Under The Surface [Editing]

Chapter Seven Moments

My eyes opened sleepily to see the clock on my nightstand show the time as 4:02am. I groaned, what had woken me up? Oh yes, some odd thumping noise coming from inside the house.

A few days have passed since Monday, my dad was furious about the detention and had lectured Nathan and me that we had to try and get along. Our animosity and tension was stressing my father out. I felt bad that my father was dealing with so much grief from me about this. He raised me better than that.

Detention had been awful and not making anything easier. We had been put on trash duty after school with Mr. Lancaster supervising. We went through all the classrooms emptying and replacing trash for the next day of school. Nathan seemed amused when I would pick up the full trash bags like it was a poisonous snake. He would smirk and make his snide remarks calling me too 'prissy' for trash duty. We took the bus home from school most the time after detention with my dad being at work. I didn’t get a lot of time to myself this week unless it was after dinner.

Also I had overheard part of a phone conversation my dad was having the other day, with whom I had no idea. From what I had heard there seemed to be some problems arising with Nathan living with us. Something about his parents did not agree to the program and arrangement and he was still under eighteen so he shouldn’t have been able to make that choice himself. I guess they had decided to try and fight it and Nathan had not seen or spoken to them since he was released.

My dad wasn’t telling me anything. Nathan as usual was closed up about his past and family. I would find out one way or the other.

Lily and Debra didn’t mention anything more about me supposedly crushing on Nathan. One small thing I was grateful for. Girls continued to flock around and flirt with Nathan. He welcomed it, but never seemed to take any interest beyond flirting. The school slut Penny Foster had taken a large interest in Nathan, much to my annoyance.

I was still trying to figure out who in my P.E. class had been talking rumors and crap about me, but with no results. The week had just been totally awful. I don’t think I have had as many emotions course through me in such a short period of time since that day long ago.

Thump.

What the hell was that? I needed my sleep for school today. It was Thursday and Mr. Lancaster along with the detention had a test planned in math class. I already was not great at the subject. What was more irritating was that Nathan is exempt from the test since he had only been back to school for four days ago.

Thump.

Rumors had started to surface and I had been hearing a few of them. ‘My dad was a pervert for letting a teenage boy live in his house with his daughter’. Big shocker there, I knew that one was coming.

Thump.

I heard, ‘Dawn is a slut’ but then people noticed that he doesn’t really hang out with me except during P.E. which also annoyed me.

Thump.

Rumors about Nathan being a womanizer or maybe we were together but secretly. I snorted thinking ‘yeah like that would ever happen’.

Thump.

I growled throwing the covers off of me and got out of bed to go look for the weird sound. If it was a supernatural ghost, I was running for the salt and iron fireplace poker. Sigh, I watch too much TV.

Opening my bedroom door the dark hallway greeted me. My dad’s door was shut, every door was shut. The noise came from the direction of Nathan’s bedroom. I cursed to myself under my breath.