Please.
I shook my head clear of my thoughts and refocused on my reflection.
“How am I goin’ to hide this?” I thought aloud.
The last time I had a bruised face was before school term started so I didn’t have to worry about work. I had to worry about it this time around since term was already in session.
Make up.
I hoped the bruise wouldn’t darken up too much over the coming hours. I would be able to cover it up if it stayed light. Otherwise, it would draw unwanted attention at school from students and fellow colleagues.
“Me stupid brothers,” I muttered as I examined my face in the mirror. “Stupid Kane!”
I lowered my hands and tightly gripped the sides of the sink and took a few breaths to relax myself. I had enough to worry about without adding the Slater feud with my brothers and their stupid fight to my ever-growing list.
I refused to work myself up over them. I wasn’t taking bullshit from anyone, not even my family. That was final. I didn’t need the stress.
I nodded to myself in the mirror, turned and exited the bathroom. I descended the stairs and marched into the kitchen where I found my father scolding my brothers.
I felt my anger dip when I saw Gavin and how beat up he was. I didn’t have a favourite brother, but I did feel a little closer to him because I helped my father with him after my mother died giving birth to him. Granted I was only six when Gavin was born and couldn’t do a lot, but I stepped up as much as a little girl could. I knew not to complain, hog my father’s attention, or be an all-around problem. I accepted I wasn’t the baby anymore and that there was a serious change in our family.
I took it on the chin.
By the time I was ten, and Gavin was four, I would make food for him, wash and clean him, dress and play with him. He came everywhere with me. I would drop him to pre-school on my way to school and collect him from after-school on my way home. One of our older brothers would always tail us to make sure we both got to class on time, and to make sure we were safe. I think they just let me believe I was bringing Gavin to and from school because it made me feel like I had a great deal of responsibility with him.
I never told them I knew they followed us all those years—they were just doing what I was doing with Gavin in making sure we were safe. I couldn’t fault them for that, and I still couldn’t... except when they do really unnecessary things like fight other people over me.
“I’ll clean them up,” I said to my father and got the First-Aid kit from under the kitchen sink.
My father grunted, “You don’t deserve to be fussed over, you little pricks.”
James groaned, “Jesus, Da. What did you expect us to do? It’s the Slaters!”
“I don’t give a fuck who they are; you should have more respect for your sister than to treat her like a child who cannot handle her own situation. She is twenty-eight years of age.”
Go on, Da!
I stepped around my father when he paused his pacing to kick James in the leg. “And that is for makin’ the baby’s father hit Aideen in the face.”
“Da!” James hissed, leaned forward, and rapidly rubbed at the spot where our father kicked him.
I felt my lip quirk.
James glowered at my father but said nothing to him. He was thirty-four, but he knew age didn’t mean a thing when it came to our father. If he back-talked or stepped out of place, he would still get a hiding. All my brothers would. Even if they were bigger than our father, he’d cut them down to size real quick.
I audibly snorted, and it caused James to shoot daggers my way.
“Don’t look at me like that; you’re the one who just made me life ten times harder.”
“You’re blamin’ me?” James asked, angrily.
“Yeah, she is,” my father snapped, “and so am I.”
James threw his hands up in the air. “I defend me baby sister and I get backlash for it? Fuckin’ terrific.”
I glared at James. “You hit Kane for your own bloody reasons, don’t pretend you were doin’ it to defend me honour. I’m twenty-eight. I shouldn’t have to deal with this bullshit from me family.”
I turned away from James and walked over to Gavin who was holding his bloody face. I opened the First-Aid kit and then went and got a bowl of water. I put some ice in it from the ice dispenser in the fridge and grabbed a clean cloth.
“Look at me,” I asked Gavin when I reached him once more.
Gavin did as asked. He barely even winced when I dipped my cloth into the ice water and began to clean his face. I was angry with him, and not exactly for fighting. He was only helping our brothers, but I was pissed he went for Alec. Alec can be sweet as pie, but he can fight viciously when need be. Gavin’s face was proof of that.
“Big tough lad now… aren’t you?” I muttered to Gavin.
Gavin’s eyes shot to our brothers and father, his demeanour relaxed when he saw they paid us no attention.