"Sombra?" [Shadow] He whispered almost inaudibly, tears filling his eyes. I recognized his thick Spanish accent from anywhere.

"East?" He quickly wrapped his strong arms around me, squeezing so hard hurting my already bruised ribs. I was about to cry, not because of our little reunion but because I was in so much pain, my nose and my ribs.

He seemed to notice the pain and immediately connected it to my nose.

"I'm so sorry Ray. I didn't mean to..." He rambled on, I was too focused on the pain that I tuned him out. He dragged me to what I assumed was the nurse's office based on the medical instruments around the room. He picked me up from my waist and placed me on the bed. He called the nurse over and she examined my nose.

"All I can give you is ice." She shrugged, walking over to the freezer and pulling out an ice pack.

"Thanks." I muttered. Weston dragged me to his locker and pulled out Ibuprofen pills. I took a pill and swallowed it dry.

Weston was just always there. He's saved my life more than once without even knowing. He knows about the abuse to a certain extent, from Raymond and Darren. He has snuck me out of the house, gave me food, but most importantly, he was always there for me. It's scary how much trust I put into this one person; I trusted him with not just my darkest secrets but my darkest moments. I trusted him with my life and that was what was so scary.

"I'll introduce you to my friends." He practically dragged me to the cafeteria. He sat me at a table with three boys, including the asshat from this morning.

"What is she doing here?" He growled. Why the fuck is everybody growling?

"What is your problem?" I scowled.

"You got me detention this morning." He growled again.

"You got your own ass in trouble with your yelling." I responded. He shot me a death glare, stabbing a fork in his pasta.

I would not wanna be that pasta.

"What was your name again, Raymond was it?" He sneered. I could feel West tense beside me and I froze.

"No, this is Patrick." I wanted to facepalm myself there and then. I heard snickers around the table. My cheeks would probably be tomato red if I had lighter skin.

"Well, nice to meet you Patrick. I'm Spongebob." He replies, a smug smirk on his face.

"I would say nice to meet you too, but I wouldn't want to lie to you." He rolled his eyes and muttered a 'whatever' under his breath.

"Anywho, I'm Alexander. West has never brought a girl to the table. Now that I think about it, he hasn't brought anybody to the table before, we're the only friends he has since he got here, It's quite sad actually-" He rambled before he was cut off by another boy at the table. Weston put his head down in embarrassment.

"I think she gets the point Xander." The black hair boy interrupted, strangely similar to Myles. Almost reading my mind, he continued. "I'm Matteo, Myles' older brother." He smiled at me. I simply nodded in response.

A loud noise erupted in the cafeteria. I turned my attention to the noise, only to me greeted by my stepbrothers, a few taller boys and a girl in front of them. Her brown wavy hair in a high ponytail and gym clothes covered her body. As she walked, the scent of sweat and flowery perfume filled the air.

"Ugh, it's them?" West groaned.

"What's wrong with them?" A lot. I already knew the answer because I live with them, but I don't know what they're like at school.

"They're assholes, that's what's wrong with them. They think they can do whatever they want because their Dad pays a lot of money to the school." Myles muttered.

"Speak of the devils, why are they coming over here?" West questioned. I turned around and noticed three people striding toward us; the triplets.

"It's nice to know you're thinking of us." Jaxon smirked.

"What the fuck do you guys want?"

"We just want to speak to your new friend for a minute."

"No." I spoke.

"No?" Jayden said in disbelief.

"No." I said firmer.

"Oh, okay then." Jaylen says as he walks away. Jayden punches him on the arm and whispers something in his ear. Jayden suddenly picked me up and put me over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes.

"What the fuck?" I yelled. By now, the whole cafeteria was staring in shock. I wanted to die of pain and embarrassment. The painkiller hadn't kicked in yet, the pressure on my torso caused my body to erupt in pain.

He carried me out into an empty hallway, the other two triplets following behind. He dropped me and I landed on my feet.

"What the fuck happened to, and I quote, 'Also, don't talk to us, don't look at us, and definitely don't tell anybody we're your step brothers or we can make your life a living hell'. What happened to that?"

