Under The Willow Tree

Chapter 3

I slammed my car door and pulled out of the school parking lot. Dallas had gone to a bar late last night and hooked up with some girl and called to tell me that morning so I had to borrow Buck's car for school.

I pulled into the drive-way, turning off the engine and getting out of the car, pulling my backpack onto my right shoulder. I closed the car door and locked it, quickly walking up the front steps.

Opening the front door I shouted, "Buck I'm.....b..a..c..k." My words slowed as I registered the fact that Soda was standing in the living room.

I have kind of been avoiding him since the whole Dallas yelling at me situation.

"Callie-I... I came to see if you were okay and Buck already left with some girl." Soda took a step towards me as I slipped my backpack off of my back and put on the floor next to the bar stool I sat on.

"I'm fine Soda, thanks for coming, I appreciate it and everything but I-" My sentence was interrupted by a loud knock on the door.

Soda and I both looked at each other at the same time, our eyes meeting and I slipped off of the bar stool, opening the door slightly.

I could feel Soda's breath on the top of my head when he stood behind me, I could almost feel the worry for me pouring off of him like rays of sunlight in mid-August.

"Can I help you-" the breath caught in my throat, and my eyes widened and my heart pounded faster, louder, banging against my rib cage with each breath I took.

"I'm looking for..." My father paused, looking me and down.

".....Callie?" My father said, his brown eyes widening. The drunk glint in his eyes unlocked a memory in my mind, caused a door to open that I had locked and bolted shut.

"IF YOU SEE ONE MORE OF THOSE DAMN SLUTTY WHORES OF YOURS AND BRING THEM UNDER MY ROOF INSTEAD OF THAT DAMN STIP CLUB IM GETTING A DIVORCE AND I MEAN IT!!" My mom screamed, I backed into the far corner of the kitchen, tears pouring down my face.

I was crying so hard I could barley breath. I had only cried this hard twice in my life (present day).  I felt Dallas' arms around my shoulders as sobs wracked my skinny frame. My hair, damp with salty tears, stuck to my cheeks like glue.

"ITS MY HOUSE YOU BITCH! YOU'RE THE REASON OUR 10 YEAR OLD SON IS A DILIGENT AND A DISAPPOINTMENT!!" My father yelled back. The beer bottle in his hands that he was squeezing so hard his knuckles turned white finally shattered, sending glass all over the kitchen.

"YOU SEE WHAT YOU DID YOU FUCKING COW!! ILL HOOK UP WITH WHOEVER I WANT AND I CAN BRING THEM TO MY OWN SHITTY FUCKING HOUSE!" My father and mother shouted at each other for 2 hours.

My body slipped down the wall until I sat down in the ground. My throat was raw from screaming at them to stop and from sobbing, my eyes hurt from tears and my lips were chapped and cracking.

It was 2 years after that my older brother turned to me during one of our parents fights, after my father has beat him so bad one of his eyes were swollen shut, and said,"We're leaving tomorrow for Tulsa, I don't care if you come but I'm leaving and I want you to know there's an option to get out of this shitty house."

I gasped, stumbling back into Soda's chest, tripping over my own feet as he grabbed under my armpits, pulling me up before I fell.

"Callie." My dad repeated, as if my name was some foreign word he had never felt on his tongue.

I saw the door open behind my dad, Dallas walking through the front door.

The smirk on his face quickly fell as he looked at my father's head. Dally's brown eyes widened and his jaw dropped. "Father...?" His tone was full of anger and hurt.

"Dallas! I was looking for you. Why didn't you tell me you lived in Tulsa?" My dad berated.

"Because it's none of your damn business." My brother snapped.

"Why are you here?" My brother snarled.

"I'm here for Callie."

Sodapop's POV
I lightly grabbed Callie's shoulder, instinctively pulling her back against my chest and away from her father.

"You-you what?" She stammered, her light blue eyes widening.

"I still am her legal guardian. You two ran away and I'm her father." My father turned around, facing Dallas.

"Excuse me? You're here for her now?!" Dallas' face turned bright red and Callie moved back into me, mumbling. "Oh god, oh god, oh god."

"It will be okay..." I mumbled to her, bending my head down to her ear so only she could hear me. I heard her make a small noise of fear.

"YOU, THE ABUSIVE FUCKED UP FATHER THAT YOU ARE WANT MY YOUNGER SISTER TO TAKE CARE OF?" Dallas snapped. "AFTER 9 YEARS OF ME TAKING CARE OF HER NOW YOU WANT TO HELP?!"

"IM HER FUCKING FATHER!!! YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO TALK TO ME LIKE THAT!" Her father shouted back.

"Dallas-" Callie said, moving towards her brother, pulling his arm, trying to get him to move away from her father.

"No. She's not going anywhere with you." Dallas held firm.

"She is. You have no choice in the matter and I'll involve the police if I have to." Callie's father snarled, his hands clenching into fists.

Callie was looking at his hands and then at his expression, I could see her mind working quickly as she processed each movement of his eyes, each time his eyebrows moved together in anger, each and every change in his face and body. I had never seen her so focused and so scared at the same time, so skittish but the mask she put on her face was calm.

Callie's POV
My father lunged at Dallas and my hand immediately went to the switch blade in my back jean pocket. Soda grabbed my wrist lightly and Dallas punched my father in the face, my father shouting cusses and things I've heard him say so many times in my life.

My father and Dallas struggled, banging into the bar counter top and into walls, falling over each others feet and bodies as they punched and kicked.

I backed up, my back hitting the cold textured wall. After about 2 minutes I couldn't take it anymore, the bottle holding some sort of pent up anger inside of me shattered.

I flipped out my switchblade with a flick of my wrist, my heart pounding in my chest, a hard rhythm that flowed with the anger swelling in me.

"GET OUT!" In a split second I had the blade to my father's throat, shoving Dallas aside with a pulse of adrenaline.

My father's eyes swelled with rage but he turned, walking out the door. "I'll be back in a week." And with that he was gone as quickly as he had came.

Chapter 3: 1209 words