Older brother takes care of Little Sister (closed for unloved and flurtayshus)

[Flurtayshus]

Anjelina gathered the ripped t-shirt to her chest, tucking slim honey brown legs under her and listened as the nurse called her parents. They would expect the worst of course because it was 3 a.m. and no one ever got good news at 3 a.m.

“Hello. This is Nurse Williams at Mercy Medical. May I speak with Mr. or Mrs. Arturro please?....Oh their not? When do you expect them back?” The soft voiced woman asked politely.

It was in that moment that Anjelina remembered her parents had left that morning for a long weekend on the coast. She didn’t know whether she should be relieved or not by the revelation but if it wasn’t them the nurse was talking to then who was it?

“Certainly, here she is.” The nurse turned to her and handed her the phone.

“Hello?” Anjelina lay down on her side expecting the worst.

“Lina?” Her older brother, Dominic’s low voice came across the line and it was enough to make her tear up again. “What’s going on?”

“Dom, what are you doing home?” She began but when she tried to say more her throat tightened suddenly and her eyes filled. Dominic was the person she respected most in this world. What would he think of her? How could she face him like this?

“What? I came home to visit,” She heard him say distractedly, “But what happened Lina? Why are you at the hospital?"

The nurse gently took the phone back and asked Dominic if he would be in a position to come get her, to which he must have replied “Yes” because the woman began giving him directions.

“It’s alright honey. Your brother will be here in just a few minutes. Okay?” The woman pulled the sheet and blanket up and tucked her in as she lay underneath the harsh sterile fluorescent lights in the emergency room.

The nurse then turned to leave pulling the curtain closed behind her leaving her to her own thoughts. She didn’t know how she was going to explain this to Dominic. It was all her fault, she knew that. If she had handled things better with Cory, her ex-boyfriend, then maybe none of this would have happened. Even she still didn’t know all of what happened. As she lay there she examined the details of what she did know.

One minute she had been enjoying herself at the Phi Delta End of the School Year party working on her second beer and the next minute she was laying on a bed looking up into Cory’s horribly grinning face and he was hurriedly tearing off her clothes. She kept blacking out during it but she thought she remembered screaming “No” at one point, and then she thought she remembered seeing him dragged off the bed.

“This must be what amnesia feels like.” She thought to herself because only bits and pieces came to her clouded like fog.

She ran both hands through her dark mass of loose curls and thought some more about it. The next time she’d come to, she was lying in the back seat of a car. Gary and Tommy, two Phi Delta Brothers were in the front seats and Gary told her calmly but in what seemed like slow motion that they were taking her to the hospital because they wanted to make sure she was okay. Tommy who was more freaked out than Gary just kept repeating “I can’t believe he tried to rape her! I can’t believe he did it!”


“Where is my sister? Anjelina Arturro?!” Anjelina heard Dominic’s barely controlled shout and smiled at his correct Latin pronunciation of Anjelina, the “J” sounding like an “H”.

He was always correcting people when he heard them mispronounce it. She’d given up doing so herself years ago but Dominic told her her name was too beautiful to allow others to screw up it up out of ignorance.

Suddenly the curtain was ripped back and there he stood, all six feet two inches of him, short dark hair and blazing brown eyes.

"Lina!" He gasped audibly his face drawing down further into a scowl. "Look at you."

She attempted to sit up on one elbow and gasped herself at the pain in her ribs. One side of her t-shirt slid down her shoulder leaving the skin from her shoulder to just below her collar bone completely bare. Her bra was missing and so were her pants and she could explain none of it.

 

[unloved]

Dominic looked at his sweet sister as the sight of her twisted the very core of his heart. He was filled, almost engulfed, with rage at whoever did this to his sister. His mind ran wildly through the several scenarios that might of happened to her.

Dominic then noticed Anjelina trying to raise herself up but winced from the pain in her ribs. He then snapped out of his thoughts and came back to the reality in front of him. He hurried to her side and ever so gently held her in his arms and helped her up. He then looked down to her and into her beautiful brown eyes as they welled up with tears. Dominic gently caressed her gorgeous face moving her hair aside.

He slowly neared her face and gave his sister a soft, caring kiss above her eyes. "Hermanita, I'm here now. I'm with you right now. I'll protect you." Dominic said in a deep soft voice, bringing in sister closer to him with a hug. Anjelina layed her head down on his head and tried not to cry but her pain got the best of her. She let her tears flow from her eyes as her heart cried out from within her. She put her arms around her brother in a tight embrace as she let her pain flow from her.

Dominic was gently kissing his sister on the dark curls of her hair as she continued to cry away her fear and pain of the night. He then lowered his hands and cradled her face within them. He carefully raised her face up to his. She looked into his eyes and saw the deep caring love he had for her as well as see the saddness he felt for his sister.

Dominic neared her face again and lovingly gave his sister a soft kiss on her lips. Their lips gently caressed each other and almost at once her pain seemed to disappear, if only for a moment. That small intimate touch they shared appeared to have reach deep within Anjelina and touch a part of her heart that she had never let anyone near before. She felt safe right here, right now, in the arms of her brother. As their kiss broke they looked into each other's eyes and Dominic says, "Vamonos Anjelina. Let me take you home.

He helped Anjelina down off the bed and towards the door. She began to breathe a little heavy from the pain and stopped. She looked up to her brother and tears began to well up in the corners of her eyes. Dominic knew that she couldn't walk. He brought her in close to him and did his best to ease pain. He carefully and delicately lifted her and carried her out of the room.

 

[Flurtayshus]

Lina Arturro

Anjelina held on to her brother, her arms wrapped tightly around his neck and allowed herself to be comforted. She recalled with a smile how every time she’d ever been hurt as a little girl Dominic had always been the first one to comfort her; except for the time she’d fallen and broken her arm but that was because it had been his shoulders she had fallen from and he’d cracked his collar bone at the same time.

