Location: En-route to Lincoln Memorial High School -> The Front of Lincoln Memorial High School-> Tessa’s House/Safe Place
Interacting With: Wesley Wells --> Tessa Gray
@Kirah
“And that’s what is going to happen, am I clear?” The demanding voice of Wesley.
“Yes sir.” Grant’s defeated voice responded.
“Let me hear you say it!” Wesley demanded.
“After the memorial service, I am to head straight home.” Grant said as if he rehearsed it.
“You’re going to come straight home what?” Wesley asked demandingly.
“I’m going to come straight home, sir..” Grant said, looking down.
Why was he like this? What had Grant done to anger his father? He was on time last night. There wasn’t anything that, to Grant, could have set him off? Did father just wake up in a bad mood today? Is that why he’s acting crueler than usual? That’s what Grant was mentally asking himself. Usually his father, the great Doctor Wesley Wells, was, yes, a bit strict on Grant, but never so strict that he wouldn’t even let him attend that party tonight. There was never times where Wesley was so strict and set in his decision that he would not allow any kind of wiggle room. It’s not like Grant has ever questioned his father’s rules, but in the past, there was at least the option for Grant to bring up some kind of compromise. Whatever happened this morning, there was no chance of that happening.
In such deep thought and the car ride to the school being so silent, Grant did not realize that they had arrived. As he looked out of the window of his father’s 2015 Red Audi RS-7, he saw people staring at him — well, rather the car. He saw people point a bit at how the lonely, observant Grant came from a family with so much money. How could such a lonely loser like that have so much money? He’s probably the disappointment to his family. Things like that were what Grant assumed people thought about him. Those were the same people that gave him a lot of shit at school. They were the ones pushing him into the lockers. They were the ones always trying to egg him on. These were the people that teased and teased him.
When the car stopped, Grant proceeded to open the door. His father tugged his arm slightly.
“Remember, come straight home after the service.” Wesley said to Grant, loud enough for any passing students to hear him.
“Yes father..” Grant said obediently, giving what seemed like a look of some kind. Wesley caught it almost instantly.
As Grant was about three or four yards away from his father’s car, Wesley grabbed Grant’s arm.
“You listen here, you ungrateful brat!” Wesley yelled in Grant’s face, his nostrils flaring.
“Your brother Thomas has an important interview tonight and you need to be there for him.” He said, gripping Grant’s arm tightly, almost ripping off the jacket he had on. It caused Grant to drop his bag behind him. Wesley leaned in.
“You need to be there for the family!” He yelled in Grant's face firmly.
Grant tried to free himself from his father‘s grip. It wasn‘t working.
“Dad…you’re hurting me..” Grant said, his voice squeaking through the pain he was feeling in his arm.
Wesley looked down at his hand on Grant’s left arm and he frankly didn’t think he was gripping it that tight. [color=maroon][b]“Stop being a weakling. You’ll live.”[b][/color] Wesley harshly said,
“you’re going to be at the house, am I clear?” Wesley asked, gripping tighter.
“Y-Yes.”“Yes what?” He gripped even tighter, almost to the point of possibly fracturing Grant’s arm.
“Yes--s-s-sir.”“Good,” Wesley said, releasing the grip and throwing Grant’s arm in the process.
“Now get going. You better not be late.” Wesley said, walking back to his Audi.
Grant watched his father get into the car and drive away. As he did, Grant then felt his arm. He tried to move it, but he felt a sharp pain go through the forearm. He rolled up his black jacket sleave and the grey shirt. He saw his father’s large finger imprints on the center of his forearm. IT had a bold pinkish-red, flesh color. Each time Grant would try touch his arm, specifically where the imprint of his father’s large hand was, he would feel a sharp surge of pain all through his arm. When Grant tried to tighten his hand into a fist, he felt the same kind of pain as he would even bend the fingers.
With everyone kind of staring at him and whispering as they walked passed him, Grant tried to put that out of his mind. He didn’t want to think of what the other students were saying. He didn’t need that right now. He had to focus on what today was, more importantly, he had to be there for Tessa. He had force himself not to show the emotion he was feeling at the moment because of how hard his father squeezed his arm. He had to put that out of his mind. If not for himself to get through the day, then for Tess so she wouldn’t be worried about him.
