Exposure

Chapter 6

"Dad please," Danny says from next to me. I can hear her quiet sobs.

"I'm not going to hurt you girls." His hands shake as he says this. "I'm getting rid of it all." He motion towards the table with the bottles. I can feel a weight being lifted off my chest. He's not drunk again, and it better stay that way.

"So your not..." Danny starts to say, but the words get caught in her throat.

"No, honey." Danny rushes over and is embraced by his strong arms. I stay where I am. I haven't forgiven him for what he did. He almost killed me with the bottle he threw. He looks up at me, sadness filling his eyes. He knows he made a huge mistake. Just as he's about to say something, I rush past him and run up the stairs. My body is filled with more anger than sadness.

My cell phone buzzes in my back pocket. I already know who it is. It's Claire. I have been avoiding her since the party. I should probably call her, but she's going to jump down my throat.

When the phone rings for the sixth time, I'm about to hang up. But just as I take the phone away from my ear, I hear a shrill voice yell my name.

"I'm here, don't worry." I say, trying to calm her down. Just by the sound of her voice, I can tell she's had the phone by her side, waiting for me to call her.

"Don't worry?! We leave the party early, and you look like a drunken mess! Then you don't stay at my house, like you said-" she stops. Her breathing coming out in little puffs. "and you take off with some random guy."

"He wasn't some random guy," I say, skipping to the last part of what she said. "And you know what happened at my dads." I roll my eyes remembering the way Peter looked at Claire during the party.

"Well, I can't blame you for not staying over, but who the hell was that guy? And why did you look so sick? Just flat out tell me Ivy." I bite my lip. She knows I'm holding back on the truth, but how will she react when I tell her about my drink? She'll probably think I'm irresponsible and don't pay attention to my surroundings.

"Alright. First of all, my drink got spiked." I wait for her to say something. When she doesn't, I continue. "I honestly don't remember much. Peter, that guy that took me home told me that I passed out in the bathroom." The other end is silent. Did she hang up? "Claire?"

"I'm here. I just can't believe it." She almost sounds disappointed. "I wish you would have told me sooner. We can tell each other anything, Ivy." She's doing a good job at making me feel guilty. I should have told her, yeah, but if she were to pound on me, I don't think I would be able to take it.

"I'm sorry. And I'm glad I can talk to you, and trust you. I really need it right now." Now that she knows about my party incident, she might as well know everything else on my mind. And from the way I'm feeling now, I definitely can't keep any secrets way from Claire.

"What else is going on?"

"My mom has a new boy toy. I saw them kissing each other." Claire chuckles.

"Damn! That was fast." A little too fast. It's almost making me wonder if she even cared about dad at all. I mean, was she always into this other guy? Was she just waiting for dad to slip up so she could leave him? These questions are killing me, and I can feel my hands start to shake again. I can't get stressed out over this. There's nothing I can do. And as much as I'm hating dad right now, I'm definitely on his side.

Later during the night, I haven't left my room. I don't want to see dad...and I guess I don't want to be around anyone. Danny has come in now and then to check on me, but other than that, I've been secluded. I should probably get out before my stress blows me off the earth.

I open my door as slowly as possible, to make the creaking less noticeable. I notice a dim caramel covered light coming from the downstairs. It's probably dad. If I'm going to leave the house, I can't be seen. I slip on black flats that are next to my door, and tip toe aout of the room. The light gets brighter as I lightly stride towards the stairs. The faint hum of the television blocks out my unsteady breaths.

I finally get to the balcony looking over the living room. To my relief, dad isn't there. It's just Danny.

"Where's dad?" I ask. I shouldn't really care where he is, but I am curious.

"Out. He didn't tell me where." She turns her head away from me. "You need to cut him some slack." I can't help but scoff.

"Cut him some slack? Where the hell have you been the last couple days?"

"I know what happened!" she screams back at me, and it catches me off guard.

"Have you forgotten what he did to you?!" A worried look crosses her face. Dad physically hurt her, and she wants me to cut him some slack.

"Just stop it, Ivy! Just because you're my sister doesn't mean I'm going to take your side for everything." I'm seething with anger and I've had enough. I grab my car keys from the island counter, my heavy steps slamming on the granite floor. "And dad isn't the one who hurt me!" Danny says, just as I'm about to slam the front door shut. But I stop because of what she just said. I'm not going to go back in there, it will just end in a fight. As I get in the car, I can feel goosebumps on my skin. If dad didn't hurt Danny, then who did?

The smell of coffee beans, and vanilla fill the air. I can feel my mind instantly easing its thoughts. When I get stressed, I usually go for an iced coffee at night. The Coffee Central shop is where I always go to get it. Claire and I would come here all the time when we had mid-terms and exams.

After I'm done ordering, I hop into a booth near the entrance of the shop. Another reason why I always come to Coffee Central is because your order is served to you. My cell phone rings, and when I glance at the caller, it's Danny. I instantly hit the ignore tab. I left the house to get away from the family feud. Why can't she understand how hard all of this is on me. I'm the one who has to be strong...for her.

"You look awful." My head turns to the side to see who let that rude remark out of their mouth. As soon as I see who it is, I don't even take the statement to offense.

"What do you want Adrian?" His sly smile has too much cruelty in it to be meant for anything else. Adrian Wade is the drug lord of Giles Town. He deals them, buys them, and does them. Just looking at him is making my skin crawl. His gang of druggies scurry around town making them inescapable. His brother had an overdose on drugs two years ago that Adrian gave him. I mean, the details of that story are scary enough to give Stephen King a run for his money.

"Well, I heard about what happened to you at the party." How did anyone find out?! I guess I've been too busy dealing with my family to remember that maybe people know what happened.

"Adrian, please, don't spread it around. If my parents find out-"

"Don't worry about it, sweet heart. It's not going anywhere. I just want to know what it felt like. You know, what the drug felt like in your body." I can't believe I'm wasting my time with this guy.

"Will this help you find out who spiked my drink?" A women comes over and sets my coffee on the table. I already paid her at the counter, so I'm ready to just leave when Adrian starts laughing in my face.

"Sweet heart, I already know it was one of my guys who did it. And I don't really care why. I just want to know what kind of drug it was. By what everyone is saying..." he pauses, making my anxiety level extremely high. "you had one heck of a ride." His eyes narrow as he looks me over. My hands are starting to get sweaty, and my breathing shallow. I grab my coffee and stand up.

"I need to go. And I don't want you or any of your friends coming near me." I don't need this shit right now, and Adrian is just pissing me off. I don't know why I'm getting mad though. He has no future, and he probably never will. "And stop calling me sweet heart!" I yell as I dash out the door. His menacing eyes follow me right out, and for a second, I'm tempted to go back and talk to him about what happened at the party. He probably knows why my drink, out of all the people there got spiked. I shake the thought away. If I was to go back in there, I would know for certain that I must be losing my mind.

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