Young and Foolish

Chapter 27: All I Know from those Twisted Tales

Sarah's POV: 

Luckily, after that heavy confession, Annie didn't bring up my family anymore. I hadn't yet told her about Teddy's incident, but I wanted to do it soon. I wanted to get that off my chest. It wasn't like he committed some heinous crime that I had to cover up, and I knew that keeping it as a secret was only giving me more stress. 

She invited me out to the arcade on Saturday afternoon. I'm going to tell her at the end of the night. The only reason I won't tell her sooner is because I need to work up the courage. I have no idea how she'll react. 

Honestly, I didn't know the full story either. Teddy hardly said a word about it. He had grown very reclusive and bitter after Jessica's passing, and lots of people stopped liking him. Those that had witnessed the incident spun wild stories about it to further tarnish his reputation.

The hard facts were 1) Teddy assaulted a teacher and 2) The teacher got a severe head injury and needed to stay in the hospital for a prolonged period of time. Apparently, because of how he was hit on the back of his head, there were a number of complications in the healing process. It was bad. 

Other than those two simple facts, nothing else was really known. Teddy spoke only to the principal and a couple of officers that had threatened to detain him in a juvenile detention hall for aggravated assault. Even my dad didn't know the full story. But whatever he told them made them 'let him off the hook', as long as he agreed to enrol in that prison boarding school. 

Did I think he went crazy after Jessica's death and tried to murder a teacher? No. And I wouldn't ever think that until he tells me the truth himself. 

But I had no idea how to begin to explain to Annie what exactly happened.

I hadn't been able to reach him since that day I injured my wrist, but I figured it was because he was upset and trying to play it off as being busy. It's fine though, because he's supposed to come home for Christmas and I'll get to see him then and make up for it. 

I'd try not to worry about telling her until Saturday. To keep my mind off things, I painted. Danny kept me company over the phone as I painted the people and places that I missed so dearly. I had nearly finished my stack of empty canvasses by Friday. 

Some of them I could sell. Some I planned to give away to friends as gifts. The rest were too personal to let go of. But I didn't feel like displaying them, so they sat tucked away in a corner of my room. 

I needed to find a good art store to replenish my supplies. That was what I was going to focus on this week, to keep my mind off everything else. I asked Vivian if she knew any places, and she said there was an old craft store downtown. I planned to visit there on Saturday before telling Annie about Teddy's incident, just to give myself something positive to look forward to. 

And that little positive had kept me pretty jolly the whole week. Until Friday night, that is. 

"My brother, Eric, and his new wife are going to be passing through here for a month. He's a professional photographer, so he travels around a lot." Vivian explained over dinner. 

"That's great," my dad replied, "will they be staying with us or at a hotel?" 

"In the guest room, but they'll be coming in December so we don't have to worry about housing them for a while." 

"Oh! Either way, we'll have a full house for Christmas," I piped up. 

"What do you mean by either way?" my dad asked. 

"Well, Teddy's going to be here too, so it'll be a lot livelier here whether Vivian's brother and his wife stay with us or not," I explained, cheerily. 

"Theodore is not coming home," my dad's tone was suddenly serious. My mood dropped as well. 

"What?" What the heck was that supposed to mean? Teddy can't stay at that prison school during Christmas. He just can't. 

"The Academy is allowing Theodore to stay over the break. It'll be good for him." No. Absolutely not. The only good thing for him would be to come home. 

"But dad! We've never spent Christmas apart. He has to come home!" 

"I don't appreciate that tone, Sarah. This was his choice." His choice? Teddy chose to stay away from us? Did he really hate us that much? He was probably only acting bitter and stubborn because we made him go away in the first place. 

I excused myself from the table and went to bed early. This was wrong. Very wrong. 

And I had to do something about it.