Shaking his head lightly, Grant picked up his bag and put it over his right shoulder. As he walked, he bumped into someone. Not hard, but enough to get both of their attention.
“Oh, I’m sorry. I wasn’t looking where I was going.“ Grant apologized, but then he looked at who it was. The red hair, that trademark beanie. It was Tess.
“Oh, Tess, sorry about that,” Grant cheerfully smiled at her, seeing she was on her phone.
Tess' face seemed to light up when she realized who it was that had bumped into her.
"Hey there Grant." She pulled him into a light hug. For a moment she paused looking uncertain.
"Did you see the eclipse Sunday? Or at least talk to Olivia about it? She was at the astronomy meeting. Did she say anything about it?" Tess sounded nervous, and seemed to be edging away from the school.
As Grant hugged his cousin, the pain in his arm acted up once more.
"Yeah, she told me about," Grant commented,
"she told me everyone got powers of some kind." As Grant thought on that, he noticed Tess seemed to be on edge, which was to be expected, considering with the memorial service.
"If you did, see the eclipse that is, but didn't talk to Olivia about it, I want to talk to you about it. There's some things, crazy weird things going on, right now. I'd say during lunch but honestly I'm going to skip out today. I can't deal with this." She waved back at the school, encompassing the whole situation of the memorial with everyone they went to school with.
Grant looked at her somberly for a moment.
"If you want, I can skip with you" Grant told her,
"Even though father would probably kill me, you look like you could use the company.." he said, gripping his left arm. It should have stopped bothering him by now, but it really was hurting more than it should.
Tessa paused, she was looking at Grant like she did when she was making a decision based on how her uncle would handle things. That frown with creased forehead and her tapping fingers against her leg.
"I'd love to have you along, but like you said your dad will be pissed. I just texted mom to let her know I felt sick and to call me in sick. Hmm, you could say you saw me and wanted to make sure I got home okay, because I looked sick. You just couldn't stay long, missing one period probably wont get you in too much trouble but more than that." Tess was still frowning, she looked like she wanted to say something more, but didn't.
"Father's always mad. It's not like he could possibly get any angrier with me than he already is," Grant said somewhat suspiciously as if he was hiding something. Though, him gripping his arm occasionally was bound to alarm Tess in some way, shape, or form.
"What happened?" Tessa's eyes flashed like they did when she was angry. Something Grant had seen only a handful of times, and less so in the more recent years. Though it seemed she only got mad when someone she cared about was getting hurt. Grant knew perfectly well that Tessa wasn't mad at him, but instead mad at Grant's father, or maybe more mad at the fact that she couldn't do anything to help Grant.
"Oh, this.." Grant looked down towards his arm,
"Father grabbed me a bit hard, but I'm sure it's nothing too serious," Grant said, unsure about it himself. The truth of the matter was that Grant felt uncertain how much pain really was there in his left forearm.
"Let me see it." Tessa, shoved her phone into her pocket and held out her hands for Grant to put his arm into. As soon as he did, Tess tested it gently, partly watching his face, partly looking at his arm to make sure it wasn't broken. Grant's face was almost enough to tell her what she needed to know.
"I vote you go get xrays. I'm not a doctor, but it doesn't look good." Tess pulled out her phone again, sent off another text.
"Come on.""Do you really think I need them?" Grant asked Tess.
"Remember when I broke my arm in the third grade falling out of the tree?" Tess asked, leading the way to [mal's dad's doc office].
"It felt kind of like that did just now.""Yeah, I remember that. You let me sign your cast. I remember being one of the first ones." Grant said, recalling that pleasant memory.
As he followed Tess, she would go on to say that the way Grant's arm felt to her was how her's felt back then. Instantly, Grant's mind began to wander to the worst possible thought and that was that his father, whether intentional or not, had done it again. Just like when Grant was thirteen, his father had hurt him in such a way that it would require a hospital visit. In the back of his mind, Grant was thinking back to how he was so afraid of what his father would do to him next time. Whether it was a week after, a month, a year — the thought of his father hurting him again haunted him. Even if he only hit him across the face lightly, Grant was remembering how scared he felt then.
And, as they walked towards the doctor's office, Grant stopped abruptly. His hands were to his side and he was looking down at the concrete sidewalk that they were walking on. Tessa stopped and turned around looking at Grant for a moment.
