gently pushed a piece out from in front of his eyes. He chuckled and gently kissed her fingers, something she had gotten use to him doing as a way of saying hello. “How are you feeling? You didn’t look too well this morning,” he said, putting the back of his hand against her forehead.
She shrugged and held her head up, wiggling it slightly before grabbing her bag and putting it on her shoulder.
“Ashton was going to Skype you last night but he figured you were already asleep. Luke always wanted to ask if you wanted to come to his party tonight, being as its Friday,” he asked, scratching the back of his head.
She looked at him, her head tilted to the side slightly as she tried to figure out a way to answer him. She gripped her binder close to her chest before opening it and writing an answer. /”I don’t do parties…Too many people around.”/
“It won’t be a lot of people. Just us and a few of our friends,” he explained, smiling softly. “you don’t have to come if you don’t want to but we would love if you could.”
She stared at him for a few, her grip on her bag strap tighter before her gaze lowered and met with the floor. She wanted to go but she still didn’t know if she should trust them. She knew they were nice and they were always sticking up for her now but she wasn’t sure if they were just pretending and would end up hurting her later.
/”I…I’ll tell you my answer later. My dad is picking me up,”/ she wrote as she looked up at him.
He nodded and wrapped an arm around her shoulders, leading her to the entrance. “Then I shall wait with you.”
She rolled her eyes and gently pushed his arm off of her shoulders before looking over at the parking lot, her eyes shining as she saw a man leaning against a pickup truck, mouthing the words she hadn’t spoken in years. She nodded a quick bye to Michael before running towards the man, hugging him tightly after she dropped her bag on the ground.
The man chuckled and kissed her forehead as he held her tightly. “I have you now, love bug.”
She hugged him tighter and gripped his shirt, nodding slowly.
Michael watched, a smile on his lips as he did so before walking away.
/Perla teared up as she listened to her parents’ fight. She was only eight but they had been yelling for weeks, always getting started over stupid stuff even though she never understood why they were fighting.
She ran back up the stairs and into her room, slamming the door shut, tears in her eyes as she slowly slid down the door. She gripped her head as she heard the yelling get louder, things slamming and echoing throughout the house. She quietly cried into her knees as she kept her ears covered but she could still hear them yelling, muffled yelling about things she didn’t understand.
She jumped when she heard the front door slam shut and ran to her bed to grab her stuffed rabbit that her dad had gotten for her birthday that year. She hid in her closet where she always hid after a door slams shut, too scared to go see who had left and who had stayed to check on you like the normal routine every night.
She heard her bed room door slowly open and close causing her to move farther into her closet, pressing her back against the wall. She looked up slightly as her closet door opened and saw her dad smiling at her sadly. “Hey, love bug. Come here,” he whispered, sitting in from of the closet with his arms open.
She teared up more and quickly jumped into his arms, sobbing into his neck. “I-I’m sorry, daddy. I-I didn’t mean to get mommy mad at you,” she cried, gripping his shirt tightly.
“No, baby, it’s not your fault. Don’t think it’s your fault. Mommy and daddy…just aren’t happy with each other like we use to be,” he mumbled, rubbing her head softly.
“B-But I spilt my milk on her pretty dress when I sneezed…”
“And I know you didn’t mean to but mommy was being a meanie when she snapped at you and I didn’t want to watch my love bug cry as she did that so I snapped at her,” he explained, kissing her forehead before standing up, picking her up along the way. “Now, let’s get you into bed.”
She nodded and rested her head on his shoulder, sniffling softly as she gripped her bunny’s arm. “C-Can you stay with me…?”
“Anything for my little love bug.”
“Why do you call me that?’
“Because you were so tiny when you were born and I fell in love with you at the moment you were placed in my arms,” he said, laying her on her bed and tucking her in. “You had the softest skin and the brightest green eyes that I had set my eyes on. When I held you, you were so tiny you could fit in just one arm and you never let go of my finger. From that moment on, I fell in love with you and I swear that I would always protect you.”
She looked at him tiredly and smiled, gripping his index finger lightly with one hand as she hugged her bunny close with the other. “Thank you, daddy.”
