Read His Mind | ✓

Chapter 7

"But Dad, I have a classmate coming over tomorrow-"

"Then should've thought about that before skipping your class. You go and call that classmate and cancel it," he said. "You're grounded for the rest of this week as a warning, but if it ever happens again, I'll ground you for a month, do I make myself clear?"

"But-"

"No buts. This is final. You'll not be having any visitors. I'll be taking away all your electronics. If you have nothing to do, go read or study. End of discussion." It felt strange hearing him say that. This was the first time I've ever gotten grounded since I was never the type of person to break the rules.

"But-" I tried again.

"I said, end of discussion."

"Okay, I guess I'm going to fail on my project then.." I said in a sad voice. My dad's Achilles heel was my grades. He treated my B+ as if it was a D, there was no way he was going to let me get an F.

As I expected, my dad's was horrified to hear the word "fail". "What do you mean fail?" he asked. If she gets an F, it'll definitely drop her grade.... I can't let that happen..

"My classmate and I were planning to work on our Creative Writing project tomorrow after school, but since I'm grounded, that won't be happening."

"You two don't have time at school to work on it?" They must have some time to do it.... during lunch or something?

"We are both very busy people, Dad. Tomorrow is the only day we're free," I lied. Well, it wasn't exactly a lie. I mean, I'm pretty sure that we both had a lot of things to do. Plus, we already agreed on doing it tomorrow beforehand. I wasn't going let it get ruined by something that wasn't that big of a deal.

"Your classmate can come over, but you'll only have 3 hours, 3 hours, to get your project done then I want your classmate to leave," my dad compromised reluctantly.

"Can I keep my phone until then?" I bargained. "I need it for the project."

"Fine. I'm only allowing this because I'm concerned about your grades."

Before I could thank him for his generosity, his cell phone rang. He answered it without looking at who it was. "Hello Walter Lee speaking." The other line said something and I swear my dad's face paled at whatever he heard.

"Dad, is something wrong?" I asked.

He looked up at me, only just remembering that I was still here. "Oh Abbie, nothing's wrong. Go back to your room and do your homework." I need to see Julia... I hope she's not too hurt...

Julia? That wasn't my mom's name. My mom's name was Cathy. Cathy Lee. Who was this Julia? Could it be the woman that I heard in my mom's thoughts at dinner last night?

"Abbie, are you listening to what I'm saying?" His voice brought me out of my thoughts. She was wasting my time... Julia was waiting for me...

"Y-yeah." Not even halfway up the stairs, I heard my dad rush out the door with a loud slam. He was going to see that woman, I was sure of it. When this he start this relationship? How did I not notice my parent's marriage go downhill?

I threw myself on my bed and sighed loudly.

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Since Benson and I didn't have the same 6th period, I made sure that we exchanged phone numbers so then we would have a number to call if we couldn't find each other after school.

"Where are you?" I texted him right after class ended. We only had 3 hours to work, we could not afford to lose any time.

He responded a few seconds later. "I'm at the front of the school."

"I'm there too. Where are you?" I glanced around me, searching for his familiar ruffled hair. I couldn't see him.

"Oh I see you. I'm coming to you right now."

I looked up from my phone and saw him walking toward me. He was always dressed in casual clothing, but somehow he made it look really good. Today he was wearing a plain white t-shirt with a plaid button down shirt over it.

"Let's get going," I said once he reached me. I started to walk down the sidewalk, in the direction of my house. I sped walked, worried about time. I stopped to see if he was following behind and saw that he was a couple of steps behind me. He was walking leisurely, listening to music from his earbuds. I groaned and ran over to him. "Dude!" I pulled the earbuds out of his ears. "Can you please walk faster?" He didn't say anything and just stared. His staring was really starting to get on my nerves, like seriously. I grabbed onto his arm and dragged him forward.

We got to my house in about 10 minutes. I unlocked the front door and we went inside.

"Abbie, is that you?" My mom came out of the living room in her work clothes.

"Yeah, Mom. Why aren't you at work?" She usually came home around 6-7 and then cooked dinner. It was only 3:30 right now. Why wasn't my dad here? I thought he was going to be here and time us. "Where's Dad?" I added.

"I wanted to cook you a special dinner so I got off work a bit early," she explained with a smile. "Your dad is... he's at work. He was here earlier, but there was an urgent patient so he had to go. You know them doctors, always so busy." He went off to see that woman again...

"Oh, I see."

"Who is this nice looking fellow?" my mom teased, noticing Benson who was standing quietly beside me. "Is he your friend?"

"We're just classmates. We have a project to work on."

"Nice to meet you Mrs. Lee. I'm Benson." He stuck out his hand for a handshake.

"You're so polite! Why don't you learn a few things from him?"

"Learn what, Mom?"

"Manners. You rarely ever greet me when I come home," my mom complained.

"Let's go upstairs now," I said, ignoring my mom.

As we walked up to my room, my mom shouted from downstairs. "Keep the door open guys!"

"We're working a school project Mom! Nothing's gonna happen!!" I yelled back.

We went inside my room and sat down on the ground. I took out the instructions from my backpack and put my laptop on my lap. I opened a Word document and typed our names on the right hand corner. I looked up to see him staring at me. "What?"

"Are your parents divorcing?" Benson asked out of nowhere.