Read The Academy - Friends vs. Family for Free Online Page A

hand to me.
    Dr. Green plopped down on top of the coffee table in front of me.
He scooped out a flashlight from his pocket.
    “Let me check your throat,” he said. He gently placed a thumb on
my chin to get me to open up. He shifted the flashlight to let the light glare
into my throat. The warmth of the light was surprisingly soothing on my
esophagus. I pressed my tongue down in my mouth so he could see better.
    “Was it vinegar again?” Kota asked next to me.
    I felt I couldn’t talk to answer with my mouth open, but I
squeezed his hand and nodded.
    Dr. Green let go of me and sat back, swinging his eyes to Kota.
“This happened before?”
    “Her mother made her drink vinegar and lemon juice a couple weeks
ago. It burned her throat for a few days so she couldn’t talk.”
    “That’s not all,” North said, in a quiet tone. I fired off looks
at him but he ignored me completely. “She was forced to kneel in rice on the
hard floor for a few hours a couple of weeks ago, too.”
    “And she sat in that stool before,” Luke said. “That was several
hours, too. Not in the tub though, just in the kitchen. Just the once.”
    North’s face flashed with surprise and he frowned. “That we know
of...” He gazed over at me.
    There was a stunned silence that fell between them all as they
registered the truth. I wanted to tell them that outside of the vinegar and
being tied in the bathtub, that the rice and the stool sitting was actually
pretty easy. I could handle that. Weren’t they ever punished for doing bad
things? Didn’t parents spank their kids? Somehow I felt that it wasn’t the
right response. My face flared with heat. I didn’t know what normal was.
    Dr. Green pressed a palm to his eye. “Why didn’t you tell us what
she was going through?”
    “We were working on it,” Kota said. “I didn’t know how bad things
had gotten. And I didn’t want to overwhelm her with… with us.”
    Dr. Green’s head flexed back. “Kota,” he said. “This is abuse. You
shouldn’t have kept this to yourself.”
    “She wasn’t fully with us when the vinegar thing happened,” Kota
insisted. “And she was around us so often these past couple of weeks, I didn’t
realize she was…”
    “You know better than that,” Mr. Blackbourne hovered over Dr.
Green’s shoulder. His steel eyes narrowed. “Abuse doesn’t disappear overnight.”
    “I didn’t know about the rice or the other parts,” Kota said.
    “That’s not what I mean. You didn’t tell us the full truth about
what was going on. You brought her to us knowing her home life and kept it from
us. We might have prevented this if you had told us earlier. Now we’re left
without a choice.”
    I swallowed. They were talking in circles around me. “It’s my
choice,” I said in a whisper.
    Mr. Blackbourne twisted his head to gaze down at me. “What are you
saying?”
    I closed my eyes, swallowing hard again. I knew they didn’t want
to hear this but I knew I had to say it. “I have to go back.”
    “No,” Gabriel said. He grabbed my hand. He slid closer on his
knees near me. His crystal eyes glossed over with tears. “You’re not fucking
going back there. I’ll kidnap you myself and take you home with me.”
    There was a round of loud talking and it was a mess. I didn’t
understand what anyone was saying. I couldn’t attempt to talk over them. I
looked desperately at Kota. He leaned in, holding his head close.
    I angled until my lips brushed his ear as I whispered. “I have to
go back.”
    Kota shook his head, pulling away to narrow his eyes at me. “No,”
he commanded. “You can’t. Sang, you were in there for hours. Do you even
remember what happened?”
    I nodded. Of course I did. I remembered everything. I knew the
truth. If I disappeared, there was a lot more to lose than if I went back now.
    The others were arguing but it was a blur of noise. Gabriel
squeezed at my hand, clinging to me. Maybe he would listen.
    I leaned into him. “My mother