Visions

Chapter Six: The Dinner

I reached over to my phone on top of his nightstand and turned it on. It was an old phone that barely worked but it worked enough for phone calls and text messages. I had roughly fifteen missed calls and at least fifty-two text messages from my old foster family. The only ones that I cared enough to look at were Raya. She was the only person that cared enough about my health.

She seemed angry and relieved at the same time with the text messages. I sent her a quick message explaining that the testing was going to get super ugly with me getting raped by the counselor. She quickly responded and asked for us to meet soon at a diner, but I didn't know how to respond.

For the next while, I finished writing an essay for school and the seemingly extra homework that I got from the math teacher. August showed me how much homework he usually gets as we are in the same class and there was a major difference between them. He agreed that I am also getting marked for the littlest of things like when I explained how I got an answer and it wasn't neatly written. We don't take the same English class because I am a year under him, but even he agreed that no one in that class had much homework.

Just a bit ago, I heard new voices with some yelling going on downstairs. At least one new male voice and three female voices. The male voice sounded like a stereotypical college boy who parties way too much and is used to getting what he wants. The female voices sounded almost the same as Lizzie's voice. The tone of self-centered and mostly bitchy women. August didn't sound like them. The difference between the two blended families was large.

I got out of bed and breathed in deeply. I focused on how August was likely feeling in this situation with everyone downstairs and I fought the cowardly stance of hiding out in his room. I got out of bed and opened the door to a walk-in closet to find a maroon-colored dress, it had thin straps and the back was completely exposed. It was mid-thigh length with a note on one of the straps. "Hopefully you enjoy it, don't cover your tattoos."

I smiled at his note while appreciating the dress. I carefully took off my clothes and my bra since the design of the dress did not apply to this kind of bra. I noticed that the doorknob was twisting and was just about to open and I heard unfamiliar voices coming from outside of the room. I carefully slid into the closet with the dress still sitting on the bed. I focused on my clothes that were lying on the floor and shoved them under the bed. I felt lightheaded but after careful breathing, I felt pretty normal.

"Mother said, Elle, that we need to find evidence that our little fag of a bother is still dating the other fag. Mother said that anything is helpful for us to get Dad back," I still had my phone in my hand and something inside of my head forced me to take a video of this conversation for August. "She said that she is not exactly sure if her message the first time around worked with him, so she wants to know as soon as possible to set up a meeting with the special counselor. I wonder what he felt when he realized he was meeting with the counselor. I wondered if the freak felt scared," I shook my head at their conversation, and anger filled my body but I didn't feel the room get hotter.

I heard them shuffling through drawers and I forced the one near his bed completely shut. "Victoria, this won't open, maybe he glued it shut." I felt myself getting dizzy but I breathed in carefully and tried to hide myself in the closet.

"There is a woman's dress on the bed. It is kind of cute. I wonder if instead of the fag, he got back with Laura."

"He should have just stayed with her in the first place."

I heard the door to the closest open and footsteps on the soft carpet. I pushed my body against the long jacket, realizing that maybe this was going to end very badly. I made sure to note that she turned on the light and started walking to the far side of his walk-in closet. When she pulled the long trench coats back, she yelped when she saw me sitting there. She was semi-attractive and reminded me of everything about Lizzie at school. She had bleached blonde hair with brown eyes, she wore a dress that was a little too short for a dinner party and she was wearing silver heels.