Misguided Ghosts

Chapter Forty-Four

Forty-Four – Tay

Not long after the pain in my heart had died away, Ed fell asleep. I didn’t understand how he could fall asleep sitting up, but he managed it. I slipped my arms under him and shifted him so that he was lying down, curled in the foetal position with his head resting on his arm. Doing everything I could not to disturb him, I got up from the bed and slipped out of my room, shutting the door quietly behind me. I felt bad for leaving him, but it was nothing compared to finding out from Liam that he’d gone away a week after he’d left. Why hadn’t Liam told me? His betrayal stung. But then I remembered the day I’d gone over there. How Hayley had been there, wearing nothing but his shirt. Great. Now they were all lovey-dovey as well. But it still didn’t explain why Hayley hated me. But then again, I’d woken up on the night that her best friend had died. That was probably a valid reason to hate someone.

From the top of the stairs, I could hear the low voices of my parents. They were talking quickly, as if they were afraid that I was going to appear at any moment.  I walked halfway down the stairs and settled into a crouch, just hidden from sight by the bannister, straining my ears and listening for all I was worth.

“-Something wrong with her,” My father said brusquely. “She shouldn’t be with a boy like him,”

“I agree,” My mother said in a hushed tone. “Did you hear her? ‘If he was your son’. Ha!”

I could practically hear their eyes rolling. And then the onslaught continued. “If he was my son, I think I’d disown him. He obviously has no ambitions in life. He’s just wasting his life away. According to her, he’s so clever, and yet he doesn’t go to university and elects to work in a bookshop,”

Ed hadn’t gone to uni because he felt like he wasn’t ready and because he’d wanted to wait for me, so that we could move away and start afresh together. Then the accident had ruined everything.  

“And did you see him on the driveway? He looked half-mad!”

As their attack on Ed continued, I felt a hot, boiling anger bubble in my chest. They had no idea that I was listening, and they had no idea of how much Ed had done for me and how little they had done in comparison. He was the one who’d cared for me, not them. They may have been my biological parents, but they weren’t my Mum and Dad. I was just the product of their genetics. Nothing more. The more I thought about it, the more I realised that he was pretty much all I had left. Yeah, I had Jared and Char, but now I was a third wheel. Whenever I was with Ed, I could just be. I didn’t have to try for anyone. I didn’t care if this wasn’t the Ed I’d previously known. He was still mine. He was everything to me now. He was my family.

Standing up from my crouch, I took and deep breath and walked down the stairs, my feet taking me to the living room. I opened the door and watched the colour drain from their faces.

“We need to talk,” I said firmly, squaring my shoulders.

“You’re right,” My father said in a deadpan voice. “We do,”

“So I’m going to talk and you’re going to listen,” I snapped. “You’re going to stop whatever vendetta you have against Ed. He’s my boyfriend and I love him. There is nothing you can do to change that.”

“You’re seventeen,” My father interjected, scoffing loudly. “It’s not love. It’s infatuation,”

“You see?!” I exclaimed. “You don’t even care. I have done everything by myself, and the one thing that you shouldn’t have to help me with, you feel that you can dictate! You’re either here all the time or you shouldn’t bother. Being a parent isn’t a part-time job.”  I glared at each of them in turn, daring them to challenge me. “And as for Ed, you’d better start thinking of him as your son, because he’s not going anywhere,”