✔️Soundtrack to My Youth (18+)

Fantasy

March brought with it good and bad. Bridget had passed her driver learning test but because of her injury she was unable to start actually learning how to drive, which frustrated her to no end. Our lawyer informed Dad that a court date had been set for Carson, bringing the nightmare of what we lived through back to the surface. The case was due to be put before a jury in early June, unless Carson was to plead guilty between now and then, which I was sure would be unlikely. Carson admitting fault to anything he had done would be a cold day in hell so I was pushing Dad to allow me to testify against Carson.

Bridget did end up hearing from our Mother for her birthday, she was sent a card in the mail with a letter inside telling her, in detail, how much she had disappointed Susan among other terms that were aimed at making Bridget feel guilty just for being herself. I wanted to burn the letter but Dad talked me out of it, instead he filed it away with our testimonies.

Bridget didn't allow Susan's harsh words get to her, instead she enjoyed spending time with Amber whenever she could and Nick even said she could leave the house for small periods of time, as long as she wasn't in a crowded area where she could get pushed and shoved so together we started taking short walks down along the lake in the afternoon, at first it was just Bridget and I but pretty soon we had Amber, Sam, Kate and Alex joining us.

By the end of March I was starting to think about how I wanted to celebrate my 18th birthday, which was coming up in April. When I had originally turned 18 the first time round it had fallen on a weekend where I was stuck at my Mother's house, which meant I was forced to celebrate my birthday by going out for dinner with Mum and Carson, now that we no longer have to suffer through weekends in Hell I was hoping I could have a small party at home but every time I brought the subject up with Dad he would shoot it down, arguing that we didn't have the room at our house to even host a small gathering in our backyard and he didn't want teenagers 'trudging dirt through the house' so I caved in and agreed to having a small, family dinner at a restaurant of my choice, only if Sam could join us and of course Dad agreed.

On the last Friday in March Sam and I had Maths sixth period. The temperatures had begun to drop now that we were out of Summer but it was still fairly warm during the day.

"What do you want to do this weekend?" I asked Sam as we powered through the trigonometry equations in the workbook, I could now keep up with him.

"I don't have a game until Sunday so we could go down to Sydney tonight, stay overnight in a motel and come back tomorrow afternoon" He casually suggests, throwing me for a moment. I was expecting him to suggest seeing a movie or going out for a date, our usual, not a night away down in Sydney. The idea excites me, alone time with Sam was rare between school and home life, there was always someone around and Sam still hadn't been able to get a moment alone with Lucas to tell him about us which meant our relationship had to remain secret.

"I'd love that, I'd have to ask my Dad but I'm sure he'd be cool with it." Dad and Sam had become really close, they had even started working on a 1990 Toyota Corolla together, fixing it up for Bridget to learn how to drive in. "Where would we stay though?"

"Leave it all up to me baby, I'll drop you home and you pack an overnight bag and be ready to go by 5" He tells me, eyes fixed on his page as he scribbles down his work but then he looks up at me, eyes locking with my own, "pack bathers too."

That's all the hints I get about our mysterious trip down south for the night. When Sam drops me home after school I'm pretty much skipping with excitement, even more so when Dad gives his blessing for me to go, handing me $200 to take with me, I argue that it's just an overnight stay and I wouldn't need that much, accommodation at a motel wouldn't have been more than $70 for a night but he insisted.