No Fears

Chapter 1- Steph

Five years later           

I WOKE TO A LOUD BANG. It had been a door being slammed downstairs. And yeah, it had been loud enough to wake me. It wasn't a sound I was used to, we weren't allowed to shut the doors that way in my house.

"Why the hell is there a car blocking my exist?!" I heard my father yell from downstairs.

Fuck. Jared's car. I had left it there, swearing to myself that I would wake up before my father, so I would move it. I grabbed my phone looking for an alarm but couldn't find any, I must have forgotten to set one. I had been so tired last night after everything that the moment I made contact with my pillow I was down. 

"What to do you mean Stephen?" My mom asked him.

"Look through the window." He answered.

After a bit, she answered. "That's Stephanie's friend, Jared's car."

"Stephanie!" He called me.

I ran to the stairs. "Yes?" I asked. I always had to answer that way when he called me, he didn't like it when I said "What?". He said that a "Yes?" sounded like a more predisposed answer, instead the other one made it look like you didn't want to do what you had been asked to.

"Why the hell is your damn friend's car blocking my exist? Is he here? Has he slept in your room?" He asked, now a murderous look had taken over his face. He would always do the same, ask too many questions without giving me enough time to answer them. I would never know what to answer first.

"No. He is not here. I just borrowed his car." I answered.

"What are you still doing here?" He asked me. "Don't you know that I have to get to work, Stephanie? What are you? Stupid?" He sometimes worked on Sundays too. He was an accounter for very rich people, and when one of them needed him he would not hesitate to go. Some families might be upset that their father was away on a Sunday, but mine? My family was glad he was gone.  

"I'm sorry, I'll go move it right now." I replied and started walking up the stairs.

"Faster!" He yelled. I started running. Everything I did I always had to do it fast, even when we weren't in a hurry. He had this stupid concept about life being too short and how we had to live it by not wasting  time in anything. I, instead believed that as life was short we should live it as happy as possible as  longer as we could be. The thing was that in order for me to be happy, I had to be anywhere else than where my father was, so my moments of joy were greatly reduced as I had the misfortune of leaving with him.

When I had finally moved the car, he immediately pulled his car out of his garage and drove off.

Yeah, I hated me father.

I considered myself a strong person. Someone who fought for what she wanted and didn't let anybody walk over her. I would never stay quiet if I found myself in an unfair situation, I would always defend myself and the people I cared about.

But all that? It was completely gone when I was around my father. Suddenly I stopped being that strong character person I thought I was and became this daddy's girl, a girl that did everything her father told her in a heartbeat.  That's how much power he held over me. I hated him more for that. He did the same to my mom, and to my two younger twin-brothers. He had us all in the palm of his hand. That's why we loved it when he wasn't home. We could do what we pleased, we could be free.

"What are you doing home already, Stephanie?" My mom asked when I entered the kitchen. She didn't demanded an answer every time she asked my something like my father. Her tone was sweet, almost worried.
At least it seemed to be, since she was indiferent to almost everything. I think it was her coping process, how she managed to stand being around my father, she elimited all her feelings and emotion whatsover. That wasn't good, I wished she noticed that we were suffering with him, so maybe she could do something.