Afterglow, Steven Conklin

six

Swaying my feet through the cool water, I shook my head when I noticed that once again, my dad was trying to talk to my brothers.

I had managed to avoid him all day, but it didn't seem like Conrad was as lucky. 

Deciding to go talk to my brothers once they walked away from my dad's sad attempt at bonding with them through football, I followed them to the beach, "Whatever you have with Dad, squash it alright?" I saw Jere throw sand at Conrad just as I was reaching them. 

"Please," Jeremiah pleaded looking between Conrad and I.

Con sighed and nodded before continuing to dig and I sent him a small smile, going to collect rocks to help them out. 

-

"It's cake time, momma!" I celebrated running over to give her a hug.

She smiled and kissed my head, "Yes, it is sweet girl. You did such a good job, they look amazing! Grab the blue one and I'll take the flag."

I nodded and grabbed the smaller cake before walking alongside her out of the kitchen. 

"Ooo, I want the piece with the strawberries!" Belly called before running into my mom and I, pushing us to the ground.

Both cakes went tumbling into the pool with my mom's cake stand shattering beneath our hands.

Laurel ran over, "Belly, are you okay?"

I saw my dad run over to my mom, "Honey, are you okay?"

They started arguing and eventually my mom pushed him away yelling to leave her alone. Through the silence, I pushed myself to my feet and looked at my hands to see small pieces of glass cutting into them, "Shit," I mumbled before stumbling upstairs to my bathroom.

I tried to hold in my sobs as I used a washcloth to carefully remove the glass from my hands. It wasn't the pain that was making me cry, it was seeing my dad and the was that his presence alone affected my mom.

"Lia? You okay?" I heard a knock on my door and turned to see Steven staring at me.

I nodded and continued trying to rub the blood off of me until I felt his hands take mine and pull the washcloth away, gently doing it himself. I kept my eyes off of him the whole time because I knew that if I looked at Steven, I would have broke down.

Once my hands were clean, I slid to the floor with my back against the counter and my knees pulled up to my chest. I only opened my eyes when I felt Steven sit down next to me.

"He cheated on her." I finally spoke up, my voice cracking.

Steven looked confused, "What?"

I nodded and looked over at him, "My dad cheated on my mom when she was first going through chemo."

His mouth dropped open and he stared at me for a few minutes before pulling me into his side.

Leaning my head on his shoulder, tears were now cascading down my cheeks, "How could he just throw away everything like that, Steven?"

"I don't know, Lia," he mumbled kissing the top of my head.

-

Fireworks crackled in the sky as Steven and I floated on our surfboards. After the whole cake fiasco I calmed myself down and helped clean outside until my dad dipped and everyone was put in a bad mood again.

Noticing that I wasn't necessarily having fun, Steven asked if I wanted to go surfing. He always knew how to cheer me up.

I was looking up at the night sky and fireworks until I could feel Steven's stare on me, "What is it?" I asked laughing.