"I'm sorry, Momma. I didn't mean to spill it."

I apologized as I held my hand against the side of her face. It was my fault he hit her again. I made him mad. I messed up by knocking my cereal bowl over off the counter. He didn't like when I made mistakes. 

Everything I did was terrible. I was a bad boy.

I pulled my hand away to see Momma's eye. The side of her face was purple and covered in blood. She was fighting back her sobs.

Was she mad at me too?

"It's ok, bug. It was an accident. You didn't mean to do it." She softly soothed me through her blood-stained tears. Momma reached up to brush my hair back off my eyes and pulled my ear close to her mouth to whisper. "Ezra, go upstairs now and lock your door. Do not come down until I tell you to."

"You making him a little pussy boy, now?" His large, menacing shadow darkened the whole room around us. The spite in his voice was the only sound I could hear.

I kept my eyes down on the ground.  I never looked him in the eye.

There was a loud cracking sound and a crushing pressure grew in the back of my head. My body was thrown forward and my nose slammed against the ground.  I didn't make a noise. I never cried anymore when he hit me. My whole face was wet. It took a few seconds for me to realize it was just the blood gushing from my nose.

He grabbed my hair and pulled me up to my feet in front of her.

"You think money grows on trees, you little cunt? Lick it the fuck up." He shouted into my ear.

He threw me back down to the floor and smashed my head against the tile where I had spilled my breakfast. He rubbed my face in the puddle of milk. It was turning a light shade of pink as it mixed in with my blood.

"Let him go. You're hurting him." Momma clawed at his arms and legs, putting herself in danger again. I didn't want her to. I was tired of watching her get hurt because of me.

Yesterday was my sixth birthday. I was a big boy now; I could handle him.

His foot collided with her stomach with a loud thud. Momma had a horrible sound coming out of her mouth. Her eyes rolled back in her head as she reached for me and went silent.

She wasn't moving.

"You see that, you shit. That is what happens to little bitches. You want to be a bitch just like her?" His spit flew out of his mouth and covered my face as he shook me.

"N-n-no s-s-sir." I stuttered and gagged on the blood draining down the back of my throat. 

"Good. Now, go get the bitch cleaned up. I need a fucking fix." He dropped me to the floor and grabbed his keys off the counter. He rubbed his face as he stumbled out of the house and slammed the door.

I looked over at Momma. She still wasn't moving.

"Momma?" I shook her shoulder and she didn't respond. I had to wake her up. He would be back soon and he would hurt her again.

"Momma?"

I stared at the colorful cereal box in front of me, reading the back of it to distract myself from the memories I fought for years to repress. My mind was so fucked up that I couldn't even eat breakfast in peace. Just the spoonful of multicolored cereal set me off. Everything that I ever did reminded me of him.

I was overly tired and in a foul mood. My dark thoughts were making it that much worse.

It didn't help that I hadn't slept at all.

I stayed up all night, hoping Riley would change her mind and come to me. I waited impatiently on the edge of my bed until the sun came up before I couldn't take it anymore.

I had to see her again.

When I cracked my bedroom door open, Aiden was sneaking out of his room with a huge, satisfied grin on his face. He was in just his boxers, holding a pile of clothes in his arms.  He looked sweaty and disheveled, not at all like his usual, overly primped self. His hair was sticking out at weird angles like it had been played with and tugged on.

Riley was a hair puller, it couldn't be a coincidence.

I pushed my door closed and locked it to keep myself from running out there and charging Aiden like a mad cow.  Slamming his head into his door like a battering ram would feel incredible.

That was how I ended up in the kitchen, five hours and half a box of cereal later.

I was pressurized and still teetering on the edge, reliving every terrible thing that ever happened in my life.

"Good morning." Riley chirped from the doorway like nothing had happened last night.

"Hey," I mumbled, staring at the fruit-flavored cereal rings swimming around the bowl.

The chair across from me creaked against the floor.  Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Riley cross her legs in an odd way as she invited herself to sit down at the table with me. 

"It's quiet. Where is everyone else?" She asked.

She was looking for someone and it wasn't me. All the cells in my body started to boil as I thought about how quick she was to dismiss me last night.

"JD had to go to work and took Anna home. Mark went to meet up with some friends." I gritted my teeth as I answered her. I left out Aiden's name purposefully, refusing to acknowledge he even existed.

I scooped up a spoonful of cereal out of the bowl and shoved it in my mouth. There was a maze on the back of the cereal box I had solved at least ten times already. I retraced the path until I got to the end with the stupid smiling bird.

"Where's Aiden?" She asked, not getting the hint.

I slammed my hand down on the table and hit the spoon against the bowl.  I couldn't take this bullshit any longer. I finally looked up at her and was met by her hauntingly beautiful green eyes. One look at them shredded me apart from the inside out. 

"Your boyfriend wanted to wake you up and take you home." My hands were twitchy and tingling. I gripped the edge of the table, ready to flip it into the air.   

Riley shrunk back a little in her seat and moved her hands down to her lap. Her breasts were on full display just to insult me further. She wasn't wearing anything under the white tank top she borrowed from Aiden.  It was almost entirely transparent and showed off every little detail.

