The Rescuer's MC Bk 6

Chapter 17 - Heather's story & getting together with Spokes

"So now I've told you my sad story, tell me yours?" Spokes prompted once they were alone again.

"Oh, are you sure you want to hear this?" Heather asked, not wanting to depress him with her sad tale. But Spokes just nodded.

"Okay. My mom split when I was about 10. Ran away with a man who I guess treated her better than my dad did. He's always been a drinker and when he drinks hard liquor he gets mean. Hell, to tell the truth, he's just mean all the time but it's worse when he drinks.

He's OCD about the house being just so and if it's not, he lets his displeasure be known. For a while we had a lady come in that would do a lot of the housekeeping and cooking. She made sure the beds had clean sheets, the bathroom was clean, cooked dinner every night, emptied the dishwasher, kept food in the kitchen but after a while she got fed up with his pickiness and being yelled at if it wasn't up to his expectations, she quit.

When I turned 12, my dad decided that I was old enough to do it all so he wouldn't hire anyone else. I had no clue how to cook but after a few times of him knocking me around, I learned fast, even if it was just simple stuff like hamburger helper or heating up precooked frozen stuff, at least there was food on the table when he got home. Hell, half the time he was so drunk and if he managed to eat before he fell asleep, I don't think he even realized what it was he was eating.

I learned early on to have my stuff ready to go for the next day before I went to bed at night and to be gone before he woke up to go to work or to stay hidden in my room until after he was gone, which I didn't do often because it meant I would be late for school. I was too afraid that the school would call the house to check on me and he would start questioning why I hadn't gotten to school on time.

He didn't give a shit that I had to walk over two miles in the rain or the snow to get there. He just didn't want to be bothered with the school calling and questioning him about me.

I couldn't seem to make him understand that riding the bus to and from school costs money and he would take it out on me whenever I needed money for school things. I'd babysit for neighbor kids as much as I could to pay for things but sometimes it was more than I could earn before stuff was due.

I learned early on about concealer to hide my bruises but once I had run out and when I washed my hands after using the bathroom, I washed it off on my wrists and a teacher noticed. I hid out at Cinder's house for three days after that in total fear that she was going to call him, even though I begged her not to.

Cinder's grandparents were so awesome to let me stay there when I was too afraid to go home. Hell, I lived at their house more than I did my own. My father would show up at their house, drunk as usual, demanding that I go home and take care of the house and threatening to whip me if he came home and found it dirty the next day.

Cinder's granddad would take us over there and Cinder would help me clean up. I'd get a change of clothes and be gone before he came home or if he got home before we left, Cinder's granddad would make up some excuse for me to be able to go with them. Her granddad was awesome! Man, I miss him.

You asked me about a boyfriend earlier and no, I've never had one. I got asked to a dance one time when I was in the 8th grade. He was an inch shorter than me, skinny as a pencil, wore thick glasses that were too big for his face and made him look like a bug.

But he was the only boy to ever ask me out and I wanted to go so bad but only because all of my classmates were going. I knew there was no way my dad was going to let me go anywhere alone at night. Cinder had been asked and I didn't want to tag along as a third wheel.

Ernie Campbell was smart as a whip and for whatever reason, he stood up to my dad when he came to pick me up with a beautiful gardenia corsage in a plastic box. My father thankfully wasn't drunk that day but he was just being his usual jackass self. He warned Ernie about putting his hands on me or trying to kiss me and I was so embarrassed.