"I want to know why the fuck you're hanging out with Weston Alonso." Jayden gritted.

"And I want to know why the fuck it's any of your business." I gritted in the same tone. Before he responded, I walked back to the cafeteria. As I entered, I was met with hateful glares and confused glances.

I sat at my table and they were staring at me, eyes wide and jaws dropped.

"Rayland Olivia Cook, how the fuck do you know them?" Emphasis on the word 'fuck'.

"I'll tell you later, West." I responded in Spanish, he hesitantly nodded.

My dumbass forgot to bring lunch and I was sure I had no lunch money on my account. The rest of lunch I sat next to West and Alexander, occasionally stealing some of their fries. Eventually, West noticed and scooted the fries in my direction. I sent him a grateful smile and scarfed down the food.

Geometry was a pain in the butt. The whole class, the teacher wanted me to 'demonstrate my knowledge' in front of everybody. The next class was gym which I really enjoy except running. I despise running with a passion; my asthma, not helping the issue.

I didn't bring any gym clothes so I had to run 4 fucking laps in uniform pants. My legs were itching and burning for the rest of class.

The gym teacher didn't care what we did for the rest of class as long as we didn't break anything. The next class was Spanish class which was fairly easy with Spanish being my native language. The way I learned Spanish was a little different from how we learned today but it was easy to adjust. I never learned conjugations and past tense, I just did it in my head automatically.

I met up with West outside of school to explain my living situation. I couldn't give a rat's ass about my stepbrothers' empty threats. Weston has been my best friend before I even met them and I wasn't going to ruin our trust over strangers I met less than a week ago.

"So how do you know the Brown brothers?' Straight to the point I guess.

"They're my stepbrothers." I said vaguely. He stared at me in bewilderment.

"Why would their dad marry the wicked witch of the west?" He said.

"Good question." I sighed. I asked to use his phone so I could see how to get back to their house.

"Alright, see ya." I said.

"Bye." He hugged me goodbye and waved.

"Are you sure we should do this?" Jaylen asked his brothers cautiously. When the four brothers got from school they were immediately bombarded with questions from their two eldest brothers. When they found out Rayland wasn't with them, they grounded them for their irresponsibility.

In addition, the boys went to their rooms only to be greeted by the messy state of it. Trash and clothes everywhere, definitely not by their own doing. The icing on the cake was a picture sitting on each boys' desk ripped up, a picture of their mother. Attached was a note, 'Sincerely, Rayland'. Saying the boys were furious was an understatement.

All of the brothers exited the room simultaneously, ready to plan revenge.

"Yeah, trust me. These are prized possessions, she rarely lets them out of her sight. If we are going to do this, it has to be now." Blake stated. The brothers were confused about Blake's observation, he wasn't one to pay attention to small details.

"Okay let's do it." They agreed. They didn't have much time due to the fact the fourteen year old was on her way home. They spent around an hour trying to find a buyer to sell the two pieces of jewelry to. Jaylen was having second thoughts, he knew the jewelry was very important to her and it wouldn't be right for them to sell it but he was also thinking about how Rayland ripped the only picture he had with his mother. Even if he did object, he knew his brothers wouldn't care about his opinion so he stayed silent.

Rayland was still limping on the sidewalk trying to find the Brown mansion. Even after looking at the directions from Weston's phone a while ago, her fucked up memory prevented her from remembering them correctly. While in her thoughts, a red Toyota pulled up next to her. Instinctively, she started to walk faster until he heard the driver call her name.

"Rayland?" The familiar voice said. Rayland stopped walking and turned around to greet the 20-year old.

"Alejandro? What are you doing here?" She questioned. Alejandro was Weston's older brother and like another brother to her.

"I know this sounds creepy but Weston called me to make sure you get to your destination safely. You were walking for a while, do you want a ride?" He asked. Rayland mentally reminded herself to thank Weston tomorrow.

Rayland trusted Alejandro and told him she needed to get to the Brown mansion but what she didn't understand was that she never gave him an address.

'Maybe Weston gave it to him?' She thought.

