Where it all began

Chapter Three

Chapter Three

Ricky

“Beth, come on, we have to go! What is wrong with you today? You are normally shoving us out of the house on time?”

“I am fine. I just didn't sleep well last night.”

“BETH!” What the hell, dad never shouts like that, not at Beth anyway, he must be really angry.

“Yes, dad.”

“What did you do to my files?”

“Nothing. I clicked save and then logged the account out.”

“Did you read it?”

“No.”

“Do not lie to me!”

“Dad stop shouting at her. Can you not see you are upsetting Beth.”

“I know you read it! Why can you never do as you are told?”

“I did not read your stupid files!” Beth storms out the front door straight past Axel and Chase, who look at me like they are the ones in trouble. They heard every word of that.

“Good job dad, next time, log your work files off the pc before leaving it. If she did read it, what does it matter? It's not like she can do anything.”

“That is not the point Ricky, there are details in the file that made me sick! Talks of s****l abuse and human trafficking. Do you think that is what I want my twelve year old daughter reading?”

“Of course not! But do you think I am going to stand here and let you talk to her like that? Because I'm not! See you tonight, hopefully you are in a better mood” With that, I leave slamming the door behind me.

Chase and Axel walked off in front with Beth. Our dad has never spoken to Beth like that. He has never spoken to anyone like that! This new case is clearly messing with his head.

“Beth, did you read the file?”

“I read the start, and then crossed it off. Are you happy now!”

“Not really. What did you read?”

“Just drop it, Ricky!”

“f**k sake Beth, we just want to proctect you.”

“From what? There is nothing to protect me from! I am not in any danger! All you do is control me! I cannot even be alone with Chase because you think something is going to happen! What do you think is going to happen Ricky, please tell me.” When will Beth understand she might not be in danger now but she might be one day and i want to prevent that from ever happening! I never want to see my little sister get hurt!

“Forget about it you will not understand.”

“Of course I won't!” Beth is really annoyed this morning, Axel and Chase are trying their best to act like they cannot hear the argument.

Beth is now walking ahead of us, I cannot remember the last time she was this pissed off with me. I really hate seeing her upset, she is my sister, my tiny baby sister. If I am not looking out for her, who is?

“Tell me you had a better morning than we did.”

“We woke up to see our dad passed out with a bottle in his hand so you can imagine what that was like.” Chase does not like it when Axel talks about his dad to me, he gets embarrassed that his dad is an alcoholic, we have never judged their dad but I don't blame him for feeling the way he does.

“Ah man, sorry to hear that, I thought he was going into rehab?” Chase walks off catching up with Beth, he doesn't speak to her he just walks quietly beside her.

“Yes he was supposed to go in yesterday, but got pissed instead.”

“s**t, I'm sorry.”

“Its ok, i’m just worried about Chase, he always hopes dad will change and put us first for once, and each f*****g time he is let down.”

“Yeah, he looks distant today”

“He is also pissed off with me.”

“Why?”

“I told him to leave titch alone.”

“Hey that's my name, no one else is allowed to call Beth that!”

“I just wanted to see you get annoyed.”

“Ha, anyway, why did you tell him that?”

“To be honest I do not know. I know he is madly in love with her, I just like winding him up.”

“You are an ass.”

“Oh why thank you Ricky.”

“You are most welcome, Axel.” We push each other by the shoulder and laugh, Chase and Beth are still ahead of us. I hate seeing my sister like this, and it doesn’t help that she doesn’t have any other friends to vent to or to just cheer her up!

“I think we need to find Titch some new friends.”

“Ricky, I know you are worried about her, but you are not that stupid. She nearly broke your console last time we tried helping her and she stopped talking to all of us for three months!”

“I know, but.”

“There are no, but’s Ricky. If Beth wanted more friends she would get them on her own.”

“Wow, look at you sounding like her big brother.”

“Oh i’m sorry but you know she loves me more.” Oh hell no, jumping on Axel’s back roughing up his hair with one hand while wrapping my other around his shoulders.

“Take that back.”

“Never!” He keeps pushing his legs forward as I hang on to him.

“Yes!”

“No!”

“Axel!”

“Ricky!!”

“Dude!”

“Fine you win, now get off me!” Tapping Axel on the head before jumping off his back. We are approaching the school gates and I want to talk to Beth before she goes into school.

“Come on, I need to talk to Beth before we lose her.”

“Lose her, you mean before she goes into lesson.”

“Same thing.” Axel laughs as we run up to Chase and Beth, wrapping my arms around Beth's waist. The look on her face should warm me, but I'm her brother so that doesn’t work on me, somehow it always works on Chase.