"Hey Grant? You okay?" Tessa lifted her hand as if to take his shoulder into it. She paused and then gently laid it on the shoulder opposite of his hurt arm.
I-I-I can't do this.. Grant said slowly, his whole body starting to shake. Tess pulled him into a hug.
"If it's broken though..." She trailed off.
"Okay I've got an idea then. Come on, let's go to my place."Oh, okay," Grant said, following Tess to her house.
Once they were back to Tess's place, she led Grant through the side gate and into her woodshop. The shop had once been her dad's, but when he moved away he left it for her to use for her art. Inside was some of her sculptures that she had in half started conditions.
"Ignore that," She said as she kicked aside a bucket of wood pieces.
"Take a seat patient." She pointed to a high bar stool, that was partially falling apart.
"Like I said I'm no doctor, but I may be able to give you something resembling a splint. It'll help, maybe." Tess explained as she dug through some of her stuff.
As Grant sat there, he saw Tess dig through some stuff, he looked at her.
"How come you didn't ask?" Grant asked her suddenly.
"Ask what?" Tess asked, looking up from the box she was digging in.
Grant shifted awkwardly in the stool.
"About how my arm got like this.." He said.
"You know what I do every Monday and Thursday right? Do you know why I go to the shrink?" She asked him, no longer looking at him.
"About what happened to Janice, right?" Grant asked with uncertainty.
"That's sort of what started it. Other than that I was in a really bad place afterward. I mean really bad. I almost had to be hospitalized because of something I did. Nina found out and called mom. I don't do well with getting questioned on my motives. I hate it. I hate being asked questions that I can't or don't want to answer. If you want to tell me you will, but I'm not going to make things awkward by asking you questions you're not going to want to answer." She gave a half shrug.
"I respect people want their secrets. I don't tell other people's secrets and I don't ask for secrets. It's only polite.""I-I didn't know that," Grant said, surpirsed. He then looked at Tess again,
"It's not that I don't want to tell you about it — I do, but it's just I don't want — And suddenly, without any warning, Grant felt tears come down his face, some of them falling on Tess' orange hair.
"— I don't want to get another scar.." Grant's voice was cracking, his emotions partially taking over the clarity of his voice.
Tess stood up and hugged Grant again.
"A broken arm won't give you a scar." She pulled a cloth out and used it to wipe away Grant's tears.
"Scars aren't that bad anyway. They're there to remind you of what you've survived, what you can survive. I have dozens." She pulled up her sleeve and showed a few rows of scars on her arm.
"Each one was a time I could have died, but didn't. Each one is a time I wanted nothing more than to be dead, but I'm not. I'm here, invisible half the time, but here and alive.""You don't understand.. Grant said, his legs shifting awkwardly, and looking down somewhat.
"It's my father, he beats us. Grant told her, revealing what only his family and Olivia know,
"He used to beat Thomas, Dani, and Adam and Ava. He doesn't to them anymore because they're able to defend themselves, so he does it solely on me. Sometimes it's only a slap or two to the face, and sometimes he whips me on the bottom with his belt. But —" Grant paused, realizing that more tears have been falling from his face, probably since he started talking about what his father did to him and his siblings.
"—But he beats me worse than he ever did them." Grant said, standing up from the stool.
"Can you help me with my jacket? I need to show you something." Grant asked Tess.
Without any hesitation and shaky fingers, Tess helped Grant with his jacket. She was careful not to cause him any pain in his arm. First came the left arm, which proved to be the hardest as Grant would wince in pain as his elbow would bend. However, once it was out of the sleeve, the right arm was as easy as sliding it out of the sleeve. The jacket would be placed on the stool. Then came the gray shirt. It was tucked into Grants pants, so it was only a matter of pulling it out, unbuttoning the shirt, sliding Grant's arms out of the sleeves, and setting it aside as it would be placed on top of his jacket. As soon as it was, there would come a gruesome sight of a large scar going from the left shoulder-blade to the bottom right on Grant's back. Though several years old, it was a bright, pink flesh tone color. Just the sight was enough to make anyone queasy.
Tess gasped, looking at the scar, her hand covering her mouth.
