Page 10 of Broken

I didn't need anything.

Dad hated Daisy buying me stuff. He said it insulted his pride and implied he didn't take care of me. He said I just didn't appreciate the things my parents gave me. I swore I appreciated everything, and I got in trouble for lying. I didn't mean to lie.

I would be in so much trouble with mom later. Better her than dad though. For one, she didn't hit as hard. Second, she always just sent me to bed afterward. Dad liked to reinforce his discipline with hard work. He said I needed to earn the privilege of his care. I did my best to make them both happy with me.

I'd never be good enough for them.

I pulled at the weeds growing through the dead lawn. The only bit of color on the decaying piece of property. I didn't want to wait for them to stop fighting, but I knew if I left, things would be worse for me later.

So, I waited. And waited. Eventually, the yelling stopped, and I walked up the steps to the front porch.

When I walked into the house, I could hear mom talking to someone on the phone. She used an exaggerated sweet voice she used whenever she talked on the phone. Regardless of who she spoke to; she attempted to sound like the perfect mom and wife over the phone. I hoped my parents were too busy to notice if I snuck back in and went to my room.

I walked through the kitchen, soft and silent, and went down the hall to my room. I relaxed when I made it to the door without being spotted. I crossed the threshold and my heart sunk down to the dingy brown carpet.

My new backpack, the one Mia’s mom got me today, lay on my bed, torn

to pieces. Someone ripped the bag open from the top and threw everything all over my bed.

Why would my parents do this? Why did my mom let dad destroy my school stuff? My body shook with rage. Anger like this was new to me, and I relished it as it washed over me. Hot, heavy, energizing rage. The click of mom hanging up the phone echoed through the silent house, and a few seconds later, her bedroom door closed with a click.

I took my ruined backpack, my binder, and my papers. I wrapped them in the thin blanket on my bed and carried them out to the dead lawn. I walked back inside and picked up my father's work bag with his clothes for the next week sitting by the front door, and I added them to my pile on the lawn.

Hell would rain down on me, and I welcomed its wrath. My body went numb, and I relished the promised beating coming my way. I inhaled a steady, calming breath as I walked back inside, and got the bottle of lighter fluid from a cabinet in the kitchen. I rummaged through the drawers until I found a box of matches.

I took the tools of my demise back out front and lit the pile on fire.

I didn't know what I expected when we pulled up to the house, but I certainly did not expect the house in front of me. The dead lawn and splintered porch with the peeling paint had all been replaced with emerald, green grass, and repurposed planks sanded town to prevent splinters. No whisper of the ghosts and demons lingered in the shadows. In its place, a house rejuvenated and brought to life by someone who cared, someone who wanted to raise their family here.

Not to mention the tall, slim silhouette of a man leaning against the front door. Noah Carter. He always saved me, always came to my rescue. Kai was my best friend, but Noah was my hero who would become the brother I never had.

The Carters moved into the neighborhood when we were seven and Dr. Carter took over the local family medical practice. There were Mr. and Mrs. Carter, Kai, and his two brothers, Noah and Callum. Noah was older than Kai by a year, and Cal was younger by two years. All three boys shared the same dark hair and blue eyes, but Kai was the tallest.

They lived a few houses down. Far enough away so they weren't in the middle of my family drama, but still in walking distance for a couple of kids to go back and forth to each other's houses.

Then, in our freshman year of high school, Adam James moved into town. Right next door to Kai, they became best friends. I hated Adam at first, he treated me like shit and teased me relentlessly.

He laughed at my small frame and told me I looked like a skeleton, or he would throw little things in my hair. My unmanageable hair stayed a mess back then. It couldn’t decide if it wanted to be straight or wavy, so it just looked like a frizzy mess the majority of the time.

At some point he stopped being mean, both boys started hanging around again, and things went back to normal for a while.

But everything changed. Adam was gone, and I ran away from everything and everyone as soon as my diploma was in my hand. I left my two best friends to wonder and worry about me. I had to escape the darkness that threatened to suffocate me and pull me down into its depths.

It’s funny how life had a way of bringing us back full circle, as I found myself stepping out of my car to the sidewalk in front of my childhood home.

"Took you guys long enough." Noah’s deep, soothing voice carried over the lawn to us. Noah is always so patient, and kind. His parents loved him and his brothers, and they treated them like human beings and not objects. Their love showed too, in the way Noah presented himself, proud but humble, his voice carried across rooms but still maintained the gentleness of someone who had never been yelled at growing up.

"Yeah, well Houdini here tried to walk out the door of the shop when she realized she had to answer me." Mia theatrically pointed her thumb my way. "Besides, no one told me you'd be here."

"She wanted to make sure I had a solid alibi and escape plan before I committed arson." There was a hint of a giggle in the tone of my voice.

Noah smiled and stepped off the porch. His long legs only took him a couple of steps to cross the grass and wrap me into one of his warm hugs.

"Eh, I had nothing else going on this morning." Noah shrugged

releasing me from his hug. "Just no more fires, okay?"

Noah explained how Kai planned for him to sell my mother’s house to me. Noah was one of the top realtors in the area, and he was going to make sure the house sold at a great price.

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