Four Letter Word..

Chapter Six

I followed the rest of the bus drivers directions and sure enough, I came to a residential area that looked like a really expensive place to live. I needed to find house 809. It didn't take me long to find it. There was a guy around my age, maybe a little older smoking on the grassed front "Alright?" he asked
"Erm yeah... Is this the Carter residence?" I asked as he put his cigarette out
"Yeah, who are you?" he looked back at the house before looking at me again
"I'm Katrina.. I'm Peter's Daughter" his eyes widened
"Shit.." I parted my lips "Just wait here. Ok" he told me "Your Dad's been expecting you" I knotted my eyebrows together as he headed up the steps and into the house. Expecting me? I walked up the driveway a little further and the front door opened again revealing the guy who was here a moment ago and another man.. My Dad Peter Carter "Katrina?" he questioned coming over to me "Dad?" my heart was racing, I couldn't believe my Dad was standing right in front of me. All of the anger I'd had inside of me came to the surface. I don't think either of us knew what to say to each other. I hadn't seen him since I was Seven, he didn't look that different after Ten years "Come inside" he turned back towards the house and I followed slowly. I don't know what I was expecting to find out about my Dad's life but it wasn't that he lived in such a Beautiful house and had a whole other family that I had no idea about. There was so much I wanted to ask him but where did I start?

"This is Carol.. My wife and this is Joseph Carol's Eldest who you've already met.. The other two are in bed" I parted my lips
"How did you know I was coming here?" I asked him not really taking in his wife or Joseph or the fact he had two other kids upstairs asleep "You've been all over the news Kid... Social Services in Indiana have had me on the phone. They told me to keep an eye out, thought your Mother might have finally let on as to where I was" I swallowed
"Social services?" I questioned "You're not going to call them are you?" I asked him suddenly very nervous "No..Not until Morning anyway, it's late and it's Thanksgiving. Why don't you head into the sitting room and give your Mom a call" I let out a laugh
"Mom is in the hospital.. She's an alcoholic. You don't really know anything do you?" I asked him "God, why did I even think this was a good idea.. You don't care about me. If you did you wouldn't have left me and Mitch. Do you even know what happened to Mitch?" I asked him, my words just tumbling out "Of course I do Katrina" I bit down hard on my lip
"Why weren't you there? Why weren't you at the funeral?" he sighed
"It's complicated Darling" I shook my head at him "We can talk about this in the Morning, it's late and you look like you could do with some proper sleep" I tried to even out my breathing as Carol his wife looked at me sympathetically "I'll go and set the spare room up" she told my Dad as she left the hallway and headed up the stairs. "Come and sit down" my Dad stated "Joe you should head upstairs and help your Mother" he looked at me and smiled weakly before heading upstairs to. I followed my Dad into another room through an archway "Sit down, make yourself comfortable. Do you want anything, a drink?" I shook my head as I sat on the couch
"How can you be acting so normal right now?" I asked him "You don't look shocked to see me"
"Like I said Katrina, Social Services have been in contact with me, plus your face has been plastered all over the news channels"
"It's Kat" I spoke "No one calls me Katrina" he nodded
"Ok Kat.. Where's the boy you were with? Billy?" I shrugged before answering
"We agreed to go our separate ways"
"You know, your Mom refused to let me see you...We went to court you know? They decided you were better off with her" I stared at him hard shocked by the sudden change in conversation topic "Better off with Mom?" I questioned "How were me and Mitch better off with her?"
"Obviously now, I see that wasn't a good decision but, I couldn't do anything about it"
"And what about when her abusive Boyfriend killed Mitch? You thought it was still good for me to be there?" he sighed
"Your Mom and I didn't really see eye to eye" he told me "I think she was scared to lose you" he came over to the sofa and sat beside me "She thought that maybe if you saw this big house out in California you wouldn't be able to resist it and want to stay with me here, leaving your Mom alone" I swallowed, I could see where  he was coming from. Deep down I loved my Mom but she was lousy and I would have moved to California in a heartbeat if I was given the choice "Mom got admitted to hospital about a month ago" I told him "After Mitch died she couldn't take it and turned to alcohol. She never left the house and she never ate properly. It's been really hard.. They want to put me into care because I'm still a minor and Mom can't take care of me properly at the moment" He gave me a sympathetic look and placed a hand on mine comfortingly. Which felt odd to say the least "I know it's been tough and I'm sorry I wasn't there" he sighed "I've been on the phone with both social services and your friend Stacey's Mom Penny? We agreed that you should stay in Hawkins until you've finished school and then maybe, if you wanted to you could come live out here with us" I swallowed "You could go to college here" I smiled at the thought of starting afresh. "But what happens when I go back to Hawkins?" I asked him as Carol, his Wife came into the room "Let's talk more in the Morning" he told me and I nodded understanding "Carol will show you upstairs" I followed Carol up the winding staircase and she showed me to a large room with a double bed, chest of drawers, two double wardrobes that were actually built into the walls and there was even a television set on top of the drawers. I didn't even have a television in my room at home. Carol left me to settle in and I discovered an en suite bathroom off of the side. It was unbelievable I decided to take a shower in there before heading to bed.

