Learning to Swim

Chapter 14

Chapter 14

When I wake up the following morning my mother is already gone. I have no clue where she went or what she is doing, but I don’t even have the energy to worry about it any more. I hardly got any sleep the night before and it takes all the energy I have just to keep my eyes open.

Addie is also tired and she gets extremely grumpy when she doesn’t get enough sleep. It’s almost a relief when I finally reach the daycare to drop her off. I love her and everything, but she can be a bit much sometimes.

After dropping her off I head over to my school, which I am dreading. There is no way that I’m going to be able to stay awake during class today. I can already see it is going to be a long day. At least that is what I’m thinking until I see Liam parked outside of my school.

When he sees me walking up to the school he hops out of his car and walks over to me. I wait there, slightly confused and a little scared. I haven’t talked to him since last night and I’m afraid about what he is going to say.

“Hey. What are you doing here?” I ask him, while stuffing my hands in the pockets of my coat.

“I needed to see you. To make sure that you are alright,” he adds and I grimace. I definitely thought I would have at least until tonight before I had to talk about this, but I guess not.

“I’m fine. It really wasn’t a big deal, Liam,” I tell him and his eyes widen.

“Seriously? Your mom is a drunk, Dakota. That’s kind of a big deal. Especially since she has two kids!” he replies angrily and I turn my face away from him.

“Look, can we just talk about this later? I need to get to class right now or I’m going to be late and have to stay after for another detention. Actually, shouldn’t you be in school?”

“Seeing you is more important. And I don’t want to wait until later to talk. Can’t you just take one day off?” he asks me and I bite my lip nervously.

I never cut school before, but it actually sounds like a really good idea right now. I mean, everyone stays home from school sometimes. I think I only missed four days of school so far and that was because Addie was sick and I had to stay with her.

“I don’t know….,” I trail off and he looks at me pleadingly. When he is looking at me like that I really don’t think there is anything I could say no to. “Fine. But only this one time.”

He gives me a small smile before leading me over to his car. He holds the door open for me and I slip inside. Once we are both in the car he starts it and starts driving out of the school parking lot and down the road. I’m not sure where we are going and I don’t think it’s really important. It’s not like we are going to have some nice day together. He just wants to talk about what happened last night.

After driving for a little while in silence, I start to feel uncomfortable. Why isn’t he saying anything? Maybe he is waiting for me to explain or something. If that’s it then he will be waiting a long time because I have no way to explain what happened other than the truth. I don’t even get the point in talking about it because Liam already knows exactly what is going on. Anyone with eyes could have put it together after last night. Eventually I can’t take it anymore and have to break the silence.

“Would you just say whatever it is you wanted to say?” I ask exasperated.

“Can we wait until we get to my place? I don’t really want to have this conversation while I’m driving,” he replies and glances over at me questioningly. I sigh and nod my head. I just want it to be over with, but he’s right. We have all day to talk, waiting a few minutes shouldn’t be a big deal. It’s just making me extremely anxious. I never had to tell anyone about my mother before.