Adopted

Chapter 70

Mom and I had a fun day. We went out for lunch and went shopping. She got me some new clothes and more Converse sneakers. We went to the beach and the Santa Monica pier. We even rode the Ferris wheel.

We also stayed out for dinner before heading home and making popcorn and watching a movie together.

On Sunday, Paige came over and we sat by the pool listening to music swimming and playing with Bogart and Penny.

Uncle Josh popped in around lunchtime with pizza and so the four of us sat outside eating pizza and talking. He'd come just to check in that I was okay after Friday night's drama.

"I'm good. No nightmares," I smiled.

"Good. You want a drum lesson today?"

"Paige is over," I said.

"Right," Josh said. "She's so loud. How did I miss her?" 

We laughed.

At school on Monday Ms Abigail stopped me as Paige and I were walking into school.

"I wanted to call your mom on the weekend, but I'd didn't know if that was appropriate. The fact that you're here today leads me to believe everything is okay?" She asked.

I explained what happened.

"I'm happy to hear all is well. I hope you had a good weekend," she said. As if making up fir not wishing me a good weekend on Friday.

"I did, thanks," I smiled.

I followed Paige into the school and we went to our lockers to get our books.

"What the hell are you wearing, Urie?" Astrid asked, pointing at my t-shirt.

"I'm my country, we call this a t-shirt," I joked. "Can you say 't-shirt'?"

"Funny. Why does it have an elephant's ass on it?"

"You didn't see my dad's picture from the summer?  We stopped in this town in New Mexico called "Elephant Butte". Dad insisted on buying us all these shirts and made us take a picture."

"There's a place called "Elephant Butt"?" Astrid asked.

"Butte, with an 'E' at the end,"

"Oh. That's so much better," she laughed.

The rest of the day went like any other Monday. Except Jacob came up to me after English.

"I'm not supposed to talk to you because your family might sue my family, but I heard what happened this weekend and I wanted to say I'm glad everything is okay," he said.

"Thanks Jacob. I'm sorry we're in this position. But I hope you don't think I blame you at all," I said.

He shrugged, said 'thank you', and walked away.

"Well, we know at least he's not a total douche, like his brother," Astrid said.

Tuesday dragged and Wednesday was worse. Dad wasn't supposed to be home until after supper which just made the day sooooo long.

"Surprise, kiddo," he said as I opened the car door. I stood there with my jaw agape.

"You're going to catch flies, that way," he laughed.

I think I literally flew into the car and wrapped my arms around him and started bawling like a baby.

"Dad, I love you. I'm sorry I didn't say it last week. But I love you!" I cried.

"I know, sweetheart. I know," he said, hugging me tightly.

"Mom  says you have physio after school today?"

"Yeah," I said.

"Alright. Let's get you to physio. Then maybe we can grab a snack and then you can go home and do your homework while I unpack," he said.

"Okay," I grinned through the tears that were still rolling down my cheeks. Dad wiped one away and smiled at me.

"I missed you, kiddo. I'm so sorry about Friday," he said.

"It's okay. It was one of those weird things that sometimes happens," I said.

"Kinda like coming across a teenage orphan who's watching a bad movie while making fun of celebrities in a trash magazine," he smirked.

"Something like that," I smiled.

After physio, dad and I went to get ice cream and then went home.

He went upstairs to unpack and I went into my room to do my homework. Mom came home a little while later and came up to my room.

"How was school?" She asked.

"Good," I said. "Felt like the day took forever to end. Especially since I still can't do PE. I sat there watching them play basketball. I mean I did some homework but it was soooo boring."

"Well, we have an appointment with Dr Smith next week and maybe by Thanksgiving you can go back to it?"

"I guess we'll see,"

"Where's your dad?"

"Unpacking, apparently," I said. Mom left my room and went into their room. She came back into my room a few minutes later.

"Jess, come here," she whispered. She had a huge grin on her face and indicated I should be quiet.

I followed her to their room and there was Dad, face down on their bed, surrounded by piles of clothing, snoring away. I stifled a laugh. Mom shooed me out of the room and closed their door behind me.

Back in my room, we broke down into quiet laughter.

"Well, I guess he's not unpacking." I said.

"Guess not. Looks like I might be sleeping in the guest room tonight," she smiled.

Mom sat with me while I finished my homework, then we went downstairs.

"Any idea what you want for dinner?" She asked.

"Dad took me for ice cream after physio. I'm not really hungry," I said.

"Fair," she said. "Is your homework done?"

"Yep. I just have to print out my English paper and then I'm completely done," I said.

"Okay, do that, then come downstairs. We'll let your dad sleep."

I went into my room and sent my paper to the printer, then went downstairs. Mom had cued up a movie, so I settled in to watch with her.  I must have been more tired than I realized, because she had to wake me up after the movie.

"I know it's early, but go take your meds and go to bed. Clearly you need sleep," she said.

"Uh huh," I said. I grabbed my paper off the printer and stapled it, went to my room and got ready for bed.

I fell asleep nearly immediately. I guess between the weekend and the anticipation of Dad coming home, I was exhausted.