“Can I talk to you for a minute alone?”

“Fine! I’ll catch you up, Chase.”

“Alright, try not to upset her even more, Ricky.” Axel pushes Chase away before I can speak, why is he blaming me!?

“What do you want?”

“To see if you are okay?”

“I’m fine, just dad! He is so worried about me reading his file while forgetting I know all his passwords! So if I really wanted to, I could read everything he has saved on that dam computer!”

“I know you could, I also know you can hack his pc, and corrupt all his files if you wanted to. He just wants to protect you from his work Beth, that isn’t a bad thing. Trust me. I read one of his files last year and the details in that kept me awake for weeks! That is when the boys and I started doing your head in with being over protective.”

“You still are overprotective Ricky, he has never spoken to me like that before.” Beth fights the tears covering her beautiful green eyes.

“Hey come here, it's okay. Once you left I had ago at him as well, you just wait until mum finds out. She is going to lose her s**t!”

“I know she is, that is what I'm worried about. They never argue, but they have been doing it everyday for weeks now! What is happening to our family Ricky?”

“Nothing, dad is just stressed this case has been tough to be honest. I don't think he knows what he is doing this time, and it's making him second guess himself and take his frustration out on everyone around him. Not to mention mum is getting a lot of attention at the minute with her new book. They are just stressed out and do not have anywhere else to let it out.”

“How do we stop them doing that?”

“We just have to support them the best we can, try to stay out of trouble so we don’t add to their stress, and make sure they know we love them.”

“Even when they are screaming at us and pushing us away!?”

“Yes Beth, they need us now more than ever. We do not turn our backs when times get hard, we stand strong by our families side and face it with them. That’s how they have taught us, we have never given up on each other.”

“Okay I can do that.”

“You already are Titch.”

We start to walk into school as i think, Beth tries to act like nothing hurts her, but i know it does i can see it does, we have allowed her to think all men will just roll over for her! We have messed up, Axel, Chase and me we have all failed to teach her how man can really be! I need to show her that some men will hurt you regardless of how much you think you can handle the situation. The file I read was about a gang here in London who hurts young girls like Beth, that’s why we all became so protective because of this gang! The red lions was their name, they were taken down at the start of this year, our father put them all away. I just know if our dad was not who he is we would be safer than we are now. We have had to move a couple of times because of his job becoming a danger to us. He seems to forget he is risking all of our lives!

As we reach Beths homeroom Axel and Chase are stood talking as we get into ear shot

“Just don’t tell Ricky! How hard is it to keep our private life private Axel!” Chase is not happy that Axel told me about his dad, if it was up to him we would have never found out, which is sad seeing as both Beth and I have helped them a lot. We have given them a bed when their dad has house parties with his alcoholic friends. We have even brought them food when his dad has blown all his money. But I understand his pride is hurting and he is embarrassed.

My phone vibrates as we come to a stop, checking it quickly to see my dads name flashing on the screen. He knows we cannot use our phones at school so why is he texting me?

“I’ll see you at break, have a good morning.” Giving Beth a quick hug before hitting my dads message. I walk down the hall with Axel and Chase following behind.

“I’m sorry I snapped at Beth and you this morning, is Beth okay? I feel terrible! I’m going to take the day off work today. This case is killing me! I will be here when you two get home. I’m making a proper home cooked meal for us as a way to apologise to your sister. So can you please make sure you come straight home tonight, alone.”

I was not expecting dad to apologies to me I wonder if he has texted Beth? Quickly hitting the reply button I type back to my dad.

“Thank you for apologising. It means a lot, we will be straight home, but Beth and Chase do have plans to study later. They have had this planned for a couple of weeks now, they have some exams coming up.”

Beth will go mad if her and Chase do not study, i have never known anyone who loves studying or reading like Beth. She is going to do some amazing things in her life. She knows everything she needs to get her there!

“Who are you texting? Don’t let anyone catch you, last time they took your phone for the week your dad had to come and get it back, which got us all in detention for a month!” Chase snaps at me as he storms past me and into his homeroom. Not waiting for me to tell him who i’m talking to!

“It’s my dad, he wants me and Beth to come home alone tonight, he is cooking to make up for shouting at Beth.”

“But Beth is busy tonight?”

“I know i've just told him that waiting for him to reply.”

“I hope he isn’t as angry as he was when we arrived! I have to got to talk to coach about next weeks game.”

“Wait, what? I’m the captain. Why is he talking to you?”

“Because he isn’t happy with my efforts or something!?”

“I will be the judge of that, i’m coming with you!”

“Alright.”