Summer Days to An End

Chapter XIV.

As the last few days of the months were coming to an end, the fights between Selah and Lo had finally died down, as it was becoming clear to the group that as they predicted, Lo had lost her will to continue in her stubbornness. To her, there was no longer any point in putting up a fight; she had already said her piece when she had the chance. Now, it was time for her to sit back and watch as two of her closest friends took from her what she had wanted for years, yet never had the courage to ask for.

However, reminding herself that she had so much more to live for, she reluctantly yet confidently brought herself out of her consistently gloomy mood, thinking that she should enjoy her last few weeks of summer as best as she could before the time to leave for college arrived.

Laying back in her chair across from her pool, she lifted her sunglasses out of her hair as she put them on her face.

"Well, at least there are some benefits to the life that I live," she whispered to herself quietly, before the sound of footsteps leading to the front of the house caught her attention.

A few seconds later, she heard the doorbell ring.

With an annoyed sigh, she grabbed her swimsuit wrap from the mini table next to her chair and tied it around her waist, and taking off her sunglasses she walked to the gate connecting the front of the house to the backyard, opening and closing it behind her as she came to the driveway.

"Hello? Can I help you-" she started, before cutting herself off as she caught a glance of her visitor.

The one and only Phineas Bartlett.

"Good, you're here, I was hoping I would find you alone." He began as well, before his eyes soon wandered to the swimsuit she was wearing, specifically it's top.

"Excuse me, pervert, but my eyes are up here." She remarked in a blatant tone once she caught on to what he was doing. Stunned by her words, Finn's eyes immediately fell to the ground, and with that Lo turned away as she began walking back to the gate, and moments later he followed after her.

"So, what brings you here on this fine day?" She continued sarcastically as she led him to the poolside, gesturing to the chair next to hers as he took a seat.

"Well, I'm sure you can guess that there's something I need to talk to you about," said Finn.

"You say that in the present tense as if you shouldn't have said this to me weeks ago," she countered, and with that answer, he quickly became uncertain of how well this conversation would go.

"I wanted to wait for things between you and Selah to calm down so that there would be a better chance you'd listen to me, and now that they have, I'm here." He explained.

"In that case, we might as well get this over with." She said as she pushed her hair behind her neck, revealing to him a reddish-purple bruise around her lower arm.

"Lo, what is that on your wrist?" He questioned.

"What? Oh, it, it's nothing. Don't worry about it." She said as she tried to cover the mark with her other hand, though Finn took ahold of it before her.

"Lo, how did you get this? Did someone hurt you?" He pressed on as Lo drew her hand back to her side.

"It's nothing it's just, my dad and I got into an argument. When I turned to head to my room, he grabbed my wrist so tightly that it's been this way for nearly two weeks," said Lo weakly, holding up her hand once again to reveal the nasty bruise.

"Lo, you should have told me. You know I wouldn't let something like that happen to you, or let anyone get away with it." Finn responded, his mood changing almost instantly as he thought of Lo's father's treatment towards his own daughter: sickening.