Fallen Behind: The Eighth Brother Chapter Sixteen

I nod my head to Mindy’s question. “Do you know them?” I ask Mindy.

“We went to high school together. Abbi and I were on the track team together.” Mindy smiles fondly.

“That was before she met Jacob. She wasn’t rich then. We were best friends but when Jacob came into the picture, she changed. She because a-excuse my language- raging bitch. Started hanging out with all the rich girls, going to dinner parties with Jacob. She quit the track team and joined cheer. She did a complete 180.” She resumes eating her salad, which she had stopped when she started her story. “Before she met Jacob, and as cliché and it sounds, she hated the cheer team. Thought they were annoying and mean.”

“I never knew that. I always thought she was rich and married rich. My parents don’t really talk about their life before my brothers and I were born.” I break off little pieces of the bread, eating the crust.

“How many brothers do you have?”

“I have seven older brothers.” Mindy chokes on the sip of water she was drinking.

She composed herself before she started talking again.”Jesus, she pushed out eight of you? God. What are their names?”

“The oldest is Raven, he’s twenty four. River is twenty three, Ryder twenty two, Silas and Ajax are twenty, Ashton is seventeen and I’ll be sixteen soon.”

“I can’t even handle Kyle. I don’t know how your mom does it.” Mindy shakes her head then continues eating. I stay silent, not knowing what to say.

“Do we have anymore food?” Kyle breaks the silence. I look over at Kyle then look at the table to see all of the food is gone. I gesture towards my plate, to which he happily takes.

“Kyle!” Mindy scolds.

“It’s fine. I wasn’t very hungry.” I fake a smile.

“Ok.” She glances over her shoulder at the clock on the wall. “I have to go to work. I’ll see you later Kyle, and I hope to see you soon Jaylyn.”

I wave goodbye to her.

“Bye mom!” Kyle finishes eating soon after. “What time do you have to be home?”

I shrug.

“Ok, well, I have to go to school so you can hang out here until I get back or call your parents or your brothers.” He offers.

“I’ll wait.”

“Ok, well, I’mma go shower. Tv remote is on the coffee table. We have Netflix also.” I nod towards him.

Kyle runs up the stairs. I walk into the living room and sit on their sectional sofa. Spotting the remote on the table, I grab it and push the on button. I decide to just watch the program that had come on.

A while later, Kyle came down the stairs.

“Ok, so I’m gonna leave.” He hands me a slip of paper. “This is my number, call me if you need anything. I’ll be home around three thirty. Food in the fridge. Bye Jaylyn! Oh and sorry and hitting you with my car.”

He leaves the house and a small, vacant smile makes its way across my face, along with a soft chuckle. Letting my gaze wander back to the tv, it wasn’t long until my heavy eyelids fell shut.

———-

The slamming of a door startled me awake.

“I’m home!” Kyle’s voice from the entryway reaches my ears. “Jaylyn?”

“Living room!” I call.

“Oh good, thought you left for a minute there.” He pretends to swipe imaginary sweat from his forehead.

I glance over at the clock. “No but I need to get home. Can you drop me off?”

He nods. I get up and follow him outside the house and into his car. I give him my address and we drive there with only the sound of soft music playing.

“Here we are.”

“Thanks, Kyle.” I go to open the door when he stops me.

“Jaylyn?” I nod for him to continue. “Call me whenever, we can hang out.”

“Okay,” This time when I go to open the door — he doesn’t stop me. “See ya, Kyle.”

“Bye.” I get out of the car and walk up the stairs towards the house. The only light on is the light that is in the kitchen, meaning someone is up.

I open the door to the house and look around. In the kitchen, I see the back of Raven. His ears are filled with ear phones. I decide to just go around him and go the long way to my room.

After successfully avoiding Raven, I quickly make my way down the stairs and into my bedroom, then jump right onto the bed to avoid the voices.

within moments I was out.

——-

For the third time in two days, I was awoken by the sound of a door slamming. I jerk straight up in bed with a cold sweat running down my back, soaking my t-shirt and making it stick to my back.

I push myself so my legs are over the edge of the bed, then lean my elbows on my knees and put my head in my hands. I sit there like that for a few moments, trying to force myself to get out of bed to go get ready for my interview. The pounding of footsteps coming down the stairs to my bedroom causes a shiver of fear to go down my spine and my head to snap up. I jump up and go over to my door, trying to decide whether or not to lock the door.

Before I can make up my mind, the door slams open, barely missing my head.

My father comes storming in, a crazed blaze lit in his eyes.

“You’ve been very bad Jaylyn.” A wicked smirk slithers its way upon his face. “You’ve been avoiding me, haven’t you?” I go to shake my head. “It’s ok, you can tell me. I am your father after all.”

The mocking tone sends another shiver of fear crawling down my back. I look down, the sight of his fist heading towards me was the last thing I saw before I fell unconscious, dried blood everywhere.