New Beginnings

Chapter Two

"Dad?" standing in front of me was the man I knew as my father. He was smiling and waving at me. He was healthy and happy. I felt the tears forming in my eyes before I sprinted for his arms. The smell of his cologne started to fill my nose as I felt at ease. "You're doing great, Summers. I'm proud of you and your brother and sister. I love you forever." 

I jolted awake from my sleep. I was breathing heavily and I was sitting in a pool of sweat. Dreams of my father happened occasionally. Those were my favorite. Looking to the side of my bed, I smiled at the picture of my dad and I. 

"I miss you Dad," I looked up at my ceiling before reaching for my phone. Sixteen unread messages all from Anthony. I unlocked my phone and started reading everything he said to me. Texts saying he was sorry, asking if I was okay, where was I, was I safe, and all that other good stuff. Since it had been all night, I decided to shoot him a simple and short text saying I was at home and perfectly fine. 

I was still upset and I wasn't going to let him off the hook so easily. If I would've known it was going to be a night of disrespect, I would've said no. 

"She's up," I heard a voice say from outside my door. A few seconds later in came Ivy with Marcus following behind her. "We're hungry," they said in unison. 

I laughed throwing off my baby blue comforter. "What do you little shits want to eat?" I got up from my bed and made my way towards the door. "Pancakes!" they cheered.

I checked my mom's room before going downstairs. She was awake. There was no telling how this morning was going to go. 

When I reached the kitchen, my mom was at the dinner table with coffee in her hand. "Did you have anything special?" I asked already knowing the answer was going to be yes. 

"Actually I didn't. I'm trying to get better Lani," Her voice was genuine, but her intentions weren't. My mom had a problem and she knew she had one. She always tried to help herself, but it never worked and I know this time won't either.

"Good job, mom. I am proud of you," I smiled at her. I glanced over at her hand wrapped around her coffee mug. Her grip was tight and her hand was shaking. She looked as if she was going to snap and go off. 

I looked to see if the kids noticed, but to my luck they didn't. They hated seeing our mom like this. They were so young when our dad died they barely even remember what she used to be like. My heart aches for both of them. 

I turned around and started rummaging through our cabinets. I grabbed out our big glass bowl and got out the pancake mix. "Can I help you?" Marcus asked me. 

He was developing a passion for cooking, which I thought was the cutest thing ever. Marcus is only 9 years old. He started cooking after he started watching Ratatouille. I thought it was the cutest thing ever, so I always let him help out whenever he wanted to. 

I let him mix the batter and he watched me as I poured the mix into the pan. "Soon, you'll be making us breakfast. Then I'll be able to get a break. This is a lot of work you know," I told him. He just looked at me and laughed. 

After our dad died, Marcus stopped talking a lot. Around me and Ivy he was loud, but around our mom or Anthony or anyone else he gets very quiet. Not exactly sure why he is like that, but I love him anyway. 

I flipped over our first pancake and asked Marcus to get out a few paper plates. "Mom would you like any pancakes?" I asked her as I slid off a pancake onto a plate. 

"No thank you baby, I ate some toast," She smiled, but it wasn't at me. She was staring at something outside. I peeped my head over towards the window, but there was nothing out there. She was acting very weird.