Cliché with a player

Chapter 5 - Comfort where you least expect it

A/N: A picture of Matt's car. Couldn't you just stare at it all day?

The morning didn't start very good. Dad yelled at mom again and when I stepped into the living room, he yelled at me too. I ran to my room but still could hear the arguing.

"Bitch!" my dad yelled.

"Are you crazy? I'm going to call the police?" Dad laughed frantically when heard that.

"And who will believe you? A drug addict like yourself."  Mom is not a drug addict.

I heard one single muffled scream and then a loud bang.

So I am now seating in my car in front of the school on the most faraway parking spot, crying, shaking and sobbing and I just can't stop.

I lean my head onto the headrest of my seat, trying to stop the tears by closing my eyes.

Somebody knocks on the glass and it scares me so much, that I jump away, still fasten with the seatbelt, cutting myself on the neck. Outside, leaning on my car roof is Matt.

Great! Matt Taylor is standing outside my car, watching me sob my eyes out, being red and swollen - I surely look like a goblin.

"What?" He lifts his eyebrows and points to the window in a sign that he can't hear me. I sigh deeply and step out. "What?" I repeat.

I move hair out of my face but they are glued to it from all the tears. It takes a bit longer before I succeed.

I am still angry at him for thinking he could use me and then just leave.

"You okay?" he asks and shifts his gaze towards the car, where I was pouring my emotions out just seconds ago. I don't look at him because I don't want him to laugh at me. But I have to at last, when he bends his knees, leans a bit forward and down so he can see my face.

"Yes."

"You don't look okay."

"Gee, thanks!"

"Are your parents the problem?" he says and shocks me completely.

"How...?" He just shrugs like it is obvious.

"Dan told me you have problems at home."

"That's a lie," I say before thinking. Matt shakes his head confusingly.

"He couldn't have told you, he didn't even knew we are neighbours until yesterday."

"Well, he did say ,fam across the street'." I smile against my will, he scratches his neck and, for the first time, I fell like he is uncomfortable.

"What do you need Matt?"

"Today?" What is he talking about? Is he asking me out? No, that is the least believable thing ever. My shoulders tense to which he just scoffs.

"Relax, I'm not asking you out." He says that quite scornfully. "Studying Lake." Oh, right. It completely slipped my mind.

"My name is not Lake."

"For real?"

No, I am lying and my real name is Lake Garcia. I work for the president and sell drugs to kids, so my identity has to remain secret or I'll end up behind bars.

"Yes."

"Ha. I don't know where Lake came from." Maybe if you would ever think about anything or anyone other than yourself...

"I don't know. I'll text you." I dismiss him and leave him by my old car.

I'm rushing to the entrance but Matt's friends are all standing there again, talking and not paying attention to me. None of them even acknowledge me, until Dan lifts his head up whilst leaning on a shiny model of Ford Mustang Shelby GT500 from the 1967. The car is shining black in all its glory like new. Or somebody is just polishing it every day.

Dan narrows his eyes like he is thinking where does he know me from. "Laken?" Everyone else takes notice of me and they stop talking like I pushed on a brake. I am not that interesting!

"Stop leaning on my car Dan," Matt's voice suddenly appears behind me. His body is too close and I can't properly stay mad at him, so I step forward and try to squeeze past his friends. Not successfully, might I add. They form a kind of living wall around me.

"Excuse me." I still try to get past two of them and they are still just watching. They both look Matt but I can't see what he does.

"Were you crying?" Dan asks out of nowhere, like his friends didn't just corner me and aren't letting me past.

"No," I say unconvincingly. I look at him now and see his eyebrows are wrinkled in curiosity, concern. "It's none of your business." I start to get really uncomfortable. They are, however, totally oblivious to that.

"Please let me go." Still, nobody moves and still nobody takes their eyes off of me. They are tracing me like I'm a prey.

And now every emotion and memory just hovers over me, threatening to eat me alive. Tears start gaining in my eyes. Tears, that I push so far back, it hurts. I don't want to cry here, in front of them. I just don't.

My vision is getting blurry until a tear escapes and falls on the concrete, where it leaves a small trace, not even visible. Like me, invisible.

I can't hold back emotions anymore so everything just pours out of me. But I cry silently, invisible, only my shoulders shaking and revealing my sorrow.

God, I can't believe I'm crying in front of Matt Taylor and Dan Thompson. Two people, who will most likely make fun of me. My hand clasps over my mouth and tries to stifle the voices, while the other flys onto my chest, which is unevenly lifting and lowering. Finally, I lift my head, silently asking them and they all unfold like a curtain.

I run in the school and into the first toilet stall. I cry there for half an hour before I get myself together for class. I have never cried like that, at least not in school. This was my safe place where my dad is not present and my mom doesn't get beaten up.

Where I'm not humiliated and attacked by a man, who was suppose to protect me.

Hallway is empty, or at least I think so, until I bump into my brother. Andrew is leaning onto one of the walls and smoking a cigarette. "Laken!" he exclaims at first, when I knock a cigarette out of his hands. He takes a better look and notices my red eyes and with a warning look he suppresses laughing of his friends. He grabs my shoulders and leads me, to where they can't see us but still can hear us. "Are you okay?"

"What do you care?"

"I always care Laken. You maybe get on my nerves constantly and maybe I am harsh sometimes, but I care for you. I always have and always will. You are my sister." He smiles softly and hugs me. "Now tell me what happened before I ran out of patience."

"Mom and dad were fighting again and than I cried in front of Matt and Dan." My tears dry eventually and when I look up to my brother, they are already gone. Andrew's face gets darker. "I know, it's why I left early."

He puts his hands on my shoulders and pushes down slightly, which pins me to floor. "Now wipe away the tears, wash up and go to class. You don't need to talk about that, it is nobody business."

"But nothing will change at home and I am still scared for mom." My voice is filled with hatred, anger and sadness.

"You can't change it and don't worry about mom. She knows how to take care of herself. Don't worry."

With that, he turns around and nods at me, when I pass him and his friends. He blows smoke out of his mouth, tilts his head back, leaning it on the wall, his eyes closed in pleasure.

Ew.

A/N: Who would thought, that Andrew would comfort his sister? Me, I knew hehehe ;).

Happily, Lazyonthebalcony