Chapter 1

"Riley! Oliver! Lily! Time for bed!" Mother shouted down the stairs to where we were sitting playing checkers. Mother was drunk again.

"Ha! King me!" I exclaimed, jumping one of Riley’s pieces into what I called the "endzone".

"Do you three hear me?"

"Yes Mom!" Oliver replied, folding up the board.

Riley stood and started up the stairs to where our mother was waiting. Oliver was still messing with the game board so I followed Riley.

"Oliver! Get your ass up here!" Shrieked Mother. She thundered down the stairs and grabbed Oliver by the scruff of the neck.

"Ouch! I’m sorry! I was only cleaning up!" He apologized.

"Sorry? Cleaning? Since when have you used those words? You never clean up! You always leave a mess wherever you go! You three are like tornadoes! How come I’m the one with triplets who disrespect me?" Mother yelled, in a drunken rage. She dragged him up the stairs and tossed him like a rag doll considering he weighed one hundred and ten pounds and was thirteen years old.

Mother then grabbed the worn, leather belt off of the railing used for beatings, and smacked Oliver across the back.

Riley turned away, cringing, as Oliver howled in pain. She then brought the belt back down upon his back so hard the belt nearly ripped into two.

"Mother! Stop, think about what you are doing!" I exclaimed, leaping between her and my twitching brother.

"I’m punishing him!" She said, glaring at me.

"But what had he done?" I demanded.

"Go to your room!" She declared.

"What? But why, Mother?" I asked.

"Because I told you to! And take Riley and Oliver with you!" She replied. Riley dragged Oliver to his feet and led the way down the hall to our cramped room.

I pushed open the door to reveal a mess that seemed unbelievable. There was a triple bunk bed shoved away in a corner, a desk cluttered with Riley’s paints and my makeup, which took up a majority of the space, and a small chair was managed to be squeezed into another corner.

"I’ve had enough of Mom. We should call that child abuse center and have those people come in and put us in a foster home or something," Riley growled, sitting on the very edge of the chair.

"Don’t even say that, Riley," I said.

"And why is that?" He demanded.

"Because what child abuse center is going to believe us? They have a ton of kids saying they’re abused when they’re really not. How do you expect that they’ll believe us?" I asked, tears welling up in my eyes.

"We’ll get proof! That’s how!" He exclaimed, grabbing handfuls of his dark hair.

"And how do you expect we’ll do that?" I demanded.

"I have some camcorders that I could hang up on the wall of the living room. That’s where she beats us daily for no reason at all. I’m surprised that belt lasted for this long," Riley replied. That was the thing with him. Once his mind was made up, there was no way he was going to listen to you telling him that it wasn’t worth it.

There was a long silence between us. Oliver crawled into his bunk, which was the one sandwiched between Riley’s and mine, and within seconds was snoring. Riley shook his head in disappointment and followed suit, collapsing onto the bottom bunk. Which left the top one to me. Since we don’t have any pajamas, I just leave my jeans on and climb the ladder up to my bunk. I lay back and do what I do every night: think about how I’m different than the rest of my family.

Mom has dark-brown hair that goes down to her mid-back and is scraggly and unkempt. She’s very tall, has a very long nose that I dislike very much, black eyes, and a very sour personality. Her eyebrows seem to always be scrunched together in frustration, giving her a sour look to go with her personality. Her lips seem to be pursed all the time too. The glare that she gives me sometimes makes me feel like I’m the most hated of my siblings.

Riley has dark-brown hair that’s almost black and he likes it to stick out in all directions. He has chocolate brown eyes, a pointed nose, a smile that the girls go crazy over, and looks that even my best friend says that he’s hot.

Oliver looks exactly the same as Riley but likes his hair to be neat and is much smarter.

I’m the oddball. I have straight, white-blonde hair that goes down to my mid-back, flashing silver eyes, and pale skin. I have the same pointed nose as my brothers, I’m the shortest of us three and proud of it and I have a temper that could flare up at any moment for no reason.

I’ve wondered if I look like my dad, who had left when he found out Mom was pregnant with triplets. After we were born, she went and got drunk. She was lucky she was even sober enough to take us home! I think we’re lucky she has even kept us alive this long the way she takes care of us!

I decide to stop worrying about how different I am and try to get to sleep. I roll over onto my side and listen to Oliver snore. My eyelids start to droop but in just a few seconds, I sit bolt upright at a slight creak and knocked my head on the ceiling. Probably just the mice trying to find food again. It’s disgusting how Mother doesn’t try to get rid of them.

I lay back down and try to ignore the throbbing in my head but I feel like somebody’s watching me. I sit back up and I’m spooked to see the outline of a male figure in the doorway to our room.

He steps into the room and makes his way over to where the bunks are shoved. A gasp escapes from between my lips as he passes the tiny window and a streak of moonlight illuminates his face.

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Some chapters might be really short, but the chapters after them are really long to make up for the short ones. Be prepared!

Also, be sure to rate and comment. Any advice or ideas for upcoming events in Lily's life would be appreciated!

updated Nov 27 '11 by Brookester