What Goes Around Comes Around

Daddy I'm Not Okay

A week later.

Zoey was in her room packing when someone knocked at the door.

"Come in," Zoey yelled. Her room was filled with boxes.  She was sitting in the floor folding some clothes. Everything was basically stored away except for her bed.

Her dad entered, "Are you almost done packing?"

"Yeah, I just have these few things," Zoey replied.

Her dad kneeled down and reached out to touch her shoulder, "In the midst of all of this, I forgot to ask how you've been."

Zoey looked at her dad. This was the first time that they had talked since their argument, "I'm fine Daddy."

The bags under his eyes seemed darker. He hadn't been able to sleep. He kept having the same nightmare every night.

' Helen would appear and everything seemed to be going great. Sam would come home from work to find Helen baking cookies. Helen greeted him with a kiss. He started to walk towards the hallway. He heard a scream and it was Zoey. He tried to run to toward her room, but the hallway just got longer.

' See I knew you couldn't take care of her Sam," Helen appeared behind him. "You're a horrible father. She doesn't deserve this life you've given her. She's gone now. Why did you kill our little girl?"

Sam confused looked around. The room was smeared with blood. He looked at his hand and they ,too, were drench in red.

"Stop!" He yelled. "Get out of my head! This isn't real! She can't be dead! You're not real Helen! Leave me alone!"

"Daddy," Zoey appeared. "Mom's right. Why did you do this? "

"I didn't," Sam said. He tried yelling it. He wanted them to believe that he was innocent. Then he would wake up, sweat dripping down his face.'

"I'm glad you are. I know this must be hard for you," Zoey's dad said. He had a worry look on his face and Zoey  noticed.

"It is, but don't worry about me," Zoey looked at her dad and gave him a half smile. She felt bad for what she had said. She wished she had reacted differently the other day. She didn't even know how to apologize to him, "You already have a lot of things to worry about. I can take care of myself."

Her dad started to look around the boxes and noticed something that looked familiar. He took out a picture. It has Zoey in between her parents. They looked happy. Her dad started smiling, "I remember this day so well. You were five years old. This was before your mom got sick. We went to the beach and had a family picnic. It looks like an episode of full house."

"I wish she was still here," Zoey replied. "I miss her a lot."

"I miss her a lot, too. But she is always with us here," He said as he pointed to her heart. "You're just like her. You're strong and independent."

He noticed that Zoey was missing something "What happened to your necklace?"

Her dad's phone began to ring.

"Kevin, this isn't a good time right now," he said as he got up. "I was just having a moment with my daughter."

"I'm sorry Sam, but this has to do with the bank," Kevin replied.

"This can't wait," he replied.

"I'm sorry sir. This is important," Kevin replied.

Her dad looked at Zoey with apologetic eyes, "Sorry, Zoey. I have to take this."

He left the room and he mumbled some profanity into the phone.

Zoey stood on the floor trying to think of where her necklace was. She noticed that a picture of her with Derrick and Claire was still on her night stand. She got up and  looked at it.

"I thought you were my friends," she said as if the people in the picture could hear her, could see how sad she was. She started tearing up, but quickly wiped away the tears and threw the picture on the ground breaking  the frame.

She wasn't even mad that Claire had stole her boyfriend. She wasn't even mad that Derrick was using her anymore. She was mad at herself. She couldn't believe that she had treated everyone like shit and now that's how they were treating her. She wanted to scream as loud as she could as if that was going to fix the problem.