Riley noticed me staring and covered her chest like it would make any difference at all. I had already seen everything; the damage was already done. I huffed and grabbed the spoon to shove another spoonful into my mouth, pretending to ignore her.

"Where is he?" She questioned me again.

"He said he was having lunch with his Mom today and needed to get going. I told him I would take you home if you wanted to go before he got back." I lied to her. I had no clue where he went and I didn't care. I had barely said one word to Aiden this morning before he left the house. "Don't worry. Your boyfriend will be back soon."

"He's not my boyfriend." She snapped.

"Then why were fucking sleeping in his bed last night?" I was sure her answer was going to be spectacularly crafted.  She had already proved she didn't have any moral qualms about dishonesty.

"For the last time, even though I don't know why I am explaining this to you, Aiden is like my brother. I love him like a brother. Nothing more. Don't ask me again." She sassed back.

Nothing could have been further from the truth. Riley didn't treat Aiden the same way she treated JD.

I sat back in my chair, watching her practice her denial face.

"Why are you so mad about Aiden?" She started back on the attack when I didn't respond.

"I'm not mad. You just shouldn't let him touch you like that."

"Fine, maybe I'll let him touch me like you did last night." She taunted me further.

I was up on my feet, ready to rip her apart.  That little comment pushed me past my breaking point. She was trying to hurt me on purpose.

"You sound like a fucking slut. Go ahead and spread your legs for him. You already let some strange guy try to take you on a kitchen table. You might as well let Aiden have a turn. He can call Mark, and they can double team you."

"You are an asshole." Riley sniffed and looked down as she rubbed her teary eyes.

"The truth hurts. Deal with it." I sat back down in the chair, counting each breath I took as the noise in my head crippled me.

Riley grabbed her phone and unlocked it. She began scrolling through it like she was searching for something.

"What are you doing? Put your phone down." I snapped.

"I'm calling to find someone to take me home." She pressed the phone to her ear.

"I told you I would take you home." I snatched the phone from her hand and saw Aiden's name at the top of the screen. I hit the red button to hang it up.  He wasn't going to get to play the hero again. I tossed the phone on the table. I wished the screen would have shattered so she lost his number for good.

"I will find my own way. Aiden will come back to get me." She grabbed the phone again and repeated the same motion.

"I'm sure he will." I snorted.

Riley jumped up and performed a cartoonish stomp over towards my chair. She tried to loom over top of me in a threatening manner.  It was actually more cute than terrifying.  A small smile formed on my face as I held back my laughter.

"Ezra, you do not get to decide how I interact with my friends. What happened last night between us was a one-time thing and doesn't give you the right to tell me what to do. It was a terrible idea and it should have never happened." She puffed her chest out towards me.  Her hard nipples were right in my face. She was so close I could have stuck out the tip of my tongue to play with them.

I placed my finger in the top of the sweatpants she was wearing. She sucked in a sharp breath and shut her mouth immediately. Goosebumps dotted her skin as I slowly crept lower and lower down her stomach.

"You didn't think it was a terrible idea when you were moaning my name." I whispered slowly as I grinned up at her.

She pulled my finger out and pinched it as hard as she could in her small hand.

"Shut up and get dressed if you are going to take me home. I want to leave now." She pouted.

"Do you want one of my t-shirts or do you like showing your nipples off to the world?" Her eyes followed mine down to the tank top, where both nipples were poking out.

"Yes, please. Do you have a pair of socks I can borrow too?" She asked, still staring at her breasts like she was scolding them.

"Socks got it." I laughed at the ridiculous request.

I got up from the table and dropped my dirty bowl in the sink. When I turned around, Riley was covering her chest with her arms. I shook my head as I walked past her and went upstairs to grab her something else to put on.

I made a pit stop in Aiden's room first to grab her things.  It was also my chance to scout out the condition of the bed.  It was messy like always, but there was not much evidence to figure out exactly what happened last night.

I was surprised to find Riley's clothes folded in a neat pile on the dresser across the room and not scattered all over the floor.

Maybe nothing happened between them last after all.

Was I just being a paranoid freak?

It still didn't explain why Aiden was sneaking out of the room like he didn't want to get caught.

I grabbed a shirt and a pair of socks from my room and jogged back downstairs to Riley. The first thing on the top of the pile was the shirt I grabbed for her.  It was an old faded black band t-shirt that I barely ever wore.  She placed my shirt over her head to cover up the tank top.

She should have just taken the tank top off and let me have a little peek.  It was only fair since she saw me topless last night in the basement.

Riley grabbed the socks next and pulled them over her feet.  They were comically huge on her.  The heel went halfway up her calf.  I should have grabbed a pair of Aiden's child-sized socks for her to wear.  My feet were much larger than his.

I bet my dick was bigger too.

When I looked down at the remaining clothes in my hands, the strings from Riley's panties were dangling from the middle of the pile. I looked down at her sweatpants. 

No panties.

She was such a dirty little thing. 

"Don't say a word." She held her finger up to warn me to behave.

"These belong to me now." I shoved the panties in my pocket just to be an ass. I licked my lips, remembering how good she tasted on my tongue.  I lowered my hand and adjusted my dick that was already half-hard just from my thoughts alone.

"Let's go." She blushed as she walked towards the front door.