Something Stronger Than Love

It's been a year since Paige and I got home from the island. I rode through the fields on Ginger, my gold-fur horse. Once again, Flynn had beaten me up, but I always take it like a warrior.

I had bruises formed all over my body. And countless, terrifying shorelines my body. I had one on my head from the waterfall, one on my jawline, one on my neck, and scars all over my legs and arms. Countless. Terrifying.

Flynn didn't have anger issues, he was just an alcholic. But I did have anger issues. And I had to make a stupid excuse every time, just to cover Lynn's drunk ass.

"Fell off the horse."
"Cow knocked me down."
"I fell off the top of the chicken coop."

And every time, Mikey responded with the same suggestion.

"I can take over your jobs for the rest of the day."
"I can finish up for you if you want."
"I'll let you rest and do the rest of your duties."

And I always responded with the same words.

"If anyone needs me, I'll be riding Ginger."
"If anyone needs me, I'll be riding Ginger."
"If anyone needs me, I'll be riding Ginger."

Michael was like a concerned brother to me. He cared so much. But I'm not complaining. It's comforting. Liam was like this to me.

Liam. And Niall... Zayn... Louis... Harry... They never returned from the floating. At least it was never announced. I've given up on ever trying to contact Harry. He hasn't talked to me since the waterfall. Did I say something wrong?

I rode Ginger up to the barn, jumped off, and led her into the field. She started getting all scared, looking behind me.

"Shh. Easy, girl." I calmed her, petting her pretty light colored mane.

I turned around to see what scared her. Then it was clear. Flynn stood behind me, watching me with a look of hunger and lust in his eyes, yet anger.

"Drunk again, I see..." I groaned. I saw more anger add into his dark brown eyes.

"Don't talk back to me!" He ordered, digging his crusty nails into my arm. I already had so many cuts from him doing that, and the dirt under his nails won't keep them from getting infected.

"I didn't talk back. I talked first." I smirked, a little proud about my comeback, but it only made him angrier.

"That's exactly what I'm talking about!" He looked like a cat, he formed his hand to look like he had claws, then swiped his hand across my face. From the feeling if gave me, there was now three little cuts on my cheek. This one would be easy to cover with Mikey.

"I have every right to speak. If you don't understand that when your drunk, then stop drinking." I sassed.

He grunted and stomped away. I watched him get on his horse. I ran into the house, into the bathroom, and got the peroxide out. I poured some on the three cuts, which were about and 2 inches in length each.

Well, that could be pulled off as cat scratches, we have only like 9 cats.

I put the cleaning stuff away, then walked out to the kitchen, dining, living room area.

"Toni?" Michael caught me already.

I turned around slowly, "Yes?"

He noticed the cuts on my cheek, then started inspecting me, "Are you okay? What happened?!"

"Relax, cat scratches. I'm fine." I calmed him down.

"Want me to take over your jobs?" Big bro Mikey asked.

"Mikey, I'm fine. I don't have anything to do anyway, so go do your thing. If anyone needs me, I'll be in the house." I had something to do, no time to ride a horse.

"Not riding Ginger?" He raised an eyebrow.

"Nope. Got something to do first." I laughed a little. Still not giggling.

"Alrighty see ya later." He kissed my forehead. He does it every night before bed. Paige is really lucky, he's so sweet. Meanwhile, I got a drunk off his ass abusive boyfriend.

I walked up the stairs, into the spare room. This lovely room wasn't used for a single thing, except for something that it shouldn't be used for. The closet was full of Flynn's vile alcohol.

I took all the bottles and held them in my hands. Jogging down the stairs, I placed the delicately in a basket, then grabbed a tom of juice and carried it outside with me to Ginger.

He's done drinking. It's been a year of him doing nothing but drinking and beating me. Frankly, I'd rather be on that bloody island.

I jumped on Ginger, basket still in hand, and Ginger started running.

"To the river girl." I said in Ginger's large ear as I turned her a bit in the direction we needed to go.

The river was the same river as up at the old house, the one I always went to when I was sad. Since the farm and the old house were so close, I can get to the spot I always go to in minutes. That comes in handy today.

We soon enough arrived at the river. All it was was a river with a big rock to sit on and one tree. On the side I came from was a field. On the other side was a mountain/hill/woods, but all the trees were too far for Ginger to get to.

I jumped off of Ginger and tied her to the tree, then set the basket next to the sitting rock. One by one, the bottles contents were emptied into the water. After I had finished that, I filled each small bottle with juice. I carefully place each bottle into the basket, except for one. Instead, I stood and started trekking up the hill thing, until I got to a tree.

