Redeeming Qualities

~ Chapter 4 ~

Taylor's POV: 

I haven't been to school for a week. I know that I'm behind, and that we will probably get a phone call from the school about my absence too, but they haven't done it yet. I suppose that they're being understanding about my situation.

They don't want an investigation about the video. Tyler is their first student to ever get admitted into an Ivy League school, so they don't want that taken away because of the video. They also don't want to deal with the scandal about it being spread around. They probably think that it's better that I'm staying home, and that my mother doesn't know.

As for my mother, it hasn't been hard to convince her that I was sick, because I have puked every single day. Everytime I think of that stupid video, and that memory that was once sweet but is now just disgusting. Everytime I think of going back to school and dealing with I know I'll have to deal with, it makes me sick.

Mom and I have been alone for the last week. Mike only came home twice to shower and get things, but then he left again. He said he was working overtime, but I suspect that he's doing a bit more than that. I'm not alone in that suspicion, there's no way that my mother doesn't also see it. She just really, really tries to see the good in him.

She smells the scent of whiskey he leaves behind when he walks through the house. She sees his disheveled features that he has since stopped trying to hide. The only thing she missed that I didn't was the one time where I ran into him coming out of him and my mother's room, stuffing a handful of condoms into his pocket.

Tonight, I decide to shower. I grab a tank top and a pair of shorts before retreating into the bathroom.

I always shower late for several reasons. One of them, is because I'm never really able to sleep until about midnight or one, so otherwise I'd just be bored. Another reason is because this way, I get to drown out most of the yelling and crying that occurs when Mike slips in late. This is going to be a long shower.

When I get out, I braid my hair and put my clothes on. When I leave the bathroom, I see Mike out in the living room, sitting on the couch with a bottle of whiskey. I walk into my room, and shut the door. I like to see as little of him as possible, because I know the kind of shit he does when he gets angry.

There's a knock on my door. I'm thinking it might be mom, asking for comfort or something. I tell the knocker to come in, and then in steps fucking Mike. Just the person I wanted to see.

"Your mom says you've been missing a lot of school recently." He says, and comes and sits next to me on my bed. He's disgustingly drunk, which gives me an eerie feeling. Usually, when he's drunk, he's breaking things and screaming.

"Yeah. If I were you, I wouldn't get too close. I might puke all over you." I tell him flatly. He's sitting about four inches from me on the bed, and that is way closer than I would ever want to be to him. There have been several times when I've considered punching him, but never brought myself to do it because that would involve having to be physically near him. He gives me a disgusting smile.

"Let me give you a piece of advice, darling. Go to school. Women these days, if they aren't putting out, aren't very useful without an education. Besides, why make your mother deal with you the whole week?" Uh, maybe because that's what mothers are supposed to do? I've been mostly handling myself anyways, so that's not a reason for him to bitch.

"You smell disgusting. Why would you make my mother deal with that the last year? Not only my mother, but all the other women you've been sleeping with. Unless you are an absolute angel and aren't a burden to anyone, I wouldn't give me any shit." I tell him, and he leans forward, right against my ear. I automatically tense up at the unwanted contact.