One of the brothers was confused as to why Alejandro was coming to his house, especially because all of his brothers were home. He was even more confused when he saw Rayland step out of the car. Before she left, he handed her a piece of paper with his address scribbled on it. She simply thanked him and put it in her pocket.

Micheal, Liam, and Jaxon felt guilty but they knew that they were protecting their brothers from Rayland. Right?

Rayland walked into her bedroom, ignoring the confused glances and mischievous smirks from her stepbrothers. As soon as she stepped into her room, she knew something wasn't right. Her instinct was right when she didn't find her necklace and ring in her usual spot. She tore the whole room apart on the verge of tears. She decided it was useless searching her room. Maybe she dropped it. She searched every hallway, every room -not including bedrooms- but her search was unsuccessful.

"Looking for something?" She heard a sneer behind her.

"Yeah, was it that obvious?" She joked even though she knew this was no laughing matter.

"Do you happen to be looking for a ring maybe... a necklace as well?" She heard another voice, almost like they were mocking her?

"Yes, did you find it?" She said hopefully, only to have her heart crushed when she saw a screenshot of the jewelry on a website.

"You- you didn't, you wouldn't. Is this some kind of joke, April Fools? Please tell me this is a fucking joke." Rayland almost pleaded, tears brimming her eyes. She knew April Fools was tomorrow, meaning this could've been some early joke. She was silently reprimanding herself for being hopeful.

Hope only leads to disappointment.

The Brown's were not expecting this reaction. They expected a sarcastic remark, her yelling at them, but nothing broke their hearts more than the sight in front of them. Silent tears running down her face, her legs almost giving out. With the last bit of energy she had, she bolted out of the front door leaving the brothers speechless. They tried to run after her but it was too late, she was already long gone.

'Run away like you always do.' One of the brothers thought.

"Why?" They heard a small voice standing at the bottom of the stairs. The older brothers completely forgot their youngest brother was home. His older brothers always tried to hide how they treated Rayland. He was confused to find out they didn't like her, especially after hearing how much they all wanted a little sister growing up; how they would be her protectors, her superheroes, her annoying overprotective brothers, 'Why push her away when we finally got one?' He thought.

"Look, she-"

"She didn't do anything. Maybe if you thought with your fucking brains you would realize Rayland wasn't home all day, how could she trash our rooms?" His brothers were shocked by his use of language and his observation. They were so blinded by anger, they didn't stop to think that Rayland was at school with them the entire day. Jayden, Jaylen, Blake, and Hayden glared at their two older brothers while they and Jaxon looked extremely guilty.

"We had a good reason, we didn't want her to influence you into taking drugs." Most of the brothers were taken aback by the mother hen's outburst however, Blake was pissed.

"Did you read the fucking label dipshits?" Blake yelled at his older brothers.

Micheal pulled the pill bottle out his pocket and read aloud. "Duloxetine (Cymbalta) Delayed - Release Capsules. What does that mean?"

"They're antidepressants." Blake yelled again, clearly upset at his older brothers but most importantly himself. A few gasps were heard among the group.

Rayland had been walking around an hour, enjoying her surroundings and taking in the fresh air. It was late March, Virginia's citizens were still recovering from the winter weather. It was probably a little after 5 o'clock yet she had no intention of going back to their house tonight. Those items were very valuable to her, they gave her the last bit of hope she needed. But like she said,

Hope only leads to disappointment.

She ended up sitting at a park bench staring emotionless at cars passing by. She didn't know how long ago she left and frankly, she didn't care. Her hand subconsciously went to fidget with her ring but to her disappointment, wasn't there anymore. She didn't wear the ring to school to prevent losing but ended up losing it anyway.

She wanted to say that she missed her brother but she would be lying. How could she miss him when she doesn't even remember him?

You can't miss something you never had.

By this time, it was almost pitch black. The amount of cars passing by until they dwindled down to none. A teenage boy walked passed, his phone screen illuminating on his face.

"Hey." She called out to him. He looked confused but responded nonetheless.

"What time is it?" She asked.

"12:02." He simply responded.

"Happy mother fucking birthday to me."

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2516 Words

Any thoughts?

Double Update!!! And this is a bit of a longer chapter.

But how did Blake know they were antidepressants?