()()()()()()()()

I didn't sleep that well that night and it wasn't just down to the fact I was sleeping in an unfamiliar place but because Billy wasn't beside me. At about Six I got up and turned the television set on skipping to the news channel. I watched it whilst I tried to find some clean clothes to change into in my case. Eventually I saw myself on the screen, except there was a breaking news strap line running across the bottom. I turned the volume on the dial up slightly and sat myself on the edge of the bed to watch "We have some breaking news coming in this morning regarding the missing Hawkins teenagers Katrina Carter and Billy Hargrove. Katie is at the scene now" the picture changed from the news desk to a reporter stood outside of a police station "Yes I'm here outside the LAPD and I can tell you that Seventeen year old Billy Hargrove who was reported to be on the run with Seventeen year old Katrina Carter has finally been found thanks to an anonymous tip off made to the police in the early hours of this morning" I widened my eyes, someone called the cops? "And Katie do we know yet if Katrina was with him at the time of arrest?"
"There's no news at the moment on the whereabouts of Miss Carter. Police arrested Mr Hargrove at a house in Van Nuys. There's no indication that Katrina was with him but I'll be back with any developments in this case as soon as I get them" I licked over my lips and quickly got dressed heading out of the room.

Downstairs my Dad was stood against the worktop in the Kitchen watching a TV with the same channel I had on upstairs playing, Carol was sat at the Kitchen table feeding a child who couldn't have been older than two. There was a Girl a little older with Blonde hair sitting in a chair beside her "Morning Katrina" my Dad greeted, smiling "The police are on their way over here" I parted my lips "What?" I questioned, my heart racing
"Sweetie they need to know where you are" he told me
"Can we not just go down to LAPD? I need to talk to Billy" he turned to look at me
"It's not a good idea Kat.. You need to let the Police deal with this" I felt panicked. I was worried about Billy even though he'd hurt me yesterday I still wanted to make sure he didn't get blamed for my disappearance like everyone was making out. "Would you like some Breakfast?" Carol asked me as I looked at the television "Come and sit down. I'll get you some cereal" I turned and went and sat at the table next to the kid that wasn't in a highchair "This is Tabatha" Dad told me as he lent against the worktop "And that's Charlotte" I smiled at the two young girls as Joseph the eldest appeared. He sat down opposite me at the table and pulled out a pack of cigarettes "Joe, what have I told you? No smoking in the house" Dad warned him and he rolled his eyes "Fine" he stood up making the chair scrape across the floor and headed into the hallway
"I guess I have to smoke outside too?" I asked and he nodded so I stood up and followed Joseph out, grabbing my jacket that was hanging up in the porch. I opened the front door and Joseph was stood at the end of the lawn already having lit up. I went to join him and pulled my own box of cigarettes out "So I see your Boyfriend's been arrested?" I lit my cigarette with the lighter he was holding out to me "Yeah..So erm, your Carols kid then?" I asked changing the conversation straight away "Yeah, she met Peter at work, when they were both working at the same hospital" I nodded "What do they both do?" I asked
"My Mom used to be a nurse and your Dad's a consultant.. Hold on. You don't even know what your Dad does?" I shook my head
"I was seven when he left and my Mom never spoke about him. And I guess I never asked" I told him as I took a final drag of my cigarette "So how come your Boyfriend got caught? Did you ring the cops after a fall out" he asked
"No and he's not my Boyfriend" I informed him
"Then why are you wearing his jacket?" I looked down at the denim jacket
"Because it's the one I was wearing last night when..."
"When you called the cops?" he asked

"No! Look we did have a bit of an argument at the party we were both at but I left and I didn't call the cops" I told Joseph
"Whatever you say" he stubbed his cigarette out on the floor using the heel of his shoe. A police Car pulled up beside us "Guess your rides here" I rolled my eyes at him as he walked inside and I folded my arms across my chest as the Cop got out of the Car approached me.