Gavin's POV

Thud. Thud. Thud.

The pounding of his fist against me skull. By this time I had given up on trying to block the hits. I don't even remember if there was a reason this time.

"Get into your room now!" He screamed at me. That's what I was trying to do. I thought as I grabbed my bag and ran upstairs. I went into my room and locked the splintering door. I looked in the mirror beside the door of my bathroom. My eye was starting to bruise and there was blood dripping down the side of my face. I sighed as I struggled to take off my shirt. I saw the variety of black, purple and yellow bruises scattered over my torso. I went into the bathroom and took a quick shower before getting the first aid kit and going to work in my head. I looked at the closk and realised I was late for work. Oh shit. I threw on my work shirt and some shoes before running out of the house and down the street.

"Gavin, dude I thought you must have gotten sick or wasn't going to show today" Ian looked at me surprised as I ran into the supermarket storage room.

"Sorry Ian, lost track of time, something came up and I misjudged the time." I lied as I signed in and grabbed my checklist.

"You are in charge of aisle 12" He explained.

"Okay thanks man" I grabbed the trolley filled with baby products and pushed it down to aisle 12. I started unboxing everything.

"Excuse me young man?" I heard a woman and looked up to see an older woman with her teenage daughter. I recognised the girl from school.

"Yes Ma'am, what can I do for you?" I asked her.

"What aisle are the bandages in?" She asked.

"Aisle 10, next to the nurofen" I told her. I have been working here for fours years and know where everything is and the surrounding items.

"Come on Everly," the girl jumped at her name. I gave her a small smile. She saw it and shivered before hiding behind her long dark red hair.

"Everly!" Her mum had a stern 'I'm warning you' tone. Everly jumped and jogged over to her.

"Gavin can I speak to you in my office?" Ian asked tapping on my shoulder. Oh man is he about to fire me? I thought nodding and following him.

"Have a seat, don't be shy now" He chuckled sitting in his seat. He is chuckling that's either a good thing or he is very happy to let me go. I sat in the chair.

"You are here everyday and you even stay behind if the jobs aren't all done!" He stated. He is starting with good things that's a good thing right?

"As you may know, Peter is retiring from assistant manager. I was wondering if you wanted to be my new assistant manager?" He explained, it turned out to be good news.

"Sure thing boss, I'd be happy to" I was shocked. He asked me to be his assistant manager, that's huge.

"Okay now that's settled, you can go back to work" I nodded and left the small office area. I went down and finished off the last box and brought the trolley back to the storage room.

I left work and mazed through the street not really wanting to go home. If only I had a night job too then I wouldn't have to actually go home. I eventually got home and climbed the ladder to my bedroom window. I quietly opened it and climbed in. I locked my door and closed the window before grabbing some pajamas and heading into the bathroom. I got dressed and put my clothes into my twin brother's laundry basket so that they would get washed. It's so annoying that I get hit, kicked, knocked up, bruises, broken bones all from abuse and all he gets is praise and good grades. I went into bed and fell asleep instantly.

"Hey dude, get up" something hit me. I opened my eyes to see a football on my bed and James at the bathroom doorway. I picked up the football and threw it at him.

"I'm up, get out" I told him as he caught it.

"Why don't you join footy? You have a great arm."

"Yeah when it's not broken in 500 places" I rolled my eyes crawling out of my warm bed.

"Man he hit you hard yesterday your eye is all swollen and purple" He inspected the wound.

"Maybe you should come to footy practise to get some distance away from him." He tried again with the fricking football.

"I do love sport but it's too risky and I have a job. I actually got promoted to assistant manager last night." I told him.

"Oh wow congrats man. Too bad mum is not around to see you excel"

"Not mention that witch around me ever again" I punched him and went over to my walk-in closet.

"I really wish dad stopped abusing you too" he said through the door. I rolled my eyes and chucked on some jeans, a red long sleeved shirt and a plain navy T-shirt. I grabbed some socks and left the closet.

"Dude, I really am sorry about all of this" he didn't move.

"Why don't you stop it? Why didn't our mother take us, or at least me, with her when she left 6 years ago? Stop saying sorry cause it's just a stupid word that has no meaning" I put on my socks and sneakers and grabbed my bag.

"I'll see you at school" I told him opening my window then going down the ladder closing the window behind me. I moved the ladder and hid it in the bushes.

I walked into the school grounds and kind of melted into the shadows.

"Dude what are you doing?" Oscar asked come up behind me.

"Nothing what about you?" I asked turning around.

"Nothing, what happened to your face? Did he do that?" He looked at my eye.

"Ya think?" I rolled my eyes. "Let's just get our book and go to class" I told him unlocking my locker padlock.

"Okay dude, I have practise at lunch, you can watch if you want..."

"It's all good"

"Okay then, I'll see you in maths though" He said as we went our separate ways.

I sat in the back in my film class. I saw Everly in the middle next to her twin sister Clara. Even though Everly didn't seem to notice that Clara was beside her. I grabbed my laptop and started on the worksheet, earlier this year I found out that the film teacher doesn't actually teach his students and just hands them work expecting them to know what to do. I grabbed my camera out of my bag and started flicking through the pictures I took yesterday when I watched James at his lunchtime football practise. Most of the pics were of him and the ball, looking at the smile on his face made me feel the jealousy flooding through my veins. If only I could feel free to smile and be happy for once in my life.

"Mr. Ashworth. Gavin!" I found myslef snapping out of a trance.

"Yes Mr. Jukes?" I asked and everyone except Everly laughed.

"Mr Ashworth please come with me" I heard Mr Hunter's voice behind me. I looked up to see the principal and my brother in the doorway of the classroom. I packed my things and followed them out with the laughs of my classmates behind me. We walked all the way to the Principal's office.

"Sit down boys, I have some bad news for you... your mother, she was involved in an accident. She is in hospital in a medically induced coma, because of all the pain she was receiving. They informed us that she is paralysed from the waist down." He informed us. I know I should be feeling upset and possibly crying but right now I felt nothing, I was feeling happy in a way too. She left us when we were 11 to fend for ourselves while dad hit me, this is her karma for not taking me... us with her.

"Gavin? Are you okay?" Mr Hunter asked.

"I'm fine. She left us 6 almost 7 years ago, and she never came back. Can I go back to class now?" I asked him.

"Yes sure, and Gavin, if you ever need anything don't be hesitant to talk to me, you too James" He added before I nodded and left the room. I went back to class and returned to what I was doing before.

The bell rang and everyone left the classroom. I went to my locker and grabbed my lunch. I went to the year 12 seats and tried to find a place to sit. I saw Everly in the corner of my eye and decided to go over to her.

"Hey, can I sit here?" I asked her standing next to her.

"I'm sorry are you talking to me?" She looked up at me shocked.

"Yeah can I sit?"

"Oh yeah sorry no one ever wants to sit with me."

"All good, my name is Gavin. It's nice to meet you" I held out my hand.

"I know who you are" She giggled. By the way it sounded I knew she hadn't laughed in awhile.

"Well I was just trying to make an effort, Everly" I told her causing her to giggle again.

"Why did you sit here?" she asked.

"For the fresh air, and I saw you alone, I used to eat in the library but they don't allow that anymore" I told her before taking a bite out of my apple.

"Okay then, well you can sit with me then" she smiled eating a pear.

"I will." I smiled back.