Almost

/ F I F T Y - N I N E \

I keep my head down not daring to look at any of them. I knew if I did I would probably start crying again and I didn't want that. I racked my brain trying to figure out how I should tell them cause it wasn't something I easily talked about.

"You gonna speak or..?" Damon says sighing and leaning back in his chair with crossed arms. 

"Shut up." Eli says from beside him and there's a thud under the table and a groan coming from Damon and it was obvious Eli had kicked him from the glare on his face.

"Take your time honey, and you two can hand me your keys and electronics for the rest of the weekend." Sheila says and the boys glare at the table. 

A small smile plasters itself onto my face, it was nice to see them getting humbled. But as soon as the smile comes its gone as I remember the situation I'm in and scratch my head helplessly.

I knew this day was gonna come though so I had to suck it up so taking a deep breath I speak.

"As a child I was made fun of for my eyes." I say gesturing to my eyes and keeping my gaze on the table as I felt theirs lift to my eyes. "At first, I ignored it just trying to take their attention away from my eyes even wearing contacts but it got too much and I was diagnosed with selective mutism." 

"So when you first came, that's why you didn't speak?" Benji asks and I nod. 

"I could go for weeks without saying a word to anyone but typically it came and went depending on the situation." I answer and they nod. 

"When I started secondary school, or high school as you Americans call it, it didn't get any better as I went to school with all the same people who made fun of me so the bullying kinda stuck. But it got slightly better when I met Camryn." I say and look up at Eli and Damon who had their eyebrows raised in confusion.

"Camryn Gavins?" Eli asks confused as to why someone so familiar was being brought up and I nod. 

"The only reason I knew him is because we went to school together and our parents were old school friends. We became best friends and everyone knew us cause of our reputations. Me, the girl with the weird eyes, him, the guy who got caught dealing but got off with a warning. We were practically attached at the hip and got into trouble together a lot." 

"What did ye do? Not do your homework?" Eli asks with a roll of his eyes and I do the same. 

"No, we've just done things that's gotten us arrested countless times." I say with a shrug and I see Mike and Sheila look at me in surprise but I couldn't blame them, I've acted the complete opposite of a person who would seem like they'd get arrested. 

"Now I understand what my English teacher meant when she said 'there's more than meets the eye'" Alex says and I nod in agreement. 

"Shush I wanna hear the story." Benji flicks his brother in the arm then looks at me prompting me to go on so I do. 

"And the scars and bruises, where are they all from?" Eli asks gesturing towards me. 

"John." I say. 

"John? Whos he? An ex or something?" Benji asks me.

"My Dad." I say and a silence settles all over us. 

I could imagine they couldn't believe it, but they grew up with an amazing father figure like Mike and trying to imagine him doing something like that just felt weird. 

"It started when my Da was after getting a promotion at work and because of that my Mom and I barely got to see him and she got paranoid. She always thought the only reason he was always home so late was because he was cheating on her or he just didn't care about our family at all. Soon enough they started arguing everyday, throwing plates everywhere and leaving for a couple days at a time. Always either leaving me home alone or with the parent who had decided they were tired of staying at their friends house."