"Well, Well, Well. Look who it is..." Jalonni says.

"Sup' Jalonni" Theo says nervously.

"Don't be scared of me brah, I'm cool" He says as he walks into the house. "What y'all was about to do?"

"I asked him to stop by the store to get me some Ibuprofen." I lie.

"Oh, okay" He nods but I know he doesn't believe me.

"Why are you home so early." I ask curiously.

He furrows his eyes towards me. "I'm 18. I can check out of school at any given time. I figured I would come home to check on you, but I see you decided to have a party." He says as he looks Theo up and down.

"Theo maybe you should go.." I grab his arm, and walk him out the door.

"Are you gonna be okay?" He asks as we stand on the porch.

I look back at the door then back at him. I kiss him on the cheek before responding. "No." I turn around, going back into the house, to deal with whatever was coming my way.

Jalonni was leaning on the sofa with his arms crossed. "Come here." He says to me, motioning for me to stand in front of him.

I walk over slowly with my head down. He moves his hand, and I flinch because of the wind, but he just reaches in his bag. "You hungry?" He asks surprisingly.

"Um...Yeah" I respond as I raise an eyebrow.

He gets off the sofa, and walks up the stairs. "Let me go take a shower, and we will go get some pizza." He says over the railing.

"Okay" I respond in confusion. I walk over to the sofa, and sit down to think. Why is he being so nice?

A few minutes later he comes back down the stairs, and grabs his car keys. "You ready?"

"I guess..." I shrug as we exit the house.

We both get in the car, and he pulls off. The ride was filled with him blasting his ratchet music. I look over at him several times trying to read his expression, but it was blank. Eventually, we pulled up to Moe's Pizzeria. He got out of the car, and got in with some pizza, and some friends. I look at the dudes like they were crazy. "Mahyden these are my boys, boys this is my little brother Mahyden." He introduces me.

"Yo, this the gay one?" One of the boys rudely say.

I widen my eyes towards Jalonni, then at his friend. "Excuse me...."

"Excuse me..." The darker skinned boy mocks me as I speak. I started to feel hurt and embarrassed.

"Nigga you sound like a bitch.." He says as he slaps me upside the head. I look at Jalonni as a plea for him to get them to stop, but he just reaches over, and punches me in the face. I fall over towards the window, and try to unlock the door. I open it, and fall out. The lot was fairly empty, so I had no where to go. I crawled on my hands, and knees try to get away when I was turned around, and sat on. Jalonni's Darker skinned friend started punching me in my stomach, and laughing. After seconds of this, The caramel boy came, and started stomping me all over my body. I cried out to Jalonni to come help me. He just laughed at me, then he got out helped me up, and started to punch me in the face repeatedly.

"Jalonni, Ace, and Flex. Stop bruh. That's enough...." The light skinned boy finally spoke up, and tried to get them off of me. "That's your fucking brother B." He says with his New York accent strong.

"Let's go.." Jalonni motions for his friends to follow him leaving me on the ground with a swollen face, and coughing up blood. The light skinned boy stayed with me as they pulled off.

"Hold on young blood. I'm calling an ambulance..." After he said this I blacked out. All I could think of was I going to live or die? How could someone do this to his brother, his flesh and blood, I knew he was being nice for a reason. I guess this was his way of getting me in check.

--------------

The next day I woke up, and I could only see out of one eye. I started to panic as I looked around the room, but my dad quickly ran over to the bed.

"Mahyden, Mahyden, calm down, and breathe." He says as I soothe my breathing once I noticed he was home.

"D-Dad?" I say as my voice cracks.

"Shhh, Drink this water." He says as he leans my head up gently, and pours a little of the water into my mouth. He rests my head back on my pillow, and proceeds to ask. "How are you feeling?"

I close my eyes briefly trying to remember the events of what happened. I have a major headache.

"I'm fine, just in so much pain." I say as I turn to look at him. My dad looks as if his heart had been broken. I hate to see him like this. "Do you know who did this to you or how it happened?" Dad asks.

"No, I don't.." I answered truthfully.

"I saw it on the news that you were found beaten almost to death, and I instantly came home. Jalonni called and told me he didn't know where you were, and that you left for a run. He said he hadn't heard from you since."

I look at my dad, then closed my eyes, as the rage started engulfing me. I dislike liars, and the fact that this was all his fault. I started breathing heavily, and my dad started to panic. "NURSE! NURSE!" He yelled out, and 5 doctors burst into the room to treat me. I blacked out again, all I know is when I woke up, dad was gone. I looked over to my left, and saw Theo, my friend Cilia, and my friend Andrew was sleep by my bedside. I shifted a little in the bed, and Theo opened his eyes."Mahyden.." Theo said softly as he jumped up. "Are you okay?" He asked.

"Not really." I said unemotionally.

"I asked you were you going to be okay before I left. You could've told me, I would've made you come with me." He grabs my hand, and kisses it.

"This is something I have to deal with.." I say honestly.

"I don't like that answer. Why don't you go to any adults or the police?" I shake my head at his question.

"I really don't want to talk about this right now..." I sigh and he respects my answer, and moves on.

"People been asking about you at school.." He says as he scoots his chair up closer... I respond with my eyes closed. "What they saying?" I speak out as I take a deep breath.

"They feel so bad for you, and Jalonni is walking around to playing the role of the heartbroken brother." He says rolling his eyes.

I look over at him, and stare for a second then back at the ceiling. "I don't understand where his anger comes from. One day he's my best friend, the next day, he's my worst enemy." I look over towards the window, and try to sit up.

