Say My Name

Chapter Fourteen

After school, Betty didn't feel well, so she decided to skip practice and walk straight home.

"Mom, I'm home!" Betty called from the front foyer as she shut the door behind her.

"There has to be some mistake. I didn't withdraw any money."

Betty overheard her mom talking from the kitchen. She put her bag down on the floor next to the front door before she slowly walked over to the older woman's voice. "No, I didn't. Someone must've gotten into my account or something because I didn't deposit any money." Her mom looked frustrated and tired. Betty panicked when she realized Alice was on the phone with the bank. She knew she had to come clean about taking money out of her account.

The blonde took a deep breath as she stared at the woman in front of her. "Mom?"

Her mom looked up. "What?" She asked her as the woman on the other line continued to ramble on.

Betty took a deep breath as she worked up the courage to look her in the eye. "It was me," she confessed. "I did it."

Alice gave her a bewildered look. "Hold on one second," she said to the person on the phone and brought it away from her ear.

"I took the money from your account," Betty added as she anxiously rubbed her fingers together.

Her mom gaped at her for a few seconds before she guided the phone up to her ear again. "Um... Let me call you back."

"I'm sorry," she added before Alice had the chance to say anything. Her mom set her phone on the kitchen counter with her mouth slightly agape in shock. "Why would you take money?"

Betty started digging her middle fingernail into the sore skin surrounding her thumbnail. Her breath quivered when she opened her mouth to speak. "I needed it... for something."

Alice looked at her with fury settling in her body. "For what, Elizabeth? What could you possibly need all that money for?"

Betty tried to remain in a calm state, but she knew her body language radiated with tensity. "For school." She bit her top lip in an immediate reaction to her lame answer.

Her mom smiled in amusement, aware of the ridiculousness of her daughter's response. "You needed over $400 for school?"

"I..." She swallowed.

"Don't lie to me," her mom said firmly.

The teen blonde scratched the side of her head, waiting for the perfect cover story to pop inside her head. She grew even more anxious, scrambling to think of occurrences that would cost just as much. Every memory was fuzzy and every second that went by, her heart sped up. "Okay..." She spat out as she prolonged her sigh. "Here's the thing..." She swallowed, trying to moisten her dry throat. "I was driving Veronica's car... and I accidentally... scraped the side of her car against a mailbox. It was a few hundred dollars to repaint and repair the damage and I was worried you would get mad."

"So you took money out of my account?"

"I know it was wrong. I'm sorry."

She scoffed, looking more disappointed than ever. "Unbelievable."

"I promise I'll pay you back."

"Pay me back?" Her voice got louder. "With what money? You don't have a job."

"I'll get one," Betty said quickly.

"Oh, really? How are you going to manage a job on top of school, cheerleading, and the other extracurricular activities I told you to sign up for?"

She looked down at the ground. "I'll figure it out... I'll babysit for a few weekends."

"You'll babysit?" Her mom's eyebrows raised.