Cinders

~69~ Count

We get in the car and dad is so livid, flashbacks to the time he went into his rage are haunting my memory.

"Dad, are you ok?"

"Am I ok as in 'do I have control over myself?' Yes—I'm fine. But no, I'm not ok. What you just did was the meanest, lowest thing you could've possibly done to her. You should be ashamed of yourself," he says, shaking his head in disgust.

The rest of the ride home is silent. Dad is mad, and I feel awful. Not to mention that I'm scared out of my mind. I promised myself that I would never smoke pot again, so I wouldn't get spanked by him again. I can honestly say that I haven't smoked pot since... I guess I didn't factor in this instance though.

We get home and upstairs silently, and my pits are starting to sweat. Dad looks at me hard for a moment, and I can hear my heart thrumming in my ears.

"Should we call Taylor?" I ask, quietly.

"What for?"

"...To do it. The last time would've ended up really bad." I try to explain.

I don't wanna be alone with him right now.

Dad chuckles darkly. "Liam, I can almost guarantee that you'd rather me do it. You do NOT wanna have to tell Taylor what you just said to her, and then take a spanking from him. That won't work out well for you."

I just sigh. "I'm too afraid to be alone with you right now."

Dad nods. Whether that hurt his feelings or not I'm not sure. He comes up to me and looks me hard in the eyes. "Buddy, look at me. Look into my eyes. Am I still here?"

I nod. He's here. He isn't anything like that one night. They're night and day different.

Dad nods again. "I'm mad, but I have no intentions of actually hurting you. I do have a plan though. Go get basketball shorts on. Hurry up."

I pause for a minute....

"What's wrong?" He asks, losing his patience.

"I think all of my basketball shorts are dirty. We haven't done laundry in a while."

That realization immediately gives me hope...Now he'll have to do it on my jeans.

Dad nods, unfazed. "Ok, well you have 5 minutes to figure it out. Otherwise you're getting spanked in just your boxers—Hurry up."

Umm, no thank you. Talk about humiliating and degrading! I'll dig some out of the hamper if I have to.

I go quickly to my room to hunt, and I end up finding a clean pair in the bottom of my drawer.

Unfortunately for me, this is an extremely old pair and it's worn out. It's thin and has holes in it, which wont provide any protection whatsoever. I put them on and go out to the living room where dad is waiting for me silently.

He raises his eyebrows at me and stifles a chuckle. "Those are a little short..."

"Yeah? Well it's all I've got left. Unless you wanna let me borrow a pair of yours," I snap.

"Watch the attitude! I'm a breath away from putting soap in your mouth. I know mom disagrees with it, but I don't."

Soap? Who the hell brought soap into the punishment options?

"Tomorrow we're going to the station and you're apologizing to her. She isn't going four days without an apology. You were being hateful, and she didn't deserve that....She's been through hell lately as it is. I don't think I've ever been so disappointed in you, and that's including the time we caught you with pot."