“Uh, Ms. Arturro, wait just a second.” The kind nurse was back pushing a wheel chair and she was being tailed by a tall man in a white lab coat and green scrubs. “The doctor has some final instructions for you.”

“Ms. Arturro, you have several bruised ribs that you will need help changing the dressing for. You also have a mild concussion as well as some after effects from the Rohypnol. This can cause respiratory depression so if at any time you start having difficulty breathing you get back here immediately.”

“Rohypnol?” There was an edge to Dominic’s voice that Anjelina had only heard a few times before. “You mean ‘Roofies’?”

“Here let’s sit you down.” The nurse encouraged Dominic to set her down in the wheel chair which he did reluctantly.

“That’s what some of the kids call it these days. Also known as the “Date Rape Drug”.” The doctor replied.

Dominic gritted his teeth and asked, “Are you saying someone drugged my sister?”

“It’s either that or she took it on her own.” The doctor explained and then seeing Dominic’s angry glare quickly added, “But Anjelina doesn’t strike me as the type to abuse controlled substances.”

“I want to go home.” Anjelina whispered feeling tired all at once. Her body ached and she didn’t want to think about this anymore.

“Sure.” The doctor acquiesced. “But make sure she gets some of this ointment for the scratches on her back, maybe a little ice for that eye, it will probably be black by morning. And be sure to call back here if she starts to feel any nausea or headaches.”

Dominic nodded, took the handles of the wheelchair from the nurse and guided the chair out to his black expedition.

Lina fell asleep on the way home in the heated seats of Dominic’s S.U.V. and barely felt him lifting her out of the truck to carry her inside. It wasn’t until he began up the stairs that his steps began to jar her ribs. She whimpered helplessly and she felt Dominic lighten his steps.

“I’m sorry baby girl. We’re almost there.” He apologized quietly.

“Can I have a bath? I feel dirty.” Lina wasn’t sure if she’d just thought the words or if she’d actually spoken them but she soon realized that she had spoken when he veered his course from heading toward her bedroom to heading toward the bathroom at the end of the hall.

He sat her down on the closed toilet seat and began running her a bubble bath.

“This is your favorite right?” Dominic reached beneath the sink and pulled out the white tea scented bath gel.

She smiled. “How do you know that?”

“Just cause I’m a guy doesn’t mean I don’t pay attention.” He commented pouring the gel into the stream of water and watching it foam up.

“Really? I thought that was exactly what it meant.” She surprised herself with being able to be humorous.

“Well I’m your brother and I always know what’s going on with my sister.” He grinned up at her and then just as quickly his smile fell. “At least I try to.”

Lina looked away, knowing that he was referring to what had happened tonight. For some reason she was sure he was feeling some guilt over not knowing what had happened and not having protected her.

Once the tub was full Dominic turned off the water and stood suddenly unsettled. “Well…umm…can you…will you be okay?”

“I’ll be fine.” She felt herself blush and didn’t look up again until he stepped out.

“If you need me I’ll be just outside.” He called through the crack he left in the door.

“Okay.” Lina murmured and began trying to pull the tattered garment that used to be her shirt off.

As it turned out it getting undressed even with just a partial shirt was harder to do when you had one arm that was unmovable. She attempted it several times but became so frustrated that she suddenly burst into tears. She was too embarrassed to call her brother back in and so she just sat on the toilet seat and silently sobbed.

 

[unloved]

Several minutes pass as Anjelina continues to sit on the toilet letting the water run. Her tears continue to stream from her sealed eyes as she copes with the experience she had tonight. "Damn," she curses herself under her breath, cursing what happened tonight.

In the living room, Dominic finishes his root beer while watching a movie. He tries to sit through it and tries to forget the state his sister was in. He continues to think how different thing would have been if he had been there to prevent it. But things have already transpired and now all he can do now was bood about the situation and help his sister through with what she was feeling. Remembering the amount of pain his sister was still in he rises from the couch, tosses away the empty bottle and heads toward the bathroom where Anjelina was at.

As he nears the the bath room he can see the door is still slightly cracked open. Once at the door Dominic hears that the water is still running and ever so slightly the soft sobbing of his sister. Knocking on the door he calls to her, "Lina, is everything all right? Are you doing okay?"

Anjelina quickly stifles her sobbing and wipes her tears away smearing them across her eyes. "Y-Yes. I'm okay."

"The water still running, are you in the bath?"

"No. N-not exactly."

"Is it okay to come in?" Dominic asks nervously.

Anjelina composes herself as best she can before answering. "Yes."

Dominic slowly pushes open the door hoping his sister is still decent, or at least feeling a little better. As he enters he sees his sister still sitting where he had left her. "Lina, you're still dressed?" She looks up to him and then quickly looks away form him. She didn't want her brother to see that she had been crying. "Here let me turn the water off for you." He dips his hand in to feel how warm the water was. He pulls his hand out knowing it's warm enough

Dominic lowers himself to one knee and places his wet hand on his sister's exposed knee. "Do you think it's warm enough for you?" He asks softly. She doesn't answer him. He reaches up to her face and delicately cradles it into his hands. Slowly and softly he turn her to face him. Facing him she hesitantly looks into her brother's dark eyes. Dominic gently moves his sister's hair out of the way caressing her cheek. She sat there looking into her brother's eyes knowing and feeling safe with him. She wanted to be held by her brother. She wanted to be in his arms for a little while. Anjelina leaned forward and put her arm around her brother's neck. He did the same. holding her close to him.

"Anjelina," Dominic whispers into her ear. "Do you need a little help into the bath?"

She nods and says "I need a little help with my clothes to."