Page 5 of Past

"The good things in life never are, but I know Allie, and she wants you. You’ve just have to work on your game, man."He smirks.

"Yeah, but I've cocked up a lot in the past with her. No amount of sweet words are going to make her forget that," I mutter. I take another full beer off the side and open it with the bottle opener on my keys.

“Oh, happy birthday, man. I got you cash. I don’t do presents,” I say, and he laughs.

“I’m not surprised. I'll tell you what I get, man, and thanks.” He smirks.

“I think I need a new plan for winning Allie. Any ideas?” I ask Blake.

“You shouldn’t give up, but I don’t how to help you with her, man. Allie is stubborn as fuck,” Blake says.

"As long you don’t give up, you will get her. Trust me," Izzy says from next to me. My sister moves like a cat. I didn’t hear her move next to me. She smiles up at me and then goes over to Blake and starts kissing him. I leave them to it and decide to take a walk on their balcony for some fresh air to think things over. It overlooks a park, and the night air makes me think about a time my father took me and some of my brothers to the park.

“Catch.” My younger brother, Luke, laughs as he throws me the football. We are in the middle of an empty park on Saturday night. No one is around, and I’m scared for why that is.

“You’re meant to kick it, not throw it.” My twin Sebastian laughs next to me as I catch the ball.

“So?” Luke replies, rolling his eyes. I look over in fear at my father who is leaning against a tree. Father didn’t give us a reason for why he was bringing us to the park today, and I’m worried. Luke doesn’t realise what Father is like yet because he is five, and he never hurt us until we were six. Luke is six in a couple of weeks. Father started beating us if we didn’t do as we were told, or he would tell one of his friends to; it’s always better to just do as you’re told. I’m nearly seven now and getting bigger like Harley, and I want to fight back. I wish Sebastian would help me, but he is too scared.

“Boys, I have a lesson for today. Come here,” my father shouts, making me tense. I grab Luke’s hand as we walk over, with the ball under my other arm.

“Right, I want you to teach Luke how to throw a punch. You can use Sebastian to punch.” He smirks at me before leaning back against the tree, looking bored. The ball I was holding drops to the ground.

“I don’t want to be taught that,” Luke whines.

“Do as you’re told, Elliot, or Luke can have matching marks on his back. I’m sure you don’t want to be matching.” My dadglares at me, reminding me about the three cuts he made on my back a few months ago. They look bad, and I cried when he did them. Harley tried to help me, but Dad knocked him out and cut him, too. Sebastian didn’t get cut, but I don’t want him to.

“Fine,” I mutter, standing before Sebastian, who holds his hands up.

I throw a punch as gentle as I can at Sebastian’s hand, and I still hear the crack as it hits.

“Harder,” my dad growls, and I look at Sebastian, who just nods in understanding, before I throw the next punch, knowing it might break his fingers. I hear the loud crack, and Sebastian cries out in pain, grabbing his hand back.

“Good. Luke, punch Sebastian’s hand like your brother did,” Dad says, almost gently.

“No, he is hurt,” Luke says in tears as he stands next to me.

“Do it,” Dad says, getting out his pocket knife and flipping it between his fingers.

“It’s fine, Luke. Do it,” Sebastian says, eyeing the knife.

I push Luke in front of Sebastian and whisper to him. “It will be worse if you don’t. I'm sorry,” I say before I step away.

“I’m sorry,” Luke stutters before throwing the punch, and Sebastian cries out again before dropping to the ground, holding his hand.

“Take your shirt off, Luke,” my dad says.

“Why? I did what you wanted,” Luke shouts, in tears, while my hands turn into fists.

“I want you to remember why you shouldn’t question me. Your brother did and has a pretty reminder on his back, and you will too.”

I cry to myself as Dad pulls Luke’s shirt over his head and makes a small cut across his shoulder-blade, deep enough to scar like mine. Luke screams and screams before Dad lets him go, and I pull him into my arms.

“You can play football, now,” Dad smirks, returning to lean against the tree.

"Elliot, hey," another voice says next to me and completely snaps me out of my fucking nightmare of a memory. That is shit I don’t want to remember, and I force myself to remember that he is dead now.

I turn to see my ex-girlfriend, Lily, smiling at me. Lily is a pretty girl, who any sane guy would look twice at, with long, red hair and an hour-glass figure. Lily broke up with me a few months ago because she was seeing someone else. That really pissed me off. She has been messaging me a lot recently, as we agreed to stay friends. Honestly, looking at her now, I know I only started dating her because she was friends with Allie, and it pissed her off. I did care about her, maybe even loved her toward the end, but I realised I loved her in more of a friend way, rather than being in love with her. We dated for three years, so it was difficult not to care. I only slept with her because she told me Allie had slept with her new boyfriend from college. Looking back at my life now, I realise I strung her along when it was really all about Allie. Fuck, I'm an idiot.

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