“Just remember, if you ever get hurt by someone in the future, you can come to me and I’ll hurt them. No one hurts my love bug,” he whispered, kissing the back of her hand as he rubbed her head softly, smiling as she started to fall asleep. /
A year went by, the boys getting closer to Perla, standing up for her when she was bullied. She started to let out a soft giggle once in a while but they couldn’t hear it very well since it was so quiet. After a few months of knowing her, the others had asked Perla if she could teach them some sign language. She agreed, asking Ashton to help translate the meaning of her signs, and he was happy to. She taught them the little things first; dog, cat, flower, thank you, etc. Even though she didn’t show it, she was happy to have friends to talk to, happy that she had gotten close to them even if she still had a little part inside of her where she was scared they were just pretending and waiting to hurt her like everyone else does.
When it was her seventeenth birthday, she didn’t bother tell anyone, not use to having friends so tell it to. So when she woke up during winter break, she was surprised to see presents at the end of her bed and cards on them. She blinked and slowly got out of bed, heading downstairs without changing out of her pajamas. She ran a hand through her hair as she reached the last step, looking up and a blush forming on her lightly tanned skin as she was at eight boys in her living room with her dad standing at the kitchen counter with a cake in the center of it.
She squealed silently when Ashton picked her up in a hug, her face going to the croak of his neck as her blush grew. Even though she was close with the boys, she still wasn’t use to the fact that they were always going to give her hugs or grab her hand or anything. She had forgotten how it felt to have fun and be happy but she was glad she was with the boys when she was happy. It almost made her want to start smiling again but every time she was about to, memories came flooding back to her and she couldn’t do it.
“Happy birthday, princess,” Ashton said, chuckling before kissing her forehead.
She smiled and thanked him, kissing his cheek before her hand was taken by Luke, spinning her around gently before hugging her. “We hope you don’t mind but we invited Niall and the others.,” he explained, letting Michael and Calum give her a hug before the others gave her a group hug.
She nodded and hugged them all back before looking over at her dad, her eyes shining when he walked over and hugged her. “Happy birthday, love bug,” he said as he kissed her forehead.
She kissed his cheek before looking at the others, seeing them all smiling at her. She could feel the corners of her lips twitching, almost smiling before she heard a knock on the door. She was about to get the door but Ashton wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her close as her dad went to get the door. “it’s your birthday, sweetie. You relax and have fun. It’s the first time I’ve seen that shine in your eyes in years,” he said, smiling before it fell as he opened the door. “What are you doing here?”
“I can’t see her on her birthday now? I mean, I was the one that gave birth to her.”
Perla froze and the color drained from her cheeks as she heard the voice, looking over at her dad as two people stepped through the door way. She pushed Ashtons’ arms out from around her and made her way to the people.
“Oh. See, she does want to see me~. Just because you got custody of her doesn’t mean she wouldn’t want to see me on her birthday, right, John?”
The man beside her nodded and looked at Perla as she came closer, grinning at her. “Of course. We are her family too,” he said, watching Perla stop beside her father.
“Now let me hug my daughter, Frank,” her mother said, holding out her arms.
Perla stared at her before glancing at the others, sighing in her mind before slowly hugging her mother, tensing up as her mother hugged her tightly. “I’ve missed you, baby girl. Still not talking a see.”
Perla pulled away and moved away from Frank when he went to give her a hug, staring at him blankly. She pointed to them and the door before walking back over to the boys, ignoring their looks. “Oh my. Which one is your boyfriend dear?” she heard her mother ask, quickly walking up behind her.
Perla looked back at her but before she could start signing, Ashton and Michael wrapped their arms around her. “All of us~,” they joked, chuckling softly when Perla blushed slightly, looking away.
/”D-Dad! Daddy!” a young ten-year-old screamed as she was pinned to her bed. “Daddy!!”
“Oh would you stop~. He’s not going to be back for another hour and your mom locked the door in case you tried to escape.”/
“Oh, Perla. You should know better,” her mother scolded, shaking her head in disappointment.
