Not As It Seems - We Bought A Zoo Fanfic

Ch 8

My dad hit me. He slapped me. He's never done that. My cheek was still red from the earlier events which didn't go unnoticed by Kelly who asked about it. I lied and told her that I just fell out of bed and landed hard which made her questioning stop.

"This one's really not happy with me." Dad announced as he picked up a snake and placed it into a black bin.

"You got a big guy there huh?" Kelly asked him.

"Yeah."

"We live on a snake farm." Rosie said from her position on our porch. I grabbed a handful of snakes and put them into my bucket.

"Wow, wow, wow." I heard my dad say in a panic as he picked up several snakes. "Yeah...funny funny. Glad you guys are enjoying yourself." He placed the snakes safely into the bin as laughter followed him.

"I mean how could this even happen Avery. I don't even know how you did this!" Dad shouted at me.

"For the last time I didn't do it! I didn't go anywhere near the garage!" I screamed back.

"Stop lying to me!" He yelled back. Kelly gave us a quick glance and you could feel the tension rise.

"I swear to God dad! Why won't you believe me!" I shriek. "Dylan went into the garage! I fed the monkeys!"

"She's right dad we-" Dylan tried to interrupt but my dad's screaming over powered him.

"Don't blame this one your brother! You need to take responsibility for your actions!"

"Fine." I raised my hands in surrender and dropped the bucket. "I'm sorry I let out the snakes." I apologize calmly and walked away from our house muttering the words, "How hard is it to just listen to me?"

————

2 hours later Kelly found me asleep by the fox enclosure with a red puffy face.

"Avery. Wake up." She shook me awake softly. I opened my eyes slightly but when seeing her I simply closed them again and moved to lean against her.

"Avery please." She pleaded and I shook my head not wanting to get up."Fine. Then I guess I'll have to choose violence then." Without warning her fingers found my stomach and she began tickling me all over the place until I was awake and laughing hard.

"Okay I'm up." I panted and she stopped moving her fingers.

"You're dad wanted me to come check on you." I let out a little chuckle.

"Wow I'm surprised he remembered." I replied sarcastically.

"He does care about you." She commented trying to make the situation better.

"He really does a good job of showing it." I muttered as more tears pricked my eyes. She wrapped an arm around me and pulled me into her.

"It's ok." She whispered in my ear trying to soothe me.

"I just wish he-he'd listen to m-me. Ever since my m...mom died he doesn't pay any attention to me unless he's an-angry." I sobbed into her chest.

"He talks about you all the time. He always wonders how you are doing so well with school and emotions while everyone else in your family is a mess. He talks about you like you are a piece of gold. I don't know why he doesn't talk to you, but he does love you." Her words did make me feel a little better I didn't think my dad actually paid any attention to me.

"Really?" I asked wanting to make sure it was true.

"Yeah, he doesn't shut up about you." I smiled into her chest. He did care.

"Thank you." I whispered and she nodded. We stayed there for a while, hugging in a comfortable silence. And it was nice, I definitely needed a warm hug.

A/n: omg we're already over 850 views I-
You have no idea how amazing that is to me. I didn't even expect to get passed 500. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

I hope you're day is going well. Another chapter will hopefully be up later tonight.