Mysterious Coaches Daughter is Now a Badass

Chapter 6-Shani

Dad and I sat on the blanket next to mom. We talked about his cancer diagnosis, how Matthew had moved in, I broke off the engagement, and most of all that I was staying a while longer than just a weekend. There were lots of tears and laughs. Mom would have wanted this, to know that her family was still ok, that we still came out and visited her. Near the end of our visit though, I began to feel eyes on me.

I occasionally turned my head trying to locate this mysterious person. I knew it wasn't the dead, and I knew it wasn't my dad. Then I saw her, Penelope.  The girl, no woman who killed my mom.  When the report came out that she was texting one of the guys from our graduating class and was a little tipsy.  Her parents pulled her out of school and sent her away.  They soon moved away after that.

Her hair was no longer blonde but black, who what I could see of her face she had at least one piercing in her nose and she was no longer cliche supermodel skinny but was a healthy weight.  I fought with myself about walking over to her and talking to her or just pretending like I didn't see her.

"Honey," my dad brings me back down to earth. As I study his face he continues, "Go talk to her.  She only wants to apologize.  Who knows it may help with getting closure."  He pauses again, but this time to clear his throat; "It definitely helped me."

I look back at him quizingly, fighting back the urge but accepting that if I don't he will pull the cancer card and I will still end up talking to her, "fine." I mutter as I stand up and start walking towards her, and I noticed that as I approached she began to get increasingly nervous.

"Hey," I say quietly, not quite expecting what was to come.

She looks me over, "I know this isn't going to help much.  But I feel it's needed.  You see I was a young and dumb teenager that thought she was alone on the road." She rattles on and on and I start to disassociate until, "I guess what I'm trying to say is I'm sorry for being the reason, you don't have a mom or a boyfriend or whatever the fuck you and Matthew could have been by now and the reason why your dad is going to go through time without the woman that he loves to the day."

"Your sorry?"  I question angrily.  Wait Shani think, she's apologizing.  I take a deep breath and continue, "thank you for your apology and although we cannot change the past.  We can shape the future to where this is less likely to happen to anyone else."  I say as my tone shifts back to anger.  "If you don't mind me, I need to get back to my mom and dad.  Thank you again and it was great seeing you."

As I made my way over I repeated the words "whatever the fuck you and Matthew could have been" what did mean by that?  I want Matthew both lustfully, romantically and is a friend.  He knows I have some feelings but, not how I fully feel about him.  I needed to push him away, he's too good for me.

"You would never imagine the ring that I found in his things after he moved in.  It was so beautiful, and I was so sad that I never got to receive it from you before you left me."  My dad in full tears at that point, I wanted to give him some space so I wandered among the cemetery picking wildflowers for her grave.

After what felt like 15 minutes I felt a pair of arms wrapped around my waste.  When I tried to spin around find who it was, I was stuck.  I could smell cigarettes on their breath.  Their hand and arm hand a vine encircling two names "Mom" and "Dad".  The piece was beautiful but unfamiliar.  When their arms loosened I finally turned around and saw Steven. "Hi honey, did you miss me?"

His voice had changed significantly, I can only assume it was the drugs. "Oh of course, babe;" I then proceed to pretend to vomit on him but he tightened his grip. "Just kidding coke loving piece of shit. What do you want?" I say as heartless as I can.

He looks me up down, "You have something that you stole when you ran away. I want it back." He says each word getting closer to my face. When he's less 2 inches away from my face, "bring it back bitch. You cost thousands of dollars and I need it." That's when it clicked. My engagement ring.

"How the fuck have I cost you thousands of dollars. We all know you, drug lord of Sioux Falls, South Dakota did not buy me amulti thousand dollar ring. So what is the stones hiding?" I ask being smart with words.

As he trying to grab my hair for his usual intimidation tactic, I am quick to move away until he finally catches me, "Bitch," he pauses getting close again. "It doesn't fucking matter, I'm staying at this motel. Now go home to daddies house before the boys pay you a visit," he says as he gets increasingly angry with each word. He hands me the motel card and runs off into the other direction.

What am I going to do? Do I tell dad and Matthew that I was engaged to a crazy drug dealer? What will Matthew say? Will I kill my dad if he ever finds out? As I walk back to my dad his conversation was over.

"Can we go home dad?" I ask still shaken up from the events that had just happened with Steven and Penelope. As much as I didn't want to leave mom, it was too go and I had much to do. Most importantly, find that damn ring.

"Honey," he pauses to grab my hand; "are you ok? You look like you relived something, very traumatic."  He studies my face while I try to regain my composure. I thought I was safe here.  I thought he wouldn't come after me here but, I was so far from being right.  I needed to see Matthew, not because I have feelings for him, but because I knew he would be the best one to help me feel safe. 

I finally come out of my thoughts and realize dad is looking at me worriedly, "I'm ok dad, today is just really hard still and I wanna go back to the house." I say on the brink of tears trying to get him to finally motion towards the car.  "Goodbye mom, I love you."  I placed my hand on her stone and let a tear splash against the cool granite.  I grab the blanket and move towards the car and that's when I noticed a third person but could not make it out of who it was but they looked very familiar.