“You shouldn’t talk, Linda,” her father spoke up, sending a glare to the other adults.
“Oh hush, Frank.”
/”G-Get off me! I’ll scream!”
The rest of her sentence was muffled as a cloth was pushed into her mouth, tears streaming down her rosy cheeks as she screamed and kicked, trying to get free. She continued to scream around the cloth before she got a sharp slap across her right cheek, her eyes squeezing shut as she suddenly stopped screaming, soft whimpers leaving her lips. “I said stop it so you better shut the fuck up, you worthless baby,” his voice rang, cold as ice as he took off her belt and tied her wrists to the bed posts./
“It was only a joke, ma’am,” Luke mumbled. Raising an eyebrow. “Just a harmless joke.”
“Oh, it’s harmless at first until it comes try and she turns out just like-“
“Linda!”
“What?! Just because it’s her birthday doesn’t mean I will not say the truth!”
“Not in my house!”
Perla took a step back from everyone as she watched her parents start an argument, seeing Frank eyeing her and licking his lips as he smirked at her. Her eyes were just getting life back in them until she had to come along and ruin everything, just like she always did. Worst of all, she brought him along to mess things up even more.
/She cried silently as her nightgown and panties were cut off, kicking her legs in a last attempt to get free only to let out a surprised scream when her legs were spread apart and the man above her penetrated her, breaking her hymen and causing her body to tense up and twitch. More tears started to fall down her rosy cheeks as she squeezed her eyes closed, as she choked out muffled cries when he begins to thrust, holding her legs up with one hand, grinning as he watched himself get buried inside her. A grin was spread across his face as he slowly began to pick up speed, not caring when she started to protest again, just continued to do as he pleased whether it pained her or not. All he cared about at that moment was getting pleasure for himself and having fun with the young defenseless girl.
“Where’s your daddy now~?”
She opened her eyes slightly as tears rolled down her cheeks and landed on her pillow, silent whimpers leaving her lips but not getting passed the cloth still in her mouth.
“He’s not here, is he~? He didn’t come like he said he would~. And no one can save you~.”
She let out a scream when he suddenly thrusted faster, the head of his cock hitting the entrance to her womb roughly. She tensed up more, turning her head away from him when he started to lean down, letting out a strangled sob when he whispered in her ear, “If you tell anyone about this, I will come back and continue to do this to you for years to come~”/
Perla took a few more steps back, pushing Michael and Ashtons’ arms off her, suddenly not feeling safe. They looked at her strangely as Niall and Louis kept their eye on Frank, Harry and Liam keeping her parents from getting inches close to one another. She just stood there, slowly backing up until her back hit the wall near the staircase. She was just starting to open up to them, she was starting to feel emotions again, she was starting to forget her past but they…they had to come and ruin it all.
/She cried softly as he pulled his pants up, not bothering to dress her back up. He took his belt and put it back on before grinning at the shaking, sobbing girl. He spit on her, causing her to flinch away, before laughing and knocking on the door.
A few seconds later the door opened and her mom came into view, smiling up at the man after looking at her daughter. “Have fun, Johnny?”
He nodded before leaning down to kiss her softly. “Let’s get out of here. He’ll be back any second.”
She nodded before leading the way out.
Perla stared blankly at the wall before slowly pushing herself up off her bed with shaking arms and went to work; changing her sheets and tossing them into the trash along with her wiped clothes before she went to take a shower./
She grabbed the banister of the staircase and made her way to her room, slamming and locking her door closed, ignoring the yells coming from the boys. She silently cried as she made her way to the bathroom, her eyes scanning the room for anything to ease her pain.
/Once she got out of the shower and out on a long sleeve shirt and shorts, staring into the mirror in front of her, grabbing the razer that her dad left in her bathroom when his had to be worked on./
She closed the bathroom door and locked it before grabbing the razer on the counter and got in the shower, turning it to cold without thinking and getting under it as tears fell down her cheeks, mixing with the water droplets, silent sobs leaving her slightly parted lips.
