for the love of the game ; g.d.

Chapter 14

I woke up the next morning on the large, suede recliner in our living room, with my mother asleep on the couch, and Meredith asleep on the loveseat. My head was throbbing, and my vision was fuzzy for a few seconds. Once everything was in focus, I noticed the bandages wrapped around my feet and the one on my arm.

I forced myself to readjust in the recliner to grab the TV remote and check the time. 11 a.m. Shit. I'm late for school. I stood up, and yelped in pain once my feet hit the floor. I fell back on the chair, holding my hand over my mouth to keep from making any more noise. "You okay, baby?" I heard my mother say.

I looked over at her to see nothing but a pale face and tired eyes. The sight of her like this made the cuts on my body seem painless. "I'm fine, sorry to wake you," I said. She shrugged as she sat up on the couch. "I wasn't asleep."

A moment of silence passed, until I spoke up again. "W-What happened last night?"

She sighed. "Your dad came home drunk, and we got into a big argument. I thought it was over but we started arguing again in our room later that night and he just started going ballistic."

Everything re-entered my mind all at once. "Is he in jail?"

She nodded. "Only for a few days until he has to go to court."

"I'm so sorry, mom," I said quietly. If I could walk, I'd walk over to the couch and hug her for the rest of the day. But I couldn't bring myself to do it quite yet. She scoffed. "Me? I'm fine. I'm sorry for you. Look at yourself. Gettin' all cut and banged up trying to protect me."

I laughed softly. "No one's gonna hurt my momma like that."

She let out a loud laugh, and I could tell it was genuine. She had the kind of laugh that could make even the saddest person smile. The kind of smile you'd expect a mother to have. She glanced at my bandages. "Those are bleeding through, let's get them changed."

___________

She let me stay home from school, and for the first time in forever, in my whole life maybe, I was okay with missing softball practice. I called Coach Alvarez and told her what happened, and she said she completely understood.

I spent the entire day watching crappy chick-flick movies and eating ice cream with my mom and Meredith, with a paranoid feeling in the back of my mind that my dad would bust through the door and finish what he had started last night.

It was nothing new for my parents to fight, because they fought constantly. Bills, money, finances, you name it, they'd fight about it. But alcohol has never been involved. My dad drinks, but last night it was like seeing a whole other side of him. A side you never, ever, want to see your dad on.

That night, we had dinner with Grayson and his mom. We ate with them in the living room and watched T.V. for a few hours, talking about anything and everything except what was wrong in our lives currently. I seriously mean it when I said I loved Grayson's mom, she truly is the best person you could ever hope to meet. Ethan, Grayson, and I hung out in the backyard while they had one of their infamous heart-to-heart conversations.

Since I couldn't stand for very long, I sat on a sun chair on our patio and played catch with them with a wiffleball. My throws were a little weaker since I didn't have my legs to put power into them, but still made pretty damn good throws for a girl with two cut up arms.

After they all went home, Grayson snuck back in through my window after my mom and sister had gone to bed. He just layed down behind me and wrapped his arms around me, spooning me like he always did. This was one of those times when it wasn't just one of us needing the other, but we needed each other right now.