Teeth [Harry Styles Fanfiction]

Chapter Twenty Four

Jaycee’s Point of View:

“Your father is working late tonight…. Again.” My mother spoke silently, dipping her fork into her steak. Her eyes couldn’t match mine when she spoke and I didn’t even question why. Frankly, I had nothing to say to her – at least nothing nice to say. For most of my life, I’ve looked at my mother as a hero, strong, independent women, but I was wrong. I don’t remember her ever depending on a man for happiness and now, things are different. I just couldn’t understand why she put up with my father treating her like crap, it was just so unlike her. One would think that the other day would be the final straw, but it wasn’t. She was still here – we were still here. “Are you going to eat your food or let it get cold?” I heard her speak, breaking the obvious tension between us. Deciding not to comment back, I shoved my fork deeply and angrily into the meat. My eyes were glued to my plate and I couldn’t even really wrap my mind around her words. All I could think about was Harry and what I had just did not too long ago. He had called a couple of times and each time, I’ve ignored him. Truthfully, just hearing his voice would hurt even more. I knew he deserved an explanation, but I just couldn’t give it to him. What was I really going to say to him?

Sorry Harry, my dad is an asshole and I don’t want you to get hurt.

That sounds incredible in my head, but I really had to think about it. It made absolutely no sense and I knew that Harry would want to talk it through to ‘fix’ whatever he thought needed fixing. That wasn’t the case – I knew this couldn’t be fixed. I knew I would never know happiness and it wasn’t only because of my father; it was because of me. I was afraid of something that I wasn’t even sure of.

“Jaycee,” My mum sighed as she dropped her fork onto the counter. Lifting my head, I looked straight ahead. “I know you’re upset with me, I can tell. But, sweetie –“

“Just – forget it, mum. Okay? It doesn’t even matter.” These words rolled off of my tongue in an aggravated matter. After that, the room grown quiet. It has gotten so quiet that I could almost hear the sounds of my mother’s heartbeats only inches away from me.  “I’ve been thinking…” she began to speak, and I could tell she was carefully choosing her words. Still not looking at her, I took another sour bite of my food. “I’m leaving him, Jay. I’m leaving your father… we’re leaving.” When she said that, my eyes shot up and I looked over at her. Something in my decided that she was lying and that I couldn’t believe her, but then another thing in my decided that she was truthful. Honestly, I didn’t know what to think. “He… hit you. I never thought he’d do that to you, but he did. I don’t want you around someone like that anymore.” Her voice grown weak and I knew she wanted to cry, but she was holding it in for the sake of me.

“Something has changed in him, sweetie. He’s… He’s…..” This time, she sniffled and grabbed her handkerchief and wiped the edges of her eyes. All I could do was look at her, incapable of movement. “He’s developed a habit. A bad habit, you need to know your father wasn’t always like this. He loves you very much, but now, we just have to go and take care of ourselves so he can take care of himself.” Now, full tears escaped from her red eyes.

Without even realizing it, I was scooting out of my chair and rushing towards her side. She hugged me tightly and I could feel her shivered body brush against my skin. Her desperation was coming off of her and resting in my arms. I wanted to hold her all night and just cry with her because I felt her pain. “It’ll be okay, mom…” my hands rubbed her back as she cried on my shoulder. What was truly disturbing was that I didn’t believe a single word I had just spoken. It wasn’t going to be okay because when was anything in my life ever ‘okay’?