/She pressed the razer to the soft skin on her wrists and slowly dragged it along them, repeating the process a few times before doing the same number on the other wrist, none of them deep but still drawing enough blood to slowly slide down her wrists and drip into the sink./
She watched as her blood mixed with the water, changing the color to a lighter red, crying silently as she rested her head against the shower all, hearing the yelling getting louder from downstairs and banging on her door. She squeezed her eyes closed as she continued to cut down her arms before moving to her thighs, sobbing quietly as she dropped the razor, sitting there as the water hit her cuts, stinging them.
/”Love bug! I’m home!’
Perla threw the rag in the trash bag after cleaning up the mess and wrapping her wrists before she walked out of her bathroom and bedroom, standing in the doorway, stumbling a bit.
“Love bug,” Frank whispered, dropping his bag on the floor and kneeling in front of her and felt her forehead. “Baby, what’s wrong? You look so pale and like you’ve…been crying. And where’s your mother. The whole reason I let her see you was if she watched you while I was at work.”
When she didn’t answer, he started to worry. He picked her up and brought her to the couch, sitting her in his lap and holding her close. “Baby, talk to me. Please. You’re scaring me.”
She stared at the wall with dull eyes as tears slowly slid down her cheeks, laying her head on his shoulder as they continued to fall.
“Did someone hurt you? Did someone hurt you, love bug?”
She nodded weakly before slowly signing to him. |“Bullies at school, daddy. Can I get homeschooled for a while?’|
He watched her before nodding and kissing her forehead.
|Can I also…not see mommy again?|
One he saw that, he pulled her closer and nodded, resting his chin on top of her head. “Anything for my love bug,” he whispered as tears fell down his cheeks.
She gently gripped his shirt as she sat there, no shine in her eyes, no smile on her lips, she was broken. She lost her innocence and worst of all, her mother was the one who let it happen./
Perla listened as yelling continued, hearing the boys yelling her name. She slowly stood up, not caring if her bra was showing as she stumbled to the door and unlocked it, pushing it open and stumbling out of the bathroom. She leaned against the wall as she walked towards her door, grabbing at the knob before squeezing her eyes shut tightly, hearing the yelling get louder with every move she made. She took a few stumbling steps back, her lower back hitting the foot board on her bed as she leaned against it, slowly grabbing her head and gripping at her hair.
Everything was falling around her, the walls were slowly falling, the walls she had kept up for seven years were falling down around her, shattering everything she had tried to keep from breaking. She had finally found happiness again with the boys but now, like always, her mom had to come around and ruin it along with her perverted husband.
She raised her head slightly, her eyes meeting the wall she was leaning against just a few minutes ago. Patches of her blood were starting to stain her wall as more tears silently rolled down her cheek. Her head shot up when she heard something coming from the argument downstairs; /”Maybe the damn reason she stopped talking is because you took her away from her dear, caring mother! If you hadn’t taken her, she would be talking and happy like she used to be!”/
Without thinking, she pushed herself off her bed with all her strength before walking towards the door and grabbing the doorknob tightly before unlocking it and swinging it open. She ignored the blood that was soaking through her pajamas as she opened her mouth, glaring down at her mother. “Get the fuck out of this house right now before I call the fucking cops on your sorry excuse for an ass! You have never been a mother to me! You were the one starting all those fights over nothing! You were the one making me cry! You were the one always going out and coming back after hours of being out! You cheated and slept around with other men while you broke his and my heart!” she screamed, gripping the railing tightly as tears flowed down her cheeks, ignoring all the stares she was getting as she continued. “You ruined my life! You’re the reason I stopped talking! You’re the whole reason I haven’t smiled in years! If you hadn’t fucking let him rape me that damn night, I wouldn’t be a broken mess in the first place you worthless whore! I want you out of my life and I never want to see you again! EVER!”
She started to cough as her vision went blurry and she became dizzy. She gripped the railing tighter but her grip loosened when her eyes rolled in the back of her head and she went limp at the top of the stairs, falling and hitting her head on the floor as she blacked out.
“Perla!” Calum screamed, watching Ashton quickly make his way up the stairs and pick her upper body up gently.
