Running Towards the Light

Chapter 6 - Aftermath

My head hit the table in the cafeteria as the loud noise around me amplified. I was up almost the entire night and therefore I was very tired.

I also almost fell asleep in History but my teacher woke me up with a question, which I was unable to answer, and then she proceeded to doc my participation or behavior points. I wasn't sure exactly which one because I was just too tired to argue.

I actually ended up falling asleep in the twin and Ben's room as they were talking to West. One of them must have carried me to my bedroom because I never remember waking up there and there was a lot of teasing going on about it at breakfast.

Dylan and Cameron were nowhere to be found in the morning, no surprise there. But Chris was also absent. He had left a note on the counter saying he had an emergency at work but Chris was never one to leave without leaving one of his more trustworthy brothers in charge of us.

Usually that's Dylan, but for obvious reasons it was not today. If Chris has too though he'll leave Cameron with us. But he doesn't like any of us minors being home alone, much to West's dislike. My best guess is that he told Cameron to stay with us but Cam ended up bailing.

"What's up with you?" Penny asked, chuckling a little bit as I groaned because he brought me back into the real world.

"Tired."

Understatement.

"Aren't we always," Eli said from beside me.

I picked up my head and glared at my friend.

"Why are you tired?" Bryce pushed when he saw me glare at Eli.

"My dad came home yesterday," I mumbled, attempting to set my head back down on the table.

"He's not our father. Don't call him Dad,"

Sam's voice rang in my head as I told my friends about my father coming home. Maybe I shouldn't call him dad but there was a time in my life where he was around a decent amount. It's not like the name has that much meaning to me, it's more of a habit that's hard to break.

All of us had messed up families and home life so it wasn't hard to talk to my friends about my family, the parts I was willing to share at least, because they understood. Most kids in my town had some sort of weirdness in their families being such a poor town. It's like no one has trauma here because everyone does, no one's "special" in that front.

"Yikes. How long has it been since he's been home?" Bryce responded.

"Four, five, months. Dunno, a long time," I replied.

Sometimes I think about my father when he's away but most of the time I forget about him funny enough. Due to the fact that he only comes home two or three times a year it's easy to do. Also, I never miss him because there's nothing to miss.

"And how long is he staying for?"

"Eh, Chris kicked him out last night," I said, picking my head off the table and instead settling on holding it in my hands.

I wasn't sure why my father agreed to leave but I was glad he did. If I saw him again in four or five months that would be too soon.

"He do anything?" Zeke joined in.

"Nah, just talked,"

"Talked or yelled?"

"Funny enough, talked,"

"Interesting." Zeke responded. Things got quiet for a while as my friends thought about what I had said.

"Your brothers look tired too," Eli observed, looking over towards Sam and Spencer's table.