Their Sister, Their Strength (Old)

Chapter 3 - Damaged

Once we had finally arrived back home after a pretty exhausting but enjoyable day shopping, it was 4pm. Elijah was late for work so quickly rushed upstairs, to the third floor I was prohibited from. I walked back into my room and decided to unpack all my new shopping.

When I was looking through the many bags of shopping, I noticed something blue. When I pulled the items of clothing out I realised it was the blue off the shoulder top from the store today that I had put back. It wasn't just one of them though, it was two, two identical tops. However, I noticed they were in different sizes, S and XS.

Elijah must have bought them without telling me and bought both sizes incase.

I thought back to how Elijah reacted to that shopping assistant, how protective he was. Although I was still in the dark about what Elijah and Adriana's 'little chat' consisted of, I could imagine that it wasn't completely friendly. Regardless, a small smile crept onto my face at the thought of how quickly Elijah had come to my rescue.

I took a good look at my quite plain bedroom with grey/cream walls. It was nice, just quite boring, and I decided it was a time for a makeover. If this really was going to be home then I would make it as homely as possible.

When I finished unpacking all my new clothes, my wardrobe suddenly looked a lot more colourful and full.

I unpacked all the stationary onto my desk and plugged in the lamp. I then hung up the fairy-lights Elijah bought for me around my bed and placed all the fluffy pillows on my bed.

I topped the covers with Elly... Elly was my bunny. I know it still seemed baby-ish that at 13-years-old I had a teddy, but quite honestly I couldn't sleep without Elly. I've had Elly since I was born, I can't remember who got her for me but I guess it was mum.

When I was a little kid I thought the bunny was an elephant, that's why I called her Elly. Even when mum finally convinced me it was a bunny I guess the name just kind of stuck. 

Finally, I put a photo of me and mum on the small shelf by my bed, so she would be the first person I saw in the morning and the last person I saw at night.

I took a step back and smiled at the sight of my new bedroom, it looked a lot more homely. In fact, it was pretty perfect.

While I was admiring my work, I suddenly felt a slight pain in my ribs and stomach from Dominic's beating last week before he left for his work trip.

It had been a bit on and off all week and I was slightly worried that it was still hurting.

Even though Dominic was gone, he still managed to find a way to make his beatings last.

A permanent reminder of my responsibility in mum's death. I was in the car, it was my birthday.

I lifted my top and looked in the mirror so I could assess the damage and bruising.

It was worse than I thought. My wrist was a dark purple/black surrounded by green from where he grabbed and twisted it harshly. The top of my arm was a dark yellow so thankfully I knew the bruise was healing.

What was concerning me the most was my ribs, they hadn't shifted from dark purple/black that they were a few days ago. In fact, it looked like it had gotten worse. Just pressing them lightly sent a wave of pain through my ribs and stomach.

To be honest, I looked like I had been painted with the colours of the rainbow.

I pulled my top back down and sat on my bed, doing some research about bruised ribs and made a mental note of the most important information.