Cinders

~29~ Kara

I go to bed without saying goodnight, but I'm still awake when I see mom open the door to check on me. She sighs once she's sees I'm "sleeping," and goes to shut the door. Taylor comes over then and looks in.

"Did he really just go to bed without saying goodnight?" I hear him ask in disgust.

Mom just puts her hand on his chest, calming him down. "It's fine—This is a bad one. He's gonna need time."

"He doesn't need time; He needs to fix this!!"

"He will," she says confidently.

She looks in once more and shuts the door—I let the tears fall after that.

~*~

I get up in the morning, and mom and Taylor are both awake, getting ready for work. "Morning Liam," mom says, smiling a little at me. It's not her normal, warm smile—It's a forced one.

"Morning," I say as I go to get ready.

The day goes pretty slowly, and dad picks me up after school. He doesn't say a word about the incident the other night—It's like it never even happened.

We go to the game, and unfortunately Kara is with us. She makes snide comments about my spanking, rubbing it in and trying to rile me up. Whether dad hears her or not, I'm not sure. By the time we get home, I just go to bed. I'm so sick of her, and I'm sick of feeling so horrible all of the time.

~*~

The next morning before school, Taylor is at dad's door. He must've left work early—Shift doesn't get over for another half hour.

Dad let's him in and Taylor walks over to me, still not happy.

"I wanna talk to you for a minute," he says, motioning for me to sit down at the table.

I sit down, and he sits across from me. Dad and Kara are standing around watching us.

"Look. Your mom doesn't know I'm here—I asked Megan to give her a ride home. I know you're at your dad's tonight still, but you need to fix this. Tonight."

He takes a deep breath, stares at me hard, and starts again.

"Did your mom tell you that my mom died when I was a kid?" He asks, pain already washing over his face.

I simply nod

Taylor nods and continues. "Yeah, well...I doubt you know the whole story. I was 17, and she had grounded me for missing curfew. I was furious, and we got in a fight. I told her that I hated her and that she was ruining my life. She left for work, and was killed in a car accident on the way. My last words to my mom was that I hated her, and she was ruining my life."

He stops for a minute, trying to keep his composure. His voice had cracked on the last word.

"There's not a day that goes by that I don't think about that—Think about her. I've never been the same since. I went into a really dark place after that, and I don't think I ever got out of it until just a few weeks ago. I promise you, that you don't wanna live with that guilt. You let her leave yesterday, and go to shift, without telling her you were sorry and that you loved her. She had a really dangerous call yesterday. She's fine, but it could've went sideways fast. All that I could think about afterwards was how you hadn't fixed things with her yet."

He stops and gauges my reaction for a minute before he continues. "Fix this, Liam," he says as he gets up quietly and leaves.

I just stay at the table, putting my head down, and letting my tears fall. Dad comes over and rubs my shoulders, trying to comfort me.