With anger issues, when you see a tree and you have a bottle in your hands, instinct is to beat the fuck out of it. And that's exactly what I did. I always beat the fuck out of the same tree. It really took a long time to find a way to release my anger.

When I finished hitting the tree, the glass bottle wasn't a bottle. It was glass sticking out of my skin. I delicately picked each piece out with care, then threw the remains into the woods.

I jogged back down to Ginger, grabbed the basket if empty bottles, and hopped onto her. I whipped the reins, and she took off toward the house.

When I got home, Flynn was in the cow barn, so I stuck into the house, unseen by everything. I got up the stairs as fast as I could, into the spare room, and opened the closet. I placed each bottle back where it was, except for the one I used as a weapon against a tree.

Then I went back downstairs, casually placing the basket on the table. Just then, Mikey entered the house. But I was really hoping to see Paige.

"Hey, Mikey! Where's Paige?" I asked, I hadn't seen my best friend all day.

"She's with Emma." He said, pointing to the barn. I quickly thanked him and ran to her.

Emma was our oldest cow. Jersey cow. She's been working for years, and about three months into us being here, she got hit by accident. A truck was bringing in equipment, and it backed up into her.

"How's she doing today?" I asked. Paige looked startled, must not have heard me come in.

"She's okay. But she tried to walk today, and hurt her leg again. It started bleeding, but I patched her up." She stood, wiping her callussed hands kn her pants. "Did you need something?"

"Actually, yes. I need to make a run into town, wanna come with me?" I asked her, piling some hay to the side. Yea, we help each other with each other's jobs. Except for Flynn, he barely does any of his work.

"Sure. What are we picking up?" She placed her farm hat to the side, brushing her hair back with her hand.

"Just some essentials. Nothing much. Plus, there's no WiFi, so I need to check out the news." I laughed.

"Alright."

We walked out to the pick up truck, jumped in, me driving, and took off down the dirt road.

I turned on the radio. And of course on this terrible day, the song just had to come on.

"I saw you standing in the middle of the thunder and lightning
I know you're feeling like you just can't win, but your trying
It's hard to keep on keeping on when you're being pushed around
Don't even know which way is up, just keep spinning down round down Every Storm runs runs out of rain

Just like every dark night turns into day
Every heartache will fade away
Just like every storm runs runs out of rain."

I turned off the radio. I couldn't listen to it, not today.

We pulled into the gas station, and I immediately connected to the WiFi.

"I'll check the news, you go get bread, and some cigarettes for me, then chocolate syrup. I've been craving chocolate milk." I demanded her.

She got out and walked inside. I immediately searched 'The X-Factor'. I heard from Becky across the street that it was coming to Pittsburgh for a week. The first article read,

'That's right, the X-Factor is moving to Pennsylvania on Sunday. If you think you got talent, hurry on in, only so many people can make it in.'

"Yes!!!" I yelled, happy as fuck. This could be Paige's and my big break.

Paige got in shortly after. "What was that yelling about?" She asked, handing me a pack of cigarettes.

"Well," I lit one, putting it to my lips, "Guess what comes to Pittsburgh on Sunday?"

"No way!"

"Yes way!" I puffed another bit of my cigarette. "Guess what day it is, Friday. We have two fucking days!"

"Oh my god. What am I gonna sing? What am I gonna wear?"

"Calm down. Take a huff." I put the cigarette to her mouth. She pushed it away. She doesn't smoke, or Mikey, or even Flynn. Just me.

"Let's get home before Mikey flips about you being gone so long." Paige laughed. I don't think it's very funny though, her boyfriend cares more about me than her.

"Yea, and we can start getting ready." I put out my cigarette. Then hid them in my bra.

I've been planning on The X-Factor since before the island. So has Paige. This had to happen. No matter what, I'm never gonna give up on this. If everyone thinks I'm a good singer using my not good voice, then wait until Sunday.

I've never used my full singing voice, I always half ass it. I didn't want anyone to hear me sing normally, I wanted to blow everyone away. And that's exactly what I plan to do.

My dream since I could talk was to be a singer, not for the fame, but because I loved it. It was my passion. What I felt for it was Something Stronger Than Love.

Notes

So, first chapter!!! If you haven't read the prequel yet, it's called Surviving. And don't forget to check out THE CREEP AROUND THE BLOCK.

Q: What do you think will happen at auditions?

Q: Thoughts on Flynn?

Alright, comment, vote, subscribe. Bye!!!