Bates & Landon [Wattys2015]

LANDON

Landon

By the time Mandy and I got home, my dad was pulling in. Mandy smiled as she saw her husband step out of the car, running his hands through his hair and looking over at us with a big, dazzling smile. We got out of her car and walked over to greet my dad.

"Hey," he said, once we reached him, looking in between the both of us, "What are you two doing?"

"Just dropping off a friend of Landon's," said Mandy, kissing my dad on the mouth before standing beside him. Now they were both facing me.

"Alice?" He asked, sneaking an arm around Mandy's waist. At the mention of Alice, it made me think of her ditching art class. Alice was a golden student; good grades, well behaved, and always in class on time. So it was surprising that she didn't attend art class.

"No," I shook my head, I hoped he wouldn't press it any further. And he didn't, but Mandy did.

"What was his name again?" She asked with a obnoxious smirk on her face. My dad didn't notice the smirk, he was too busy looking at me in confusion. "I can't really remember his name."

"A boy?" My dad asked me, looking bewildered.

I nodded. "Yeah."

My dad clenched his jaw. "What's his name?"

I gulped. "Bates."

"Was he at the house?" He said, looking at me intensely.

I nodded once again, but began to explain, "We were working on our math. See, I was having a hard time with the new lesson and he is good at math. So he helped me." Okay, yes, I was lying. I felt kinda guilty. But my dad was not certainly happy about Bates being at my house -- need he be informed, alone. Plus, if Bates and I were to come to my house and have dinner -- with my dad and Mandy, he needed to be on a clean slate.

My dad seemed to take this news into consideration, nodding his head. "Alright. As long as he helped you with your school work, I'm fine."

"Come on," Mandy spoke up, I realized she was quiet the whole time I was explaining myself, "I need to start on dinner." She didn't seem so happy that I had not gotten in trouble, if that was her plan all along. Which I am pretty positive that she was.

Sometimes I wish I could call her out on how badly she acted. But I see the way my dad's face lights up when his eyes lay upon her. And I don't want to ruin that. I want my dad to be happy. God knows he deserves to be happy for all what my biological Mother did to him, to the family we used to have.

I pushed the thoughts of her to the very back of my mind where I always pushed her to when the thought of her came up in my mind. It didn't tend to happen often, thinking of her. But sometimes it did.

And it hurt.

"Landon," Mandy snapped me out of my thoughts, "clean those dishes, will you?" My dad wasn't in the room, he had left to go change out of his work clothes to something more comfortable. "Can't believe you let that boy in with the house looking like a mess."

"The house isn't that dirty," I argued as I passed her to go to the sink.

"It is! The living room is a mess, the dishes, the counters, and don't get me started on the floors. Also, did you happen to look at yourself in the mirror lately? I think you look more like a mess then the house does." Mandy sneered, glaring at me.

I gritted my teeth together, looking at the wall behind her. Maybe it was from the thoughts of my biological mom or Mandy'a continuous insults of my appearance or maybe it was all above, but tears filled my eyes and my first balled up. All I knew was, I was sick of it. Sick of Mandy treating me like I was worthless or the countless insults she threw at me about my complexion or my clothes or my weight. I was sick of it all.