Belong - an adopted by Hamilton fanfic [Hamilton]

22. To be: told off

[6K... IM SORRY WHAT?!]
I breathed heavily as I got awoken by my grandfather shouting from somewhere in the house. Drunken screaming.
I gasped, and gulped by pain as I sat up, rubbing my eyes - it still being rather dark outside.
I just needed to write something down.
I quietly tip toed around my room, finding my phone on the floor. Not smashed, to my surprise.
Scared about what my family would do to me if I made a sound, and with a shaky hand I picked my phone up.

I realised that I didn't text Lin and Vanessa yesterday - I'd been occupied by fear, chores, my mind and my biological family watching me.
I'd just fallen into bed, after my freaky mind had kept me up for hours, fears forming in my head. I had been organising the room. And then rearranging again.
Falling asleep in less than a millisecond, and panicky as I'd been, what I'd promised been erased from my thoughts.

I opened the screen - seeing about a hundred missed notifications.
My mind immediately started going crazy.

Every text was in the same theme.
They'd called a few times, too.
Few, meaning 47 times.
Texts, 45.

-> Rue, are you there yet?👀
V

The first few were just casual, but you could tell they got more and more worried.

->Please let us know if you're OK.

->ANSWER, please niñita, please answer

I could feel my breath getting heavier - I truly forgot. In the back of my head, I couldn't allow myself to do it.

Tapping on the keyboard, quickly.

<- I'm fine. It's good here. Please don't worry, I never found time to text you yesterday.
Sorry, and merry christmas 🎄

<-Really. Have a very merry Christmas,  Love you💓

I managed to scroll through twitter on the little GigaBite I had left, my arms quite weak after not really eating any dinner yesterday. Mainly because of the fear in my head.
Realising it was quite early, I hoped I didn't wake them up.

I took my sketchbook I'd got from the cast a few days earlier, halfway through my first sketch of a dress. Still panicking, shivering from fright by my grandfather's drunken scene just a few rooms from me, fighting with my grandma who, herself, wasn't letting it go.
I suppose, she was quite drunk too.

Suddenly I could hear my phone ring, making me reach for it - and as I did, the unstable book pile fell down from the small bedside table, causing a rather loud bang.
I flinched, scared of the consequences.
Tap the wall 71 times, and do it over and over again until it feels just right.
"QUIET!", my grandfather screamed.
My lips were sealed by fright.
Don't disturb anyone.
I could hear my uncle's snoring from the room right next to this, through the thin walls.
Otherwise something might happen.
All this, while I tried to hold my phone in my shaky hands.
Lin was calling me on FaceTime.
I couldn't answer, could I? I didn't want them to worry. Christmas is a happy day. I want them to be happy.
I quickly pressed the call away, writing another text.

<- I can't talk right now, sorry.

My text seemed so flat - so nothing. But I couldn't let them know.
Face to face - I would lose it.

-> You sure, niñita?

<- Yeah, they have a phone curfew😶