Scars Left Behind

Chapter 19

Amelia swung back and forth on the swing with her friends. "So now I'm not allowed to babysit anymore" she rolled her eyes, filling her friends in on the drama.

"So what your grades dropped, it probably has nothing to do with the job and the fact that the teachers suck and schools hard."

"Exactly!! It's so unfair, and Danny was always failing classes in school! He even has gotten detention before! Like if I got detention now he would tear me up!"

"He's such a hypocrite."

Amelia sighed in frustration. "I can't handle much more of his bullshit."

"What are you going to do?"

"I don't know; maybe I should get taken away; I mean I love Danny and I'll miss my brother but I won't miss him being a parent. At least then I can have actual parents and have a normal life" she shrugged.

"You're actually considering going into a strangers home? Living with danny can't be that bad."

"I don't know.. I'm thinking about it, I'm just confused right now." She shrugged.

"We'll it's your decision, we'll support you, even if danny doesn't."

Danny was on his lunch break at work scrolling through is phone. Connie sat down at the table with him and did the same, occasionally putting the phone in front of him when a funny meme or tiktok showed up which made them both chuckle. Danny felt his phone vibrate and saw someone was trying to call him. "Hello? Yes this is Danny.. yes.. I am.. Wait what do you mean? I saw her get on the bus this morning." He sighed in frustration. "Okay thank you." He hung up and dropped his phone on the table and pushed it away in frustration.

"Everything okay?" She asked.

"Apparently my sister skipped school."

"Oh no.. Maybe she needed a day off? It happenes to the best of us.."

"If she needed a day off she could have told me that, and she doesn't need a day off, she's just trying to be rebellious cause I yelled at her about her grades, not even yell."

"She's not doing well?"

"Nope and she wanted to work a weekend job and since then her grades are dropping so I told her no job, school comes first and now she's all pissy." He rolled his eyes.

"I can't imagine how frustrating that is.. She's only 13 right? When I was that age I wasn't even thinking about jobs, I was still trying to figure out how to apply eyeliner." She laughed, hoping he would as well.

Danny laughed. "Yeah well apparently she wants to be a grown up but is so immature, I don't know what she's thinking her skipping school is going to do, just going to get her in more trouble."

"What are you going to do?" She asked.

"I wish I knew, I wish there was a book on how to parent a teenager."

"That would be helpful." She laughed.

"This is going to be fun." He sighed and they both went back to working.

Danny arrived home and called out to Amelia. He walked over to her bedroom and knocked on her door before he tried opening it but it was locked. "Amelia let me in, we gotta talk."

"Always with the talking." She groaned and opened the door. "What?"

"Why didn't you go to school?" He asked.

"I did go—"

"Don't even lie, your principal called me."

She groaned once again. "Why does he even care if I wasn't there, it's not like it's a big deal."

"Ditching school is a big deal."

"Says the guy who always ditched."

"So what? You trying to be like me or something? Don't copy what I do, I'm a bad role model."

"I'm not copying, I'm just saying that don't yell at me when you did the exact same thing at my age."

"There's different circumstances now."

"I'm tired of hearing about our circumstances! I get it! I know it! I'm tired of you being a damn parent and being so damn controlling!!" She yelled.

"So I guess you want to be taken away?" He asked.

"MAYBE I DO!" She yelled and slammed the door locking it behind her.

Danny went to try opening her door but gave up and walked into his bedroom and flopped on his bed. She had no idea how hard this was for him, did she even care? He wasn't sure. He hoped that she didn't mean what she was saying. She would rather be with strangers than with him? That hurt him more than he could ever say. He had feelings, he was a sensitive person. They used to be so close and now this was their life. Maybe he should stop trying to be a parent and if she gets taken away than they can deal with it when the time comes. Maybe he should go back to just being a brother, he was scared.

He kept worrying about every little thing. If he chose one direction, would that cause something bad to happen? Like what if their parents decided to order food that night instead of going out. Maybe they would still be here. Or maybe if they choose to stay home they would have choked on their take-out food and died anyway, the life you live and the choices you make were so unknown, you don't know what could happen and that unknown terrified him.

He was tossing and turning for a good amount of time in his bed, thinking about all these thoughts he had, until night turned into day. The sun beamed through his window and he heard birds chirping. He groaned and rubbed his eyes, another night of no sleep.