Strange as IT Seems

Chapter 69: Pursuit

Several autumn leaves blow through Mia's open window and onto her bed while she tries to read a book. Sighing, she gets up and gathers the leaves before pitching them back outside. She was wondering why her uncle hadn't gotten around to fixing it yet, or if he had, why couldn't she close it? It was annoying to have a million blankets on her bed to battle the chill at night. It was the one flaw of her otherwise acceptable bedroom.

It was a Saturday afternoon, and Mia had nothing to do. All her homework was done, she was prepared for tutoring with Jane, and she wasn't babysitting her cousin because he'd gone over for a playdate with Holly Wheeler across the street. She thought about going to the mall and seeing Steve, but if she did that too much, it might make her seem desperate.

You can't seem it when you already are, she reminds herself. You're just showing him you have no life, and remember, you can't get too close to him.

She tosses her book aside and lies back to look at the ceiling, battling tears. She wished her thoughts were wrong, even though they weren't. She really liked Steve, that was no secret, and he liked her... he even saved her damned life. If that didn't mean something, then she was losing her mind.

Joel hasn't been seen for months, maybe he's given up... she thought for a moment.

Closing her eyes, Mia pictures what that would be like if her father had just left, become like every other deadbeat father in existence, where he never has contact with his child again.

No f*cking way, the thoughts re-enter her mind. Joel Rogers will never give up...

Mia does wonder why he wants custody of her anyway. She hates his guts and wants nothing to do with him; there are multiple restraining orders in place, and yet he persists in stalking and trying to find her. He's also delusional if he thinks he ever had a shot at getting custody, let alone visitation with his daughter, considering he broke her ribs and has no job, along with all his other problems. She never bought his excuse that she was the only good thing he did in his life, and wanted to have his daughter in his life. Most of the time, it seems he wants someone he can take his anger out on. Or maybe it was to make her mom suffer for leaving him, to take away the only good thing to come from their hellish marriage. It was also nearly too late as she was going to be 18 in December and a legal adult where she could finally make her own choices, including potentially changing her name to hide from him permanently.

Is that all I am to him? She wonders, rolling onto her side and staring out the window. A thing? Something to possess. A tool of revenge against Mom?

Deep down, it does haunt her that she's the reason her mother or anyone else in the family can't live in peace. If she didn't exist...

Mia gets up from the bed and hurries out of her room and down the stairs, rubbing the tears from her eyes. She's having an existential crisis and needs to get out to clear her head. She grabs her coat and backpack on the way out the door.

She heads around the side of the house and grabs her uncle's bike. Her aunt's bike was currently in the shop being repaired after the Billy Hargrove incident. Uncle Zack didn't mind as he hardly ever used it, and as she was grabbing it, she noticed that Bill's is gone. He must be off with his friends.

"Off saving the world," she mutters to herself in amusement.

She prepares for her ride, checking her backpack for water, her purse, some of her other books about Hawkins and, among other miscellaneous things, her self-defence baton. It had been something she'd carried since she was 12 and was told to only use it if her father ever broke the restraining orders. Fortunately, she's never had to on him or anyone else, and it honestly felt stupid to carry something so heavy on top of her textbooks and other things.