Crossing The Line

Chapter Seventeen

Morgan's POV

The next morning, as a team we woke up early and finally made it back to Georgia. I got off the bus and when I saw that JJ already left I knew that I had to walk home but I was fine with it. I swung my bag over my shoulder as I began walking home.

As I walked along the sidewalk a familiar car pulled over and rolled down their window.

It was Coach O'Hara.

"Need a lift?" She asks. Without saying a word, I get into the front passenger seat and she drove me home.

"You know, you did great yesterday." Coach O'Hara says as she breaks the silence.

"Could have done better." I say as I stare out the window.

"You're a really talented and an amazing girl and..." Then it went silent, leaving me hanging. What was she trying to say?

"And?" I ask, hoping for an answer.

"Nothing... never mind." Kelley says as she turns her head and gives me a small smile. I guess I had to settle with nothing, it wasn't worth asking.

She finally pulled up in my driveway and it was weird because she offered to walk me up to the front porch.

"You really didn't have to do that. I'm fully capable of walking into my own house." I say with a small laugh.

"I know, I just wanted to." Kelley says with a small smile.

"Morgan!" I hear a voice yell from the other side of the door. Shit, I thought to myself. My mom was home and I wasn't expecting her at all.

"Who was that?" Kelley asks with a concerned expression on her face but I just shake my head. "Morgan, who is it?" She demands and I was kind of shocked at her response.

"It's my mom." I finally say as I start to open the front door but Kelley grabs my hand and starts to pull me away from the door.

"You're not going in there." Kelley says with a firm grip on my arm.

"It's fine." I say as I pull away from her but like earlier, she grabbed my arm and made me face her. She looked me in the eyes and I could almost see anger in her eyes, but why? Why was she doing this?

"She hurts you, Morgan." Kelley whispers, trying to keep her voice down.

"I won't let her." I say as I loosen her grip on my arm. I open the door and step inside.

"Morgan!" Kelley hisses but I ignore her. I was going to be fine like many times before.

"Morgan, where the hell have you been?" My mom asks. I give Kelley one last look before turning to face my mom and closing the door.

"Soccer." I reply.

"Quit that damn sport! You're no good!" My mom says as she grabs my bag and throws it against the wall. But, I don't say anything. There was nothing to say.

"You wouldn't know because you've never  seen me play!" I scream back. My mom slapped me across the face as she grabbed my wrist but I pulled away from her.

"Don't you talk to me like that, you hear me?" My mom says as she grabs me by the hair and forces me to look her in the eyes. 

"Let me go!" I scream as I try pulling away but I felt like my hair was going to be yanked out by my own mother. It was the worse feeling ever and it made me hate her even more. Then, I heard pounding on the door.

"Who the hell is that?" My mom hisses as I try pulling away from her but it was no use. Then, the door opened and Kelley appeared in the door frame. 

"Leave!" I yell at Kelley as I finally pull away from my mom who stared at Kelley angrily.

"Who the hell are you and what the hell are you doing in my fucking house!" My mom yells at Kelley and at the moment I wanted to hit my mom for talking to her like that. Kelley stood in front of me as if she was trying to shield me from my own mom.

"Leave her alone." Kelley says through gritted teeth. My palms were sweating as the scene began to unfold, but I couldn't let Kelley get involved in my personal life. My mom will make sure that I would never do soccer because of Kelley.

"Listen to me, don't you ever tell me what to do you sick son of a bitch! Get out of my house!" My mom screams and I haven't seen her this angry in a while. Yes, she hit me and yelled at me but not to this extent.

"No, you listen to me! You leave her alone or I swear to god I'll call the police." Kelley says.

"Kelley, stay out of this." I say as I look Kelley in the eyes as I tried fighting back tears.

"She's hurting you, Morgan. And you aren't doing anything about it!" Kelley says as she looks back at my mom. Kelley grabs my hand and locks our fingers together before she pulled me out the door and we went into her car. She began driving for a while and finally when we were far enough from my house, she pulled over to the side of the road and stared intently into my eyes.

"Why are you letting yourself suffer?" Kelley asked.

"I... I don't know I guess I'm used to it." I reply as I look away from her and begin to fight back tears.

"You can't keep letting this happen to you." Kelley says as she tilts my head so I could face her. She moved the hair away from my face as she looked me in the eyes. Staring into her eyes brought me a sense of security and calmness and I needed that. But, sadness filled her eyes and it was because of me.

"I never wanted you to be involved in this."

"You're miserable because of your mom and you keep letting this continue and it shouldn't be that way and if you aren't going to fix this then I will."

"Can't you see? I'm done fighting."

A single tear rolled down my cheek.