How To Live

Chapter Six

The bright light of the summer sun glaring through my window makes me cringe as I crack my eyelids open slowly, a splitting headache already in full force pounding inside my head.

I groan and roll over, shielding my eyes from the unbearable light.

It feels like someone has a sledgehammer and is repeatedly banging it on the inside of my skull. Getting wasted is definitely not worth it.

I fumble around on the floor and find my phone inside the pocket of my discarded jeans and blearily read the three messages that have been left by Emily.

I'm on house arrest. Mom is not impressed about last night.

Come over and we can pick up our cars from the field? Mom won't let me go alone.

OMG Wesley Martin??? What happened last night! Someone saw you at the diner and he asked me for your number LOL.

My stupid heart picks up a beat as I read the last text and I sigh in frustration and I drag myself out of bed and into the shower. I have no idea why Wesley Martin would even want my number after I made such a fool of myself in front of him last night.

I let the warm water from the shower carry me away to a world where drama and utter embarrassment doesn't exist just for a few moments. My Zen like atmosphere doesn't last very long before the pounding on the bathroom door begins.

For a moment, I think that it's Tommy and my eyes fly open as I stare at the door. Maybe this is reality, and Tommy is still alive. Maybe his death was nothing but a bad dream.

My Father's angry voice calls through the door and my hopes are shattered. No, this is definitely not a dream, but from the tone of his voice I am about to enter into my worst nightmare.

"Ashton Stanton, downstairs now!" He yells through the door and I turn the water off and dry myself quickly.

I bound down the stairs in a faded blue dress and come to a halt three steps from the bottom of the staircase as I meet my Dad's angry glare.

"Good morning?" I can already tell from the look on his face that it certainly is not a good morning.

"Where were you last night? What happened to your hair?" He demands staring at my new locks in distain and I shrug my shoulders attempting to play innocent.

"I was here, in my room and I dyed it." I reply, touching my now plain brown hair self-consciously.

He shakes his head at me in frustration.

"If you were here in your room then why was Tommy's jeep impounded this morning and dropped off here by Paul's tow truck after it was abandoned along the back roads of Bolton? Because neither your Mother nor I have been driving it!" He explodes angrily.

"I don't know how that happened." I reply and it is partially the truth, because I left Tommy's car in a field, not along the backloads of Bolton. Although now that I think about it I don't actually remember where I left the keys...

"Well maybe you'll remember how it happened when you organise and begin to pay off the money for its repairs." He threatens and I hold his gaze steadily, refusing to cave and tell him I was at the party last night. I would rather scrounge up the cash to pay for the jeep than to tell my Dad I snuck out of the house, got drunk at a party, and let a boy from the other side of the tracks bring me home. No, this is by far the safer option.

"Maybe I will, maybe I won't." I retort haughtily and he storms from the room, retreating to his study where he is no doubt cursing the day I was born.