Be Mine Tonight - Michael Clifford

Chapter 2 - Leave Me Alone

After the guys left Carly continued to freak out. All she did was talk about Luke. After about an hour I started playing GTA and ignored her. She had no idea.

"Did you see how his eyes sparkled?" she said "Riley!"

"Hm?" i said, not taking my eyes away from the game. I didn't understsand why she was being like this. Yeah they're in a band, but they're just regular guys. Or at least they wanted to be treated like regular guys. Which is probably the reason why they are here.

"How are you so calm?" she asked

I paused the game and put down the controler. "Carly, I don't think you understand what is going on. It really looks like they are here to get away from people who freak out about them. You won't help matters if you sit there and fangirl every time you see Luke."

"I can't help it! I can't tweet or blog about it so I need to let it out!"

I rolled my eyes. "Is their band even that good?"

Her eyes widened like I had just insulted her. She put a hand over her heart. "Riley Madison Parks! What kind of a question is that?"

I hated when she said my full name. She did it just to piss me off. I hated my last name. It was the only thing I still had from my dead beat father and I didn't even want it. He left when I was seven. My mom said he went to rehab, but when he never came back I just assumed he left because he didn't want me. I remember the day he left like it was yesterday.

The bus dropped me off in my neighborhood after a long day of school. I said bye to Carly and we went our seprate ways. I skipped up to my front door with a ceramic dog i made in art for my Dad. He always told me how much he loved puppies. How happy they made him when he had bad days. I thought if I gave it to him it would stop him from stumbling around and being so angry.

"Mommy? Daddy? I'm home!" i said as i entered.

"I'm leaving Beth!" I heard my dad shout from my parents bedroom. There was a crash and the sound of a door being slammed. My dad stumbled out with a suitcase that was stuffed with clothes.

"Daddy?" he dragged his suitcase to the door and I stood there frozen. He stopped for a moment and stared at me. I could smell the alcohol on him.

"Mark can we please-" my mom stopped when she noticed me. I had tears filling my mind. I was so confused. Where was he going? Why was he taking all of his clothes with him? "Riley, honey come here" she held her hand out.

"Where is Daddy going?"

I could practically feel the pain radiating off of her. "D-Daddy needs to go get help" her eyes glanced up to him as she crouched down to my level. "Right Mark?"

He laughed. "Yeah sure"

I started to cry. "But daddy, you can't leave. When will you be back? I made this for you. To help with the bad days" I handed him the ceramic dog. He took it in his hand, looked at me for a moment and without another word he was out the door, slamming it behind him. I tried to run after him but my mom wouldn't let me.

"LET ME GO! I NEED TO STOP DADDY! I NEED-" i fell to the floor and broke down. Later that day I went out to play with Carly and found the dog I made my dad in pieces on the ground. My mental health went downhill after that. Therapist after therapist. About three year ago I finally let it go. I started gaming and it distracted me. I wanted to be happy. I was tired of crying myself to sleep. I was tired of feeling like i had to self-harm to feel better. So I kept gaming, and I have ever since. It keeps me sane. I wish there could have been an actual person to be there for me, but there wasn't. I pushed everything into a file in my brain and locked it away.