Behind the Lies

Chapter 3 - avoiding the subject

As I'm walking up the three flights of stairs to takes to get to my apartment, I think of ways to distract my mom so she won't notice my cheek. Option A: I sneak in quietly and hope she isn't waiting for my arrival in the kitchen. Option B: I exit the apartment complex, go to the back alley that is parallel to our apartment, climb the back ladder, and go in through the window. Option C: walk in through the front door and tell her that I walked into someone's locker door. I think I'll go with the third option, even though I hate lying to my mother, it is the easiest and requires the least amount of effort.

I take a deep breath and unlock the door. I know what I'm getting myself into and I know lying isn't going to be easy. I twist the door knob and slightly push the door in to try and see if my mother is in the kitchen, she is. And I'm quite positive she sees me.

"Honey, is that you?" Of course, she had to see me. There's no turning back now.

"Yeah Mom, it's just Me." I said soooo enthusiastically as I stand half way in between the door and the hall. I should have thought my plan through more. I can already feel my hands starting to shake.

"Come in, tell me all about your first day of high school. Was it exciting?" You could tell she genuinely cared. These days, my mother is so involved with me and my sister, our schools, our extra activities. She always tells me how amazing high school is and how great being young can be. I don't want to disappoint her by telling her how awful my day was, so I decide to lie even more than I originally planed to.

"It was great, I didn't expect all the people that I met to be so nice because I'm the new girl. But they all were." I try to say while looking down because I still don't want her to see my face. But I can tell that she doesn't buy it.

"See Jessie, I told you it would be great. And I bet all of those kids didn't think of you as the new girl because you all are the new kids. When you first get to high school you are in the lowest grade, correct?" she asked me. I feel like we are about to go in to some lecture about how I shouldn't think of myself as new or below any of the other children.

"You're correct." I say still looking down at the floor.

"Hey, look at me. You are going t..." She paused, she saw my face and paused. "What happened your face? Why does it look like you got hit by a gray hound bus?" I guess you could say that my mother also had a way with words sometimes.

"Nothing, it's fine Mom. Don't worry about it." My voice was hesitant. If you knew me, it would be obvious that I was hiding something.

"Jessie Ranae Tyner I know you are lying to me. Now look me in the eyes and tell me exactly what happened." She said very impatiently.

"Well, I uh... might've run into a locker door because I was almost late to class. But I'm fine Mom, I promise." I awkwardly reply.

She has on her "you know I'm not buying this shit" face, so I'm expecting whatever long ranting speech she is going to give me about lying to her But instead she just stares at me and says, "You know I don't believe any that, but I also think you're old enough to make some decisions for yourself. I trust that if you have a problem large enough that you will come to me and not try to handle it on your own with old foundation." All the blood that I could possibly have in my body suddenly rushed to my cheeks. "That's right, I noticed."

I am really embarrassed, so just tell my mom I have a lot of homework to get done. I rush to my room and slam the door behind me. I let my body sink down to the floor and I just sit there for a few moments with my eyes closed, thinking about all the crappy things I have done today. I begin to get up when I hear a noise coming from the opposite corner of my room. We don't have any pets so there is only one person that could be making the noise.

"Macy, is that you over there?" Macy, my seven year old sister, loves to come and hide in my room. Sometimes it gets annoying, but most of the time I don't really mind.

"Ah dang it, you caught me. I thought I had a real good spot this time."

"That's the same place you hid last time kid." I reply very jokingly.

"You know, I'm not a kid anymore. I think that when you turn seven people shouldn't be aloud to call you a kid anymore."

"Oh yeah, and where did you get that insane idea?"

"Well when you were seven, I was a baby. And Mommy said that when I was a baby you took care of me a lot. And you know kids can't take care of babies, so that means now that I have turned seven I'm not a kid anymore." I was astonished by what I just heard. I have to give her credit though, she is a smart little girl.

"If you think that I wasn't still a kid when I was seven then you are wrong. I didn't take care of you because Mom thought I was old enough, I took care of you because I didn't have a choice." Oh great, I know I said too much, but I hate keeping things from her. I know she so young and I know she can't understand everything but she has right to know sometimes.

"What do you mean that you had to?"

"Look, one day I will tell you and you will understand. But right now you need to forget all about what I just said. Okay?"

"Okay."

"Now go, I have a lot of homework today." I said as I push her out of the door. As soon as her feet are out of the way I slam the door closed and go sit on the top bunk of my bunk bed. I start to think about school again, but mostly all I can think about is how little Macy knows about our family. She doesn't know why we moved to New York or why I practically raised her or where our dad is. I don't really like talking about it, but I really want Macy to know.

See, when I was about seven, right after Macy was born my mom and dad started fighting regularly. After a little while it would get really bad, sometimes even to the point of violence. My mom would be up for hours crying and my dad would be out drinking his pain away and whenever he got back home the cycle would start again. That went on until Macy was five and my mother finally got the nerve to divorce my dad. Things got better for a little while until my mother started seeing other men. My dad being such the bastard he was, got pissed and he would always come to our house banging on the door yelling like a mad man. Even though all the men she dated were total jackasses, my dad had no right to come to our house all drunk and angry. It just was so hard for him to see my mom with someone else, so last year things got complicated and offed himself. Didn't leave a note or anything. His neighbor found him about three days after he overdosed on antidepressant pills. Right after that, my mom decided it was time to move on and start over. So over the summer, she broke up with her sleezey boyfriend we packed up our things and moved here, to New York.

I know that New York City isn't really a place that someone would want to just up and move to, but my mom's cousin owns the apartment complex we are living in. She told my mom if we wanted to come move to New York that we could live here for half price on rent and that jobs are really easy to find. And that's how we ended up here, Macy and me going to school and Mom working part time as a cashier at JC Penny. It doesn't pay much, but it's enough to pay the rent and put food on the table.

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Hey guys! Hoped you liked this chapter I don't really have much written after this, so I wont be updating everyday! Be sure to vote and add "Behind the Lies" to your library.

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