"Take it easy.." Theo says as he jumps up to help me.

"I got it..." I say sweetly. He backs off, and lets me stand up on my own, making sure he hovers behind me just in case. Andrew starts to stir in his sleep, and Cilia opens her eyes slowly, looking around the room before wiping her eyes to spot them in me.

"Mahyden!" She says as she stands up quickly throwing the blanket off of her. She was about to run over, and hug me, but Theo placed his arm in front of her. "Give him time.." He says softly to her, as she looks over at me.

I walk over to the window, and look out, peering at the open world in front of me. It was beautiful. The sun was shining brightly, even with me only having vision in one eye, I could see everything for what it really was. "I don't know what to do...." I say suddenly to Theo and Cilia.

"About what?" Theo says. I look back at him, and then to Cilia. "Good afternoon Cee." I say focusing my attention toward Cilia who was standing at my bedside.

"I can't believe this happened to you. You don't bother anyone, so who would do this." She says as she runs her hands through her long brown hair.

I start to slowly walk back over towards my bed, I move a piece of rogue hair out of the way of her face. "I can't believe it either..." I sit down on the bed, and lay back down. Theo places the cover back over me, and tucks them under me. "What happened?" Cilia asks with her hands over her forehead. I guess she didn't like looking at my face.

"I can't talk about it right now." I answer honestly. I place my hand up towards my swolen eye feeling the severity of it. I cringe at the mark that my eye was once split under. "How bad does it look?" I ask as Cilia grabs a mirror. Theo quickly snatches it from her when she was about to out it up to my face.

"NOW WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT?" He yells at Cilia causing Andrew to jump up, and Cilia to look at him shocked.

I look up at him, and I could tell he's angry. "Why don't you want me to see my reflection?" I ask curiously.

"Because it's not good. You know it isn't so why would you want to see that?" He asks as he places his hand on my leg.

"Even though he just turned up on me... He's right." Cilia says averting her eyes away from my one eyed stare.

"Stop talking about him like that.." Andrew says while finally waking, and stretching. "You still look good as ever my dude." He stands up, and walks over to my bedside. He's trying to make me feel better than I currently did. "Y'all so Plastic." He chuckles as he looks at them then back to me.

"Um.." Cilia taps his shoulder. Andrew turns around to meet her gaze. "Plastic?"

"Yes.." He dusts off his shirt from her touch. "Plastic."

"Why would you say that?" Theo asks, and crossed his arms.

"Because y'all making him feel worse about himself. You should encourage his good looking side not the bad." He says, and I somewhat agree.

"So, you want us to lie?" Theo says deepening his stare at Andrew.

"No.... Just come up with a nicer way of speaking to someone who is in a hospital bed." He says smartly.

"Ugghh! I hate when he does this..." Theo screams, and walks out of the room. Cilia follows behind him to calm him down.

"You know he hates that..." I say as I yawn.

"Well, he should learn to deal with it. I'm a bitch. You know it, I know it, and they know it." He say arrogantly.

"Yeah, but you could ease up Drew. He's just trying to protect me." I say as more of a demand then a statement.

"I guess.." He shrugs, and walks back over to his couch cushion.

Theo and Cilia walks back in, and he has his head down. He heaves a big sigh then speaks. "I'm sorry for my behavior. He just makes me sooo--"

"Theo.." Cilia says sharply.

"I won't try to upset you anymore.." He says to me.

"You don't have to apologize.."

"Speak for yourself.." Andrew says looking up at Theo from his phone. Theo shoots him a deadly look.

"Drew, what did we just discuss?" I say in an annoyed tone.

"Sorry, geesh." He leans back, and kicks his legs up.

"Has anyone seen my dad?" I ask curiously.

"He went to get the boys. Minus Jalonni." Theo says as he rolls his eyes.

"Oh.." I sadden after hearing Jalonni's name.

"I'm sorry.." He mouths once he notices my demeanor.

"I'm fine..." I mouth back, and close my heavy eyes.

I didn't realize that I had dozed off into sleep. I was awoken by the lights cutting on, and Jalonni standing over my bed. I immediately froze up. He's standing over me with that sinister smile. I think it's pretty safe to say he's a pretty fucked up individual.

"How are you feeling?" He says lowly, and I could smell the weed and alcohol on his breath. Something is eating at him.

"Jalonni wh--" I start but he cuts me off.

"Shhh Youuu don't speaakk." He places a finger over my lips, and I flinch at his touch. "Did weee doo this?" He slurs, and asks while rubbing past my eye roughly.

"Yes, you did.." I say while shifting my head slightly to move his hands. "You-Youuu deserrrved it" He says as he walks back to sit on the sofa. He stretches his legs over the sofa, and glances at me. "Now you know..." He burps. "Not to ever cheat on me again!"

"Oh my god Jalonni. Are you that sick that you don't understand what your doing is wrong?" I askvas my anger rises. "I can't see out of my eye because of your actions!" I yell pointing at my swollen eye.

He suddenly stands up, and walks over to the bed. "Pleease forgive me Hyden, Pleeeaaasse" He whimpers onto my shoulder. "I can make this right!" He muffles.

"Just leave Jalonni. That'll give me time to think if you leave."

"I can't" He says lifting himself up from my shoulder. "Dad left in the car, So, I'm sleeping on this couch." He lays down, and for the next few moment there is silence. I stare at him sleeping for a good minute before I look up at the ceiling again. "What the fuck is wrong with my life?" I question myself as I begin to doze off again. I guess I'll deal with everything with time.