Difference

Chapter 2

Mark is my dad's name. He and my mom divorced after I was born. I haven't seen or heard of him since. Why my mom was talking to him, I have no idea. 

I've never known my mom to lie to me before, but she did about the electrical company. She knows that I've always felt like her divorce was my fault, but she could have told me the truth about talking to my dad.

I go to my room and take out all of my homework. I might as well get it done while my mom makes something to eat. I'm not sure if I'll be able to concentrate on algebra and chemistry, though. I'm still shaking slightly. I didn't know being chased by strangers could traumatize me so much.

I trudge downstairs when dinner is ready. All I want right now is to go to bed. But I need to tell my mom about what happened today.

"So, how was school?" My mom asks me when we sit down. I stare at her for a full five seconds before even responding.

"Mom! Did you not remember that I needed to talk? I'm absolutely terrified of what happened today, and you knew that! How could you forget that fast?"

"Oh honey, I'm so sorry! I don't know how I forgot. Tell me everything that you need to," She stops eating to pay attention to me.

"I don't know how to say this without freaking you out. But I was walking through the woods to get home, and I heard people following behind me. I've never seen anyone use that short cut before, so I hid behind a tree just to be safe," I pause, "They stopped in the clearing right by me. And then they started talking to me. They knew my name, Mom. They said they wanted to talk. All I could do was run away."

I draw a shaky breath. My mom's eyes are wide, and I feel like they're a mirror of my own.

"Do you know who they were?" She asks calmly, like a therapist talking to a patient, trying to help them through their tough times.

"I didn't exactly stay to ask," I tell her. She nods.

"I'm glad you didn't. Who knows what they wanted!" My mom exclaims.

After that she calms me down, and we talk about other things, like what my mom did today, if I had finished my homework yet, and what we should do this weekend. It's like me getting chased by random men is nothing big to her. I can't help but wonder why she's acting like this.

My mom and I both go into our rooms when we were finished cleaning up from dinner. I shut my door, grab a book, and plop down on my bed, trying to clear my head from today's events and lose myself in another world. I had only read for about ten minutes when I heard someone talking.

I cracked my door open an inch and stuck my ear next to the door. I heard the voice again, and this time I could tell it was my mom.

"Joe, she saw you," She whispers, like she doesn't want someone to hear. Mainly, me.

There's a pause on my mom's end, "What do you mean, it was an accident? If you meant to grab her, then how'd she get away? Jack has decided that he wants her now. I'm not sure how well he'll take a failure on your part," I'm totally confused. I've figured out that my mom is on the phone, but I don't know who Joe is. Or Jack.

"She's seventeen, you're forty-one, Peter is thirty-five, and you couldn't catch her?" Now I've figured out that my mom is talking about me. And she obviously knows the two men who chased me in the woods on the way home from school. I'm even more confused.

"Joe, she can't run faster than you. Or Peter. She took track last year and she came in last for almost every race. It was embarrassing," That stung a little to hear my own mother say that, "She ran fast? Really fast? Like lightning?"