My New Daddy

17: Day at Home

Chapter 17

As the day went on I continued to hide in my room away from my horrid step-father and my uncaring mother. My thoughts were my own enemy as they told a constant story of how my misfortunes are my fault. How I deserve every single thing Frank does to me. If I didn't deserve it how would my own mother sit back and basically watch it all happen?

I realized that Heather and Carry would not be coming over this weekend when I remembered that it was already Friday. It was at that moment when I knew I actually wanted them to come over. Not for the fact of them being the only friends I really had, but for the hopes of Frank not doing anything to me in front of them. It didn't take a genius to know that Frank couldn't beat me in front of guests.

Knowing that it would only be about three days until Frank would be gone once again for work was comforting. I'm not sure how else I would have been able to go through the day otherwise. Hopefully the bruises on my face would be gone enough by Monday for me to go to school. I needed out of that hell hole.

I decided it was time to get dressed. It was past noon and I knew I would have to go out to use the bathroom eventually. If Frank or my mother saw that I was still in my pajamas I would be in more trouble. After finally getting off my bed, I went over to my stereo to turn on the radio. The stereo was practically prehistoric. It was a worn, ugly brown and had no place for a CD. Instead it was a two spots for a tape to go and at the top was for old records. My mother had given it to me for Christmas one year and I absolutely loved it. I turned on some country and headed over to my dresser.

Quickly I realized how few clothes I had to wear when I was bruised and sore every where. I tried on some jeans but the harsh material was just to much for the fragile state my body was now once again in. I ended up settling for my blue athletic pants and a grey long sleeved shirt. The shirt was some what scratchy, but most of the ones I owned were. Especially my long sleeve shirts. There was no way I wanted to wear a t-shirt incase my brother came home though.

When I was about as dressed as I could get while being so sore I curled up in a ball on my bed with a Goosebumps book I borrowed from the middle school library. A little while later I awoke to soft knocks on my door. I didn't realize I drifted off to sleep, but it ended all to soon.

Rubbing my eyes, I slowly got up from my bed and made my way to see who it was. I wasn't completely surprised when I opened the door to see my mother since the door wasn't pounded on before being rudely swung open. However, I was surprised by the fact that she actually knocked.

"Your little friends brought your homework home," my mother said before I could get a confused word in.

Shocked, I replied, "Oh. Okay. Where is it?"

"They're in the kitchen," she said, looking over her shoulder at them.

This time I was confused more than ever. Why would she let them stay knowing what I looked like? Oliver wasn't even allowed to have friends over when I looked like this. "Oh?" I questioned her.

My mother looked down uncomfortably before looking back up at me with a stern stare. "They said they needed to show you how to do a couple things that were taught today."

"Okay?"

She rolled her eyes at me, "I told them that since you weren't sick, but only had an accident on your bike that they could stay. Only for homework though. You're grounded."

"What? Why am I grounded? I didn't do anything!"

"Enough! We will talk later!" with that she turned around and left me standing in my doorway dumbfounded.

Right as I was about to go get the girls, they walked into my line of vision. I instantly dropped my head, letting my hair fall in front of my face. We headed into my room with no questions on if I was okay. Not that I had expected either of them to ask.

"We brought your stuff so we could come over," Heather said as she plopped down onto my bed.

"Yeah. Thanks," I pretended to be busy cleaning so I wouldn't have to look at them.

"Sure," Carry replied and joined Heather on my bed.

"Here. I'll show you what you have to do for math quick," Heather started flipped to a page in the text book and got a clean piece of paper to do the work on from a notebook.

Concentrating on the work gave me another excuse to keep my head down. Although I didn't actually need help with the work at all. Math always seemed to be a simple subject to me that I just happened to enjoy too. Every thing that Heather showed me I already knew how to do. I let her walk me through it anyways since it was a good distraction of everything else.

"So do you get it?" Heather finally asked after about five problems.

"Yeah I do. I can finish the rest on my own or something."

"Well if you know how to do it now you can just copy mine," she said nonchalantly.

At that I snapped my head up. "You mean cheat off of you?"

I heard gasps from both Carry and Heather as they took in my face. I tried hiding behind my hair again but it was to late. They already seen it and there was no going back.

"Oh my god!" Heather yelled as Carry swore.

"What? It's nothing," frantically I tried to make it sound like it was fine.

"Brook, what the hell happened to you?" Carry was the only one of the two who seemed to reply after a few agonizing moments.

It took all I had to fight back the tears that threatened to spill and betray me. "Didn't my mom tell you? I got in an accident on my bike."

Carry raised her eyebrow and crossed her arms as she leaned back against the wall. "That doesn't look like a little bike accident."

"It was. I flipped over the handlebars," I shrugged.

"How did you do that?" Heathers voice sounded weak compared to her loud, obnoxious one she usually used.

I started picking at the old, worn blanket, "I think I hit a big rock or something going down the hill."

Belief slowly made its way across each girl's face as they thought about it.

"I'm clumsy with just walking. I'm bound to get in a bike accident here and there," I helped push idea further into their heads that this was a mere accident.

"Did you go to the hospital?" Heather asked.

"No. I didn't need to."

"Why not? What if you have a concussion or something?"  she seemed worried. Oddly enough, I liked the thought of someone being worried about me for once.

"I'm okay. Really. I don't have a head ache or anything."

A little while later my mother knocked on my door. By that time Heather was just asking me questions about Oliver as Carry sat back and rolled her eyes. "Brooklynn, it's time for your friends to go. You need to rest," Mother sounded like a normal concerned Mom. I knew it was all an act.

I walked the girls out and lingered in the kitchen where my mom was. "What do you want Brooklynn?" she sighed.

"Oh. Well. I was wondering... why am I grounded?" I stammered.

"Because. You didn't tell me you were going to go out on your bike," she said as if it was obvious.

My mouth dropped open. I just stood there staring at her. How could she say that? She knew I didn't really have an accident on my bike. I hardly rode it anymore.

"Go to your room. I'm sick of looking at you," my mother emotionlessly as she looked back down to her magazine and took a drag of her cigarette.

I had no words. All I could do was turn around and go to my room like she told me to. Was my mother really starting to believe her own lies? Was this how she was able to sleep at night? She just created a whole new level of looking away from what her own husband was doing to her baby girl.