"I always knew something big happened a few years back. When Mom stopped making us go over for dinner on Sundays. I never knew what, but mom wasn't telling, and she was pissed. She never speaks bad of someone, you know how she is, won't speak ill of anyone, not even dad for leaving, but I could tell she was mad at your dad. She wasn't talking about him at all hardly." Tessa was still shaking as she spoke.
"This is why you don't want to go to the doctor isn't it? He did this to you and it'd get back to him?" She pulled out the things she had been digging for, set it on the table and then stepped over to the sink in the corner of the room.
"If this is actually broken you will have to go though. I can't set it.""Father is one of the head-surgeons at the Hospital, he'll know. Even if it was kept confidential, he'd still find out." Grant kept shaking his head, as if trying to convince himself that not going was the right thing to do. It wasn't. He knew Tess was right. Gods, he knew she was right. He just didn't want father to know about it.
"I don't know what I'm going to do, Tess." Grant said, looking at his cousin with such fear in his eyes that one could practically see it in neon letters above his head with an arrow pointing down at him.
"I don't know either Grant. I wish I had a way to fix it, unfortunatly I can just turn invisble." She shook her head, then as if she remembered they hadn't fully talked about the powers thing yet, her eyes widened.
"Look, I'll talk with Malcolm, maybe he can help get you x-rayed without it getting on the books at the hospital. He might be able to help convince his dad or something." Tessa sighed and sat down looking at Grant.
"I hate that I can't just wisk you away from it. I hate that I have to watch you suffer and that all I can do is try to wrap your arm in hopes it isn't broken. I hate that if we did anything no one would do a damn thing. I hate a lot of things these days, Janice would have known what to do." Tess looked down at the cloth in her had, still damp from Grant's tears.
"I'm sorry I'm not strong enough to save you."Getting through his wincing from the pain in his arm as he shifted his position slightly, Grant hugged Tess.
"You're plenty strong, Tess. If you weren't as strong and as gentle as you are, I wouldn't be able to get through most of what happens to me at school and home. Without you and Liv, I probably wouldn't be here." Grant said, his words somewhat muffled into Tess' shirt.
Tess hugged back lightly, being sure to not hurt his arm.
"This place sucks." She said as she released him.
"All right let me see if I splint your arm in a way that no one will notice." Tess spent the next twenty minutes carefully trying to splint and set Grant's arm without hurting him, that was not an easy task at all. Most of the conversation consisted of Tess apologizing and trying again. When she felt like it would hold, at least for the day she leaned back and sighed.
"That's the best I can do. Maybe I can convince Malcolm to help, or his dad, later. Off the books." There wasn't a lot of hope in her voice, the tensions between Malcolm and Jay was probably a big deciding factor.
As Grant examined the splint, he noticed that, while there were light tinge of pain, it wasn't nearly as bad as it was before.
"Thank you, Tess." Grant said, hugging Tess once more.
"Can you help me with my shirt and Jacket?" Grant asked.
"Yeah of course." Tess picked his shirt up and helped him slide his left arm into the sleeve before working his right arm into it. Then she helped him with his jacket.
"Anytime you need a space, come here. Hold on." Tess opened a dawer and pulled out a key ring, she took one of the keys off of it at seemingly random.
"Here, it's a key to the shop. So even if I'm not here you can get in. I trust you not to mess with the sculptures." She held the key out for him.
Grant took the key, but simply looked at it. He then looked back to Tess.
"You sure Aunt Carrie won't mind? I mean, she wouldn't be mad if I used your space when you aren't here?" Grant asked Tess, unsure if he should take the key or not.
"Mom never comes in here. She considers it my 'safe' place, something shrink told her to do." Tess shrugged.
"Well, if you're sure," Grant still seemed unsure, but he pocketed the key nonetheless. Tess nodded.
"Now the all important question, do you want to go back to school, or hang out here for a bit?""I wouldn't mind hanging out here for a bit. Grant said, smiling at Tess.
"Cool. Follow me." Tess led the way into the house and pulled some food from the fridge, before going into the living room and turning on the TV.
"Think you arm can handle some splatoon?"Grant smiled and took a seat on the couch.
"What kind of gamer would I be if I let my arm get in the way? Liv would never let me hear the end of it." Grant smirked.
"Excellent!" Tess started the game up.
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