Later that night I was sitting in the living room watching TV when my dad finally came home.
"I didn’t know you worked this late," I said.
"I don't," he said, "I stopped at Linda's house."
"Oh," I said, not bothering to hide the anger in my voice. He and my mom had split up 5 years ago, but it didn't mean I was over it.
"Come on and eat. I picked up some pizza," he said. Of course, he was oblivious to my bitterness.
Reluctantly, I went and sat down at the dinner table across from my dad and helped myself to a slice of pizza from the box. My dad got up and retrieved a can of beer from the fridge, which reminded me that I meant to talk to him about it.
"You told me you quit drinkin’," I said flatly.
"Yeah. I'm not an alcoholic anymore. It doesn't mean I don't have a beer every now and then," he said nonchalantly.
“And when did you magically stop being an alcoholic?" I said bitterly.
He regarded me warily. "When I met Linda."
Anger flared up inside me. I was really starting to dislike this Linda woman, and I hadn't even met her yet.
"So what, your own wife and daughter aren't enough motivation to stop being an alcoholic but a new girlfriend is?"
"It's more than that, Shay."
"You ruined my life! You pushed mom and me away! Philly screwed me up, Dad! Mom tried so hard to help you, and you didn’t even try and get better until after we were gone?!" By that point I was standing up yelling at him, venom dripping from my words.
"Now let’s just talk about this calmly,” he said, his voice taking on a fatherly tone.
"No! I'm done talking and I'm done hearing your excuses!" I screamed. My mind spun. It felt like my father had betrayed me. A whirlwind of emotions churned inside of me, and it was all too much. I turned away, looking for the first exit I could find, which was the sliding glass door that led out to the back yard. I thrust it open and took off into the night.
I quickly realized, however, that I had nowhere to run to. Even if I did manage to find Wyatt or Shelby, it wouldn't make a good impression if I was already running to them about my dysfunctional family problems. I decided that hiding would just have to do.
I ran into the barn, frantically searching for a place to hide. I slipped into a random stall and slid the door shut just as I heard my dad outside calling my name. I ducked down and crouched against the door so that if my dad peeked in through the barred opening, he wouldn’t be able to find me. The palomino colored horse inside the stall merely glanced at me before returning his attention to his hay.
I tried to calm my breathing just as my dad entered the barn.
“Shay!” he called, his footsteps echoing down the concrete aisle. I heard him run past the stall and go down to the opposite end of the barn. He paused, and then turned and ran back out of the barn, muttering a string of curses.
I released the breath I didn’t realize I had been holding. The horse now seemed more curious. He shuffled over to wear I was sitting and sniffed my hand. I stroked his face as tears began to spill out of my eyes. When he went back to munching hay, I curled up into a ball on the straw bedding of the stall. And for the first time since before my mom died, I sobbed.
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YOU ARE READING
Heart of Georgia
Romance(UNDER CONSTRUCTION) Shay Crawford never thought her parents would get divorced. She never thought she would have to leave Georgia. She never thought her life would self-destruct. And she definitely never thought that her mom would die when she was...