Ashton looked over her, stopping when he noticed the amount of blood dripping down her arms and legs. He quickly looked back at her as gently picked her up bridal style watching her head carefully. “Call 911! She’s losing blood. I think she hit a vein or her adrenaline was pumping so fast,” he rushed out as he saw Louis already on the phone.
He saw Frank glaring at John, probably about to attack him but he held himself back and gently took Perla from Ashton. Sitting on the floor with her across his lap, he cradled her close to him as he buried his face in her hair. “Everything w-will be okay, love bug. I promise,” he mumbled, tears falling down his cheeks to land in her hair.
The boys stood around him, not knowing what to say or do. They just stood they and watched Frank rock his unconscious daughter in his arms as she lay there, chest barely moving. They never thought they would witness a scene like that. Never in a million years did they think they would be looking at one of their friends on the edge of death. They especially didn’t think it would be Perla; the girl who was shy and quiet and kept to herself was the one who cut herself and kept a secret deep inside for years that it finally ate her up, she finally let it scream out.
Two Days Later
Perla opened her eyes slightly, being blinded by the lights above her which caused her to squeeze her eyes shut again and for her to let out a quiet groan. She felt the right side of her bed move as a hand gripped hers from the left, soft lips on her forehead. Without even opening her eyes, she knew the lips were from her father and the movement on the right was from the boys. Though she didn’t open her eyes for a few more minutes, she leaned into her father’s touch, weakly gripping his hand before wincing.
“Take it easy, love,” she heard Ashton whisper, a sigh leaving his lips. “You hit a vein in your right wrist and your left thigh, being as you didn’t seem to have much meat on your bones, so that’s why you…lost so much blood.”
She opened her eyes slowly to look at him, blinking when she saw his eyes puffy. Being as she was use to asking the way she did, and the fact that her throat was killing her, she slowly started to sign. /”What happen? You break another drum set?”/ she asked, the corners of her lips twitching up into a small smile.
He let out a chuckle before taking her other hand and kissing the back of it softly. “I almost did but the boys took away my sticks before I had the chance too,” he replied, kissing her cheek. “I’m glad you’re okay.”
“We’ll all glad.”
She blinked and smiled slightly, nodding. /”I’m sorry for all the drama.”/
“Don’t worry about it, love,” Ashton said, smiling. “Just don’t worry us like that again, Perla. You scared us…we thought we lost you.”
She frowned and looked away, sighing softly as she stared at the wall.
“Your mother and John are in jail,” she heard her father say, getting her to look at him. She saw that his eyes were also red and that some tears were still falling door his cheeks. “Why…Why didn’t you tell me when it happened, love bug?”
She stared at him, about to raise her hands to answer but she stopped. She thought about continuing with being the mute she was getting bullied for, never to speak again after all that had just happened to her and the fact her mother would think it was because she wasn’t taking care of her that she had stopped talking. She searched all of the boys eyes as well as her father’s, seeing the same thing in all of their eyes; sadness. She didn’t think she meant that much to people, looking back at her dad as she wished she had told her right after it happened instead of going mute the way she did. “B-Because he said…if I t-told anyone h-he’d…keep d-doing for many m-more years,” she choked out, her own tears forming as she weakly gripping his hand. “I-I’m sorry, daddy. I-I w-was scared a-and it hurt so m-much…I-I didn’t want i-it to happen again.”
Frank kissed her forehead as he sighed, rubbing her knuckles with the pad of his thumb. “He won’t be doing it ever again. I’m just happy to hear your beautiful voice again, love bug. I have missed it and your smile,” he whispered, chuckling softly.
She smiled and nodded slightly before closing her eyes again, letting out a sigh before looking at Ashton, grabbing his hand with her free hand and giving it a light squeeze. “T-Thanks…for not giving up on me,” she said, smiling at him and the others. “Y-You guys are the first people to annoy me in a good way.”
They chuckled and all gave her a kiss on the forehead before leaving to let her rest some more and be with her dad. She smiled up at Frank before she closed her eyes and fell asleep, glad she was out of her broken home.
