Breaking Boundaries (unordinary love story)

Chapter 24: Exposed

I wasn't the type to lose track of time, as I always had a watch on me, but for some reason I did. Time just flew past. That's how I got home late, at 6:35, to be exact, and my family was already having dinner at that time. Rick dropped me off at my house after our date, and as I stepped through the door dad was not happy. At all.

"There you are!" said dad.

"Hey," I said, hanging my coat.

"Where have you been?"

"Uh...at the i...at Sandy's." I was always a very bad liar.

"You better be telling the truth."

"I always do." Another lie.

"Then why are you back so late? I called you like twenty times. Did you have your phone on?"

I reached into my bag for my phone and scrolled to see all the missed calls from dad. "Dad, I'm so, so sorry...maybe I did have it off."

He sighed. "I called Sandy's mom."

My blood ran cold.

"She said you weren't over at her house," dad went on, sounding mad, but somewhat disappointed because I'd never lied to him before. "Do you know how worried I'd been?"

I felt pretty awful. "I'm sorry," I said softly.

"You should be. Where were you?"

I let the silence linger in the air for a moment.

"Where did you sneak off to?" dad pressed.

I bit my lip, feeling my blood turning to ice in my veins, cold slipping around my heart.

Suddenly, at the wrong time, my phone rang with a call.

"Who's calling?" asked dad. He got out of his seat and grabbed my phone from my hand. "Rick? Max's teammate?"

"Why's Rick calling you?" asked Max.

"Why is there a heart next to his name?" asked Mikey. "Oh, is he your boyfriend?"

"You were out with Rick tonight," said dad, making sense of it. "Right?"

"Y-yeah, w-well I...yeah, I was," I stammered.

"Why didn't you just tell me?" asked dad, sounding hurt.

"I just...I knew you'd be mad."

"I'm more angry you didn't tell me," dad answered. "Go to your room, Misty. I need time to think of your punishment."

I didn't need to be asked twice. I bounded up to my room and closed the door and plopped myself onto my bed.

I hugged my gigantic stuffed bunny, Hopper, and fought tears.

Just then Max opened the door and poked his head in.

"Knock," I said.

He knocked on the door.

"Before you open it."

"But I already did. Look, I was just confused, what's all this got to do with Rick? You never liked him; you know what he's like. Why the sudden change?"

I shrugged. "You don't have to have a reason to like someone. I don't know don't know why I like him, but I just do. I mean, why did you like Caroline?"

"She's pretty."

"So she's a piece of eye-candy."

"Pretty much."

"Yeah? Well that's very sharp of you."

"I'm not supporting you with Rick, but I just want you to be careful," said Max.

"I am," I said.

"No, you're not. You're gullible."

"I know that, but..."

"You trust people too easily."

"Well you have trust issues," I said. "You put a lock on your bedroom door. I see the good in people, so I trust others."

"I do that to keep Mikey out; he goes through my things," said Max. "He likes my DVD collection."

"Off topic."

"OK, it's just...you could have told me you were going to go out with Rick. I would have helped you think of a better cap."

"Like?"

"You could have just blasted some music in your room, locked your door, and wrote a note on it saying you're chilling and you don't want to be bothered or something. And I would have made sure dad didn't get sus."

"I'm a bad liar," I said. "Which also makes me gullible. But I didn't think of that."

"I know. But tell me. Where did you go with Rick?"

"The ice rink."

"Was it fun?"

"Yeah, it was cool."

"Cool," he said.

"But it doesn't matter anymore," I said. "Dad's livid now and he'll ground me."

"No, he'll cool off."

"No, he won't," I said. "Let's face it. He has higher expectations for me than for you. You're a slob, you're failing, you get detention. I never do."

"You disappointed dad for sure, then."

"Congratulations for pointing that out. And you know what's the worst thing about it? I disappointed him, which is worse than having him be mad at me. Like you understand."

"He's only been mad before at me."

"My point exactly. Now just let me sulk alone, please."

"OK, I will." Max left, closing the door behind him.

I sighed, burying my face into my stuffed bunny and soaking its fur with tears.

vote/comment/follow/share!