Dolls

Chapter 11: Conflictions

     When Father came home that night he gave no indication of his detour to Sam's house. I should have asked Sam what Father had told him. If it was too over the top I probably would have confronted Father about it. Then again, he would know Sam had been here and I would just be making things worse for the both of us in the long run. Guess it was just better for me to keep my mouth shut on this one.

     I explained my plans to go back to school the next day before heading off to my room. There was no point in staying around to hear if he disagreed or not. Maybe Sam's words had gotten to me. It felt slightly rebelious to not ask for his permision. At least I had told him. I refused to tell him about what had occured earlier, however. I absolutely couldn't bring myself to admit that Sam had been here. It would have been even worse if I had mentioned the kiss. There was no way I would tell Father that it had even come close to happening.

     So the next morning I woke up early and started getting ready. It wasn't long after I had gotten dressed that a knock sounded on my door. Obviously Father was up and wanted to talk. I dropped my brush on the desk and swung the door open.

     "Anything I can help you with?" I asked curiously.

     Father shook his head, "I just wanted to know if you were sure about going back to school."

     I gave him a soft smile, hoping to reassure him, "I'll be fine. You really shouldn't worry so much, it's bad for your health."

     Father just gave a grunt, which I interpreted as a 'whatever', and headed down the hallway to the living room.

     The next day school turned out to be the same as I remembered it. Loud, rambunctious, and so extremely exciting! I didn't think I would ever get used to the excessive noise that filled the halls of that building. My standard black converse carried me across the floor and to my locker. It seemed lonely, students milling around but never paying much attention to it. It was as if it had been forgotten in the day I had been gone and had fallen into depression. The door creaked open as I yanked on it, finally getting the combination right after numerous failed trials.

     My books were still stacked inside like I had left them. I wasn't sure what I had expected exactly. It wasn't like they would have been switched around while I was gone. Everything was normal. No huge impact had been made by my absence. I wasn't quite sure why I thought it would be any different than it really was.

     Walking through the halls I was quickly caught by Bailey, who seemed to have had some sort of mental breakdown when I was gone because she was so happy and flustered when she saw me. Bailey and I had grown fairly close during our lunch meets, of course my main focus was still on Sam. It was nice having a girl friend to keep me updated on everything that teenage girls seemed to participate in. I wasn't quite sure if it was every teenage girl yet, or just Bailey, but shopping was always a huge topic of converstation, as well as boys. The topic of boys was always brimming with possibilities.

     "So did you hear that Mercy and her boyfriend broke up yesterday?" Bailey exclaimed when we were done with all the formals such as 'where were you' and 'are you okay.'

     "Um, no. I wasn't here yesterday, remember that? I didn't even know she had a boyfriend," Mercy and I had never really connected all that well. She spoke to me politely at lunch, but other than that she never actually acknowledged me.

     "Oh yeah, right. But apparently they had this huge public fight and she stormed off right after. It was a kind of unanimous thing, but it still sucks. It's amazing Mercy didn't even shed a tear. She just directed a large amoung of profanities toward him behind his back and got over him," Bailey acted surprised, as if in the world of teenagers this was the most prestigious accomplishment you could have.