Nothing but an outline.

He's at it again

Clara's dad has always had bad anger problems. He had been okay for the past year, but he was starting to get back to the way he was two years ago. It was worst when Clara worked with him as his assistant. Clara's dad was an electrician he worked for a company called Neidling Electric, but he did jobs on the side. He had broken his hand back before summer ended and was having trouble using it completely, so he took Clara on as an apprentice and paid her decently. The job they were currently working on was taking too long and her dad decided to ask her brother to give a hand. Every chance he got he made Clara feel like crap. "So Junior you work for your dad as well?" "No I work for an automobile company, but I help my dad for free so he can have money in his pocket." It must have just been Clara's imagination, but she could have sworn Junior looked at her when he said that and she instantly felt terrible. He did the same thing a couple times after that and Clara began feeling bad about accepting money from her dad she even decided to tell him not to pay her on short days. "You worked three hours it's ok I'll pay you." "Its okay, we barely did anything." Clara was fairly new to doing electrical work and was trying hard to learn. After a couple jobs she learned how to change out an outlet and how to put in a light fixture for inside and outside the house. But when Junior helped Clara felt like she knew nothing and just stood to the side watching and holding the light while her brother and dad worked together. A couple days later Junior had to go back to work and Clara was back in secondary, but things were different. Her dad had become impatient with her and aggressive. "Ok go up stairs and pull the wires through the wall." Clara climbed the basement stairs and entered the hall leading to the living room she went into the room and bent down to move the stereo system out of the way so she could place the latter. "ARE YOU GRABBING THE WIRES?!" "Hold on I have to get to them!" "WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING?!" "I have to move the stereo to get to the wall!" Clara could hear the anger in her dad's voice and quickly ran to go tell him what was going on. When she made it to the top of the stairs she was met by the angry look of her father walking up to meet her gaze. "WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON WHY ARENT YOU GRABBING THE FUCKING WIRES?!?!" "I was trying to move..." "IF YOU DONT WANT TO WORK FOR ME YOU SHOULD HAVE STAYED HOME!!!" "But dad I had to move the stereo...." "STOP TALKING BACK OR YOURE FIRED!!!" "I WAS TRYING TO MOVE HIS STUFF SO I DIDNT BREAK IT!!!" Clara's voice finally raised if he wouldn't listen to her talk maybe he would hear her when she yelled, she was wrong. He turned on her wasting no time with hate in his eyes and raised his hand in a motion that made Clara flinch and almost cowar. "DONT RAISE YOUR VOICE TO ME IM THE BOSS AND YOURE THE ROOKIE!!! IF YOU DONT WANT TO BE HERE TAKE THE KEYS AND GO HOME SEND YOUR MOM BACK TO GET ME LATER!!!" Clara watched as her dad walked into the other room. She felt tears swell up in her eyes and all efforts not to cry failed. Clara ran downstairs into a small room where the heating and cooling unit was housed and sobbed silently. She suddenly had flashbacks to when her dad had went on a full-blown rampage almost two years ago. She remembered how her mom and dad had began arguing. At first she paid no attention to them arguing was normal and happened on a daily basis. But Clara jumped and became concerned when her father's voice resonated it was like a loud ringing in her ears and she stared blankly almost paralyzed as his big hands went to her mom's chest. She let out a scream and her mom yelled to get the kids. Clara's younger sister grabbed their new born sister and ran for the door, but paused. "Jamie what are you doing go! Get the baby out of here and in the car!" Clara was on her way out of the door when she broke down. She made it to the car with her backpack over her shoulder and fell against it. She sobbed into her hands until she just stopped. She was calm and angry. She couldn't watch him do this to her mom, not again. She was little before and couldn't stop him, but she was grown now. Clara marched back into the house and seen her dad hit her mom Clara charged at the two of them screaming. "STOP IT SHE JUST HAD A BABY AND HAS A HOLE IN HER HEART!!! STOP HITTING HER CHEST!!!" It was like slow motion she watched her dad's hand go to her moms throat. Clara snapped she wouldn't watch as he choked her it was too familiar. She ran and pushed with everything she had in her. She pushed in between the two releasing her mother from the man's grip. Clara turned to face her father with a murderous look in his eye he began to close the gap as she pushed again watching as he flew across the room he was stunned and in a daze. He quickly recovered and Clara watched while his hand came at her. She could feel the stinging of his palm on her cheek her head turned in the shock of the blow. Suddenly, her shirt strap broke and her mom was next to her moving her away. Clara screamed at her father how much she hated him and wished he would leave. It was like watching a stranger run at her she didn't know this man but she didn't move she only watched as he moved faster in her direction. Just as he reached Clara her mother grabbed him and threw him in the other direction sending him for the back door. It was over and he had left. Clara never quite recovered from everything he had done, but she wasn't scared of him she was scared of what she would do to him if he hit her again. She was a woman now and was done taking his bullshit. Even with her knew found courage it was hard for to look at him directly and telling him she loved him burned her mouth and made her sick, she would need time to be able to say those words and mean them again.

                               ***

Clara couldn't quite understand what was so great about Junior, not anymore. Clara and her brother were close at one point in time, but things changed. Junior had started dating this girl named Julia. She was tall and pretty but she was just a kid and he was an adult. Julia was only a few years older than Clara, but she was still young compared to Junior. Junior had a best friend he had grew up with and Clara had gotten close to him too. They were texting one day back when she was a junior in high school. They were talking about Julia, And how he didn't like her that she had tried to flirt with him. Clara was telling him that she was skeptical, and only gave her a chance because of Junior. A couple weeks went by and suddenly Clara's dad got a call from Junior and he said he seen the text messages and didn't want to talk to Clara anymore. Juniors friend had twisted Clara's words and made Junior hate her. He stopped coming over and wouldn't even show up to sit down and talk about it. A couple months went by and Clara was heart broken because her own brother believed a friend over family. Until he found out his friend was lying to him. Junior started coming over again, but couldn't even look Clara in the eye. They didn't speak and they barely noticed each others existence. Junior wasn't doing anything so Clara made the first move to say hi. It was a bumpy road after that, but things started to get better. Even with that she couldn't understand why her father favored him so much, but I guess it's like father like son.

Note: I know this part was about Clara's father I'm sorry I got off topic a bit towards the end I'll try to stay on topic in the next chapter.