Anger Issues

seventy five

Jessica

Before going to bed, I stopped by Moms room.

"Mom, can Austin come over tomorrow?" I softly asked, hoping for a yes. "Why?" She asked. "We have to preform at the assembly next week.. we need to practice," I said.

"Um, yeah, sure," she agreed. "Thank you," I weakly smiled.

Ever since Mom and Dad started arguing, the life was slowly being sucked out of her. Her words were emotionless and she did nothing but work and sleep.

I've tried my best to avoid Dad especially after seeing the tapes. I knew that he would start talking and act all innocent and knowing me, I'd freak out then and there.

Noah made me promise not to tell Mom, and for some stupid reason, I promised. Dad still didn't know we knew, either.

I haven't brought myself to check the cameras, but from then, I haven't seen anything suspicious of him. He was doing amazing at keeping his secret.

I went downstairs slowly, knowing I needed to check in with Dad to make sure Austin could come over, too.

Going down the basement stairs, I stopped when I heard him talking.

"Alright, I'll see you tomorrow," he laughed. It was silent for a few seconds. "Yeah, definitely. Bye."

I immediately thought it was the lady. The lady who wasn't Mom.

"Who was that?" I asked, walking towards him. He looked up at me with a slightly scared expression, but it quickly went away. I probably startled him.

"Just a work partner," he shrugged. I was a few feet away from him, but I could still smell the alcohol on him.

I was so surprised that we still had alcohol in this house, after how much he'd been drinking.

"Um," I pushed my hair back. "I need to use the basement tomorrow, after school. Austin and I need to practice for an assembly," I explained.

"Austin?" He questioned. "Yeah," I nodded. "I thought we discussed that you're not allowed to hang out," he said. "No, we discussed that I'm not allowed to hang out unless it's for school," I defended.

"What's with the attitude?" He looked solemn. I took a breath, closing my eyes and forcing myself not to argue with him.

"I'm sorry," I sighed. "Can we use the basement?" I asked. "Sure, fine," he agreed.

I turned on my heel and went back up the stairs, thanking him on my way up.

—

At lunch the next day, I was walking into the cafeteria to meet up with Austin and Kyle.

Once I caught sight of them, I saw Kayla, too, who finally decided to show herself to us, at least.

After getting lunch, I went to the table and sat across from Kayla and Kyle, next to Austin where I usually sat.

I said nothing, waiting for something else to be said. Instead, Kayla stood up and walked away, sitting a couple tables away.

The action genuinely hurt me. I felt like crying, but I fought back the tears.

"What the.." Kyle slowly said. Austin said nothing, knowing why she did that.

I shook my head and got up. Throwing out my lunch, I walked out of the cafeteria.

"Jess," I heard Kyle's voice behind me, in the hallway. Unfortunately, I wasn't strong enough to stop the tears. One or two had slipped but I knew Kyle would get to me before I stopped.

Quickly wiping my eyes, I looked down just in time for him to stop me.

"Yeah?" I questioned, my voice almost cracking. Biting my lip, I looked up.

"What ha- why are you crying?" He asked, his expression softening. "I'm not," I denied. "I'll see you later," I said, walking away.

"Wait, Jess," he called, but I didn't stop. I walked back upstairs and grabbed what I needed for my next class, waiting out the entire lunch period with my back against the wall.

Luckily, nobody was roaming the halls, giving me some much needed silence and privacy.

I somewhat started regretting it when I realized how long the period was taking, but I didn't do anything about it.

Closing my eyes, I rested my head against the wall.

A couple more minutes passed, and I started hearing footsteps come my way. Looking to the side, Austin took a seat beside me.

"Can we not?" I sighed. He shrugged. "Whatever you want."

Leaning my head on his shoulder, he allowed me to stay there in complete silence. I didn't want anything more than that, knowing it would make me cry if I started talking about anything.

When the bell finally did ring, I slowly lifted my head off of his shoulder.

"Are you gonna be alright?" He asked, pulling me to my feet. I nodded my head.

Softly kissing the top of my head, he walked away.