That Night
I unlocked my front door and slowly creeped inside hoping my father wouldn't notice me.
"Well, well, well," he stumbled over to me with an empty beer bottle in his hand.
Dammit.
"Would you look who it is?" he placed his hand on my shoulder to balance himself, "WHERE THE FUCK HAVE YOU BEEN??"
He raised his voice and he spat all over my face as he spoke.
"I'm s-sorry," I whimpered.
"TELL ME YOU DUMBASS," he slapped me across the face, leaving a red mark.
I held my cheek and stepped backwards from him slowly.
"I slept over at Kaylin's yesterday," I said quickly.
He threw his empty bottle on the ground causing it to shatter to pieces.
"And you didn't tell me?"
"Why would I? You wouldn't give a single shit if I was gone."
He widened his eyes and towered over me.
"What did you just say?" he questioned angrily.
I looked down and remained quiet.
"I asked you a question Lauren," he stepped closer to me, "what the fuck did you just say to me?!"
He placed both hands on my small shoulders and shoved me onto the ground. I fell onto the hardwood floor with a big thud and sat there hopelessly.
"If mom was still here you wouldn't be like this," I was on the verge of tears, "Imagine if she still was and how angry she would be at the moment if you did this to me."
"I don't give a shit about your mother," he clenched his jaw with anger. "I never even loved that little bitch anyways."
I glared at him and charged towards him. I pushed him up against the wall, "Don't you ever call my mom a 'bitch.'"
My dad chuckled, "She's dead, Lauren. She won't know, she won't care, she's useless. She never even cared much about you."
I gritted my teeth and kept him held to the wall.
"Now let me go," he said.
"Not a chance," I growled.
He chuckled again and threw a fist at my jaw slamming me onto the ground. He walked out of the room and lit another cigarette in the living room.
I felt my cheeks sting as my tears streamed down. I climbed up the stairs wincing in pain and opened the door to my bathroom. I turned on the hot water and stripped off my clothes before stepping into the shower. I felt the scorching hot water on my back and I buried my face into my palms. I choked on my tears, What did I ever do to deserve this?
The thing I was disgusted at the most was the fact that he was my very own father. I was made up of the other half of him. Calling him "dad" is a nightmare that came true, who knew he would end up like this?
"Mother, please help me," I cried out softly.
Unfortunately, this has become almost a daily routine. I'll come home, get scolded at, get hurt, cry, take a shower, and then sleep. During the school year I'll do my homework instead of sleeping, but everything else happens almost everyday. Sometimes I'll be lucky and he wouldn't notice me, but that only happens a couple times a month.
The Next day
I rolled out of bed and made my way to the bathroom. I peeped my head into my dad's room and thank god he was still sound asleep. I looked at my reflection in the mirror and noticed a giant purple bruise on my jaw and a red streak over my cheek.
I sighed and put layers of foundation over it trying to cover it up, but there was still a subtle purple color that managed to show through.
"Whatever," I gave up and changed into my work clothes.
I drove to the hospital and picked up Ethan's breakfast he ordered before he went to bed. I made my way to his room and opened the door slowly and walked inside. I placed his tray of food beside his bed and sat down next to him.
"Wake up sleepy head," I fluffed his hair.
He turned his head and faced me. He opened his eyes slowly and smiled.
"Good morning," he said in his raspy morning voice.
"How are you feeling?" I asked him gently.
"Pretty shitty," he replied, "The usual."
"What's on your jaw?" he reached his hand up to touch it making me wince a little.
"I-Its a hickey," I lied.
Ethan chuckled, "A hickey?"
I nodded.
"Weird," he said, "I don't remember giving you one."
I smiled and rolled my eyes, "Okay fine, you're right, it's not a hickey."
"I knew it, you're too innocent for one," he joked, "What really happened?"
"It's kind of personal, I'd rather not share," I pursed my lips and looked down.
"You can trust me," Ethan said sincerely.
I took a deep breath, "Well, my mother passed away when I was at a very young age."
Ethan sat up and nodded.
"She died of lung cancer, and my dad's the only person I have at home," I shivered, "The thing is, my dad isn't really even the only person I have."
I closed my eyes, "He could care less about me, and he has some anger issues and likes to take out his anger on me, lets just put it that way. He's been like that ever since my mom died; he started doing drugs, he's abusive..."
I rubbed my bruise gently, "I wish my mom was still here to guide me."
I tried biting back my tears.
Ethan pulled me into a hug, rubbing his hand up and down my back.
"It's okay princess, I'm here for you," he said compassionately, "I'll always be here for you."
"Always?" I sniffed.
"Always."
------
always huh?
this chapter seemed kind of off topic to me idk but i wanted to put lauren's dad in somewhere in the story bc stuff's gonna happen between him, ethan, and lauren later on.
the last 2 chapters haven't been too great bc im kinda on a writers block rn and idrk what to write. like ik how everythings gonna end and whats gonna happen in a few more chapters but i feel like if i just skipped to that everything would go by too quickly.
anyways i hope you enjoyed this chapter and im probably gonna try updating more often now:)
peace
