Lover's Lake | Eddie Munson

11

Hey, I want to remind everyone that this story does contain heavy themes that could be potentially triggering for some people.

the first part of this chapter describes family violence (father towards daughter), but I will put some asterisks when it's over. (asterisk = * if you didn't know. )

// violence, triggering subjects, abusive father

As soon as the door closed behind Ann, a bad feeling settled into her. She left the foyer and stepped inside the rest of the house. Her father was sat on the couch, leaning over the coffee table in front of him, eyes fixed on the window that overlooked the driveway.

He swirled the glass he was holding, and set it on the table, crossing his arms. "Ann, you're finally home." He said, turning to look at the girl.

"Hi, dad. You're still up?" she asked him, backing away from him and closer to the wall behind her. "I'm really tired, I need to go to bed."

"Oh, did making out with that idiotic delinquent tire you out? Or was it staying out late? Or is it acting like a witless fool by not listening to me?" he spat, picking up his glass again and downing the amber liquid it held. Swaying a little bit, he hot up and took a couple of steps in Ann's direction.

"You've been very disrespectful to me. I thought I had taught you better. I pay for everything you have; you live under my roof and eat the food I pay for. You do nothing and you know nothing."

Ann stepped back again, and hit the wall behind her, breathing a tad faster than before. "I'm-"

"SHUT UP!" Mr. Hopkins yelled, angry. "I WOULD RATHER SEE YOU DEAD THAN WITH THAT KID! YOU NEED TO LISTEN TO ME; YOU OWE THIS TO ME." 

"Dad, please stop. Wh-" the girl tried to say, holding out her hands in front of herself

Her father reached for the full bottle of alcohol that was on the coffee table and threw it on the ground, making glass shards splatter and liquid seep into the expensive rug her mother had bought.

Ann screamed, and at her reaction, her father got even more angry and threw the empty glass he was still holding at her. Ann ducked and left the room, but the glass shards hit her, cutting through her shirt, and she had cuts all over her right arm.

Running towards her house phone, she dialed Eddie's number, looking at her palm. The ink had stained her hand, and she could still make out his number. She had no clue if he was home yet, but through tears this was the only thing she could think to do.

The phone rang for ages before he picked up. "Hello, Eddie speaking."

"Eddie- please" Ann started speaking, but her father entering the room made her yelp loudly.  "Eddie he's- please help please" she told him finally, voice laced with fear.

"ANN?" Eddie yelled through the phone "what's going on-"

Ann didn't hear anything else, because she dropped the beige telephone, letting it dangle from the spiral cord. She could hear Eddie call out her name a couple of times before she ran towards the door that led to the garden and yanked it open.

She ran out as her father yelled her name from inside. She ran on the street and didn't look back.

Sobbing, she stood on the side of the road. Just on the corner of the road Eddie always took to come drop her off. She could feel the cuts on the side of her arm stinging, and her feet hurt. She hadn't even thought about the fact she didn't have shoes on when she ran out.

From the end of the road, Ann saw the lights before she heard the screech of the van's tires. It hadn't even been fifteen minutes since she had called him, how fast had he driven?

The car came to a sudden stop when Eddie saw Ann on the side of the road. He put the thing in park and ran towards the girl.

"Ann" he whispered out of breath, putting his hands on either side of her face, "Ann, what happened?"

"My dad, he" she choked a sob "he threw a glass at me, he could have- he looked like he wanted to-" the rest of the phrase went unsaid, but Eddie knew.

Wrapping his jacket around the crying girl, Eddie guided her to the car and helped her buckle the seatbelt. Keeping an eye on her as he drove, he made his way back to the trailer he'd left in a hurry not long ago.

*****

As Ann sat on the floor against the wall, still tearing up and sniffling, Eddie picked up his guitar, uselessly strumming random chords. The girl was shivering, still wearing his jacket despite being inside, in the heated trailer. She looked deep in thought, and if he had any idea as to what was going on inside her head, it wasn't anything good.

The chords to landslide by Fleetwood mac made their way inside his head as he looked at her, and he immediately brushed them off, shaking his head ever so slightly. He'd not meant to learn the song by heart, but it'd come on the radio one night and he remembered when they were in the car and it had come on, and how happy she'd looked. The next morning, he knew how to play it.

His fingers moved before he even realised it, and as he unplugged the electric guitar to make it sound ever so acoustic, he cursed himself in his head.

The notes began spilling out, and the girl ever so slightly looked up, eyes watery.

I can't believe I'm about to do this, he though as he took a deep breath, looking at the ceiling.

"I took my love, and I took it down, I climbed a mountain and I turned around." He softly sung, out of tune. "And I saw my reflection in the snow-covered hills. But the landslide brought me down"

Pushing her leg ever so slightly with his foot, he motioned for her to sing a little, mouthing the lyrics as he continued strumming the soft song.  

She looked at him through wet eyes and choked a laugh, wiping her eyes with the piece of tissue she'd been clutching.

"Well, I've been 'fraid of changes, 'cause I built my love around you, but time made you bolder. Children get older, I'm getting older too." She sung back to him, looking up at him and smiling at the same time.

"You should stay here tonight." said Eddie, still strumming the rhythm to landslide. "There's the pep rally tomorrow, and i'd rather you not go back home- i can go drop you off to like a friend's house but if you want to but my bed is yours for the night. the pullout couch is surprisingly comfortable."

Ann cleared her throat before nodding. "I think i'll take you up on that offer, then."

Eddie smiled and Ann walked towards him, reaching out to touch the guitar he was holding. "Your guitar's really cool."

"I could teach you sometimes, if you want. it's really not that hard." he replied, taking her hand and putting her fingers over the frets, into an A major, "that's an A major. It's a pretty common chord."

*"Author's note"*

im always scared to write something from like Eddie's point of view and absolutely destroy his character but oh well! once again- this isnt proof read or edited so i'll try and come back to this, so i can fix up a little bit of everything

sorry for the long chapter, i wanted to give the people who would skip the first part some stuff to read still. thank you guys for 2k reads! feels insane that something i wrote is actually being read by people.

now we're onto the good stuff, i'll see you guys later!