Free Hated by C Fournier

closed his eyes.
                  I felt a couple of small lumps on his head and face but that was about it. Then I checked his hands, I found that he had broken a finger and sprained another. I smiled; he was getting better at fighting and not hurting himself in the process.
                  “You are getting better, brother,” I told him.
                  He smiled and said, “Well I have a good teacher.”
                  That made me smile and Kevin hugged me close. We sat like that for a little while before Jean called us for dinner. We ate and chatted a bit about our day and other minor things, before we headed to the living room to listen to the radio. We do this to hear about the news and other things, since we can’t afford T.V.
                  After we listened to the radio for a while I went to go put Anthony and Andrew to bed. I read them a book and they fell asleep within a short while of me reading. When I finished I quietly left the room and went to join the others in the living room. They were discussing the day’s profits and how much we could keep, and how much we had to give away to work on paying off the debt.
                  Just talking about it gets me in a bad mood, and soon I had to go downstairs to get my anger out on the punching bag. I feel horrible dropping this debt on the rest of my family. They shouldn’t have to pay for my mistakes…for my stupidity. I felt tears spring to the corners of my eyes and fought them back, and I hit the punching bag harder. My hands and legs were starting to get really sore from hitting the punching bag.
                  Just then my weak leg gave out from underneath me and I fell on to the ground, hard. It was my fault that my family was like this, we could’ve been living happily debt free. But I trusted the wrong person and now I pay the price for it. Good people are so hard to find these days, good and honest people. I just lay on the floor for a while thinking about so many things that I got easily overwhelmed, and I had to get up and get out.
                  I trudged up the stairs and walked to the door. My brother, Kevin, saw me but didn’t say anything; instead he just nodded and then looked back to Betty and Jean. I walked out the door and into the cold night air that bit at my cheeks and nose. I walked to the back, grabbed my bike and headed out into the night. I didn’t know where I was going but when I started to pay attention, I saw that I was heading up to the abandoned make-out cliff. I found that I came up here more and more often when I needed to think things through.
                  As I arrived I saw some tire tracks and foot prints, someone had been up here recently. I was a little upset, I mean it’s not like I thought I was the only person to come up here, but still I was hoping that I was the only person who knew about it. Just then I heard a noise coming from the brush beside the cliff, at first I thought it was an animal but it sounded a bit big to be an animal.
                  I was about to investigate when my pager went off. Great they found out that I was missing. I heaved a sigh and headed back to my bicycle. I took one last look at the brush before I started to head for home. I knew as soon as I stepped in the door that I was in trouble. Betty and Jean didn’t like anyone being out too late because of the gangs that liked to hang out at night. I got a huge lecture in which I tried to look ashamed and sorry for what I had done to them.
                  But truthfully I wasn’t, at least not about going out at night. I do it so often that sometimes they don’t even notice I’m gone until I get back. After the lecture I was so tired that I just went to bed. I had worked at the bookstore for a couple hours today but what had really gotten to me was the fact that Antonio was at my school, and he was