God I hate this place. I thought as I pulled myself up from the ground. I walked towards the toilets, luckily it was late so nobody was in the corridors. As i walked through the doors I looked at the mirror. Wow. My face was littered in purple bruises covering some of the older ones. I cleaned the blood dripping from my nose and a cut on my eyebrow, that's going to make a nice black eye. I splashed water onto my face and looked at it closer in the mirror. My face was thin and my bones stood out. A long piece of golden brown hair fell over my forehead. My pale skin was hidden by purple and green marks. I sighed and walked away from the mirror, I left the bathroom and walked slowly through the corridors towards the exit. The hair on the back of my neck stood up and my breathing became heavy when I heard foot steps behind me, "Alex, what are you doing here so late?" I heard the voice of my music teacher say. He was a young man barely above 20, he had black hair with a blond patch at the front. "Hi...I...um... had some homework to catch up with." I said without turning around, continuing to walk. "Really? Your usually quite good at getting homework in on time." I heard his footsteps speed up after his sentence, I sped up until I was running. I sped out of of the school and turned onto the road that led home. I soon got to the front door and pulled the key out of my pocket. I unlocked the door as quietly as possibly and slipped inside, locking it after me. I heard the sound of tiny paws running towards me and smiled as the tiny papillon appeared from the kitchen. He jumped up at my legs, tail wagging madly. I sat down and rubbed his back as he ran in circles around me. He ran off again and I took my bag off of my back and hung it on a peg near the door. I walked into the living room to see my dad passed out on the sofa surrounded by bottles,of course he was he always is nowadays. I walked back into the hall to go up the stairs but then Sebastian came running back to me with his lead in his mouth, god he was a smart dog. He dropped it at my feet and yapped at me, I immediately bent down whispered "shh.... You'll wake dad up" he yapped again looking at his lead "ok, ok I'll take you for a walk just be quiet," I said again trying to get him to shut up but it was too late "IF YOU DON'T GET THAT DUMB DOG TO SHUT UP I'LL FUCKING KILL IT!" I heard my dad yell from the living room. "I'm taking him out for a walk anyway." I said back calmly, I'd learnt the hard way not to talk back to my dad when he's drunk. I clipped Baz's lead onto his collar and left the house as quickly as possible.

I soon got to the forest near my house and relaxed a bit. The forest was my safe haven, my dad hardly ever came in here, he doesn't even know I do. I used to come here with my brother when we were younger and swim in the river, climb trees or just run around. Baz loved it here and so did I. We walked for at least half an hour until we reached the river. It was shallow with a low waterfall upstream. I climbed onto on of large boulders that were littered along the bank. I sat and watched Baz run in and out of the shallow water after a stick. It was only when it started getting dark I realised how late it was, I grabbed Sebastian and ran home, I was going to pay for being this late.

I opened the door and slowly closed it trying my hardest not to make a sound. As the door clicked shut I heard a shout from the kitchen "WHAT TIME DO YOU CALL THIS?" I I clipped Sebastian's lead and watched him run up the stairs. I heard loud thuds as my dad stomped down the hall towards me, "I'm sorry dad, I d-d-didn't realise the ti-" I was cut of by a swift slap in the face, "Shut it faggot." I recoiled from the hit and ran to the front door, I fumbled with the lock and had barely put the key in the lock before he grabbed my shoulder and turned me around. He quickly punched me in the face causing me to fall onto the floor, I looked up at him as he stomped on my face knocking me into darkness.

Notes