The Tequila Gang (completed)

Chapter Seventy Seven: ➰

A CLEAR MIND
*

Tia's POV

"How did I know I'd find you behind here," I asked folding my arms and grinning smugly.

My dad panicked and threw his cigarette to the ground, he held a hand to his chest. "Jesus kid you nearly gave me a heart attack, I thought you were your bloody mother!"

Yes my dad was stilling hiding behind his shed for sneaky cigarette breaks. I sat myself down beside him and let out a huge sigh, looking up at the starry sky. Christmas was nearly over. Yep that's right it was Christmas Day.

I'd had a lovely day with my parents, opening presents and watching films like home alone and bad Santa, just generally spending some quality family time together, it feels like forever ago since I had a good sit down with my parents, I think I needed this.

I'd exchanged a number of texts with Lydia, Jarred and Kyle thanking them for their presents, them thanking me for theirs. That's the only contact I'd had with them, I was avoiding each and every single one of them, more Lydia than other two.

I wasn't prepared for that conversation, I didn't want to be grilled about my drunk antics the other night, and I knew it was coming she'd bombarded me with messages since the minute I snuck out of my apartment and onto the train back home to my parents. That was a subject I wasn't ready to think about right now, I hadn't even processed it myself. My heads all over the god damn place.

"Actually I'm avoiding her too!" I told my dad regarding my mother, "she's trying to force me to taste her Christmas cake, it looks disgusting!"

"Oh no she hasn't made it again this year has she?" I nodded. "Probably safer for us out here then."

"I'm gonna sneak up to bed soon, we got up so early I'm exhausted," I yawned, I was thinking over my plan to sneak past my mother, I was not eating that bloody cake.

"Tia I'm pretty sure you didn't wake up until 10:30 that's late."

"That's not late, that's still considered morning."

"Ok let me rephrase that, that's late for you especially on Christmas morning." He gave me a knowing look.

"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked, he was obviously getting at something.

"You tell me. Is there something going on you want to talk about? You may have your mother fooled but not me, you have this sadness about you, I noticed it the minute you got here, so tell me is everything ok?" He knew of course he knew, he was my dad he could read me like a book.

"Define ok?" I asked rolling my eyes.

"Tia," he said sympathetically, "you know you can talk to your old man don't you?"

"I did something stupid!" I admitted after a couple of minutes.

"How stupid?"

"Very stupid, stupid enough that I can't talk to my dad about it." I looked down embarrassed.

"That bad eh?" He mused. "What about that Hunter boy or Pedro as you like your mother to call him?" I stayed silent.

"I see, so he's the reason you have this mopey look on your face constantly?" He asked softly.

"I am not mopey!" I defended. I definitely was.

"Have you broken up?" He asked.

"Yes."

"Did you want to break up?" I shook my head, "did he?"

"He ended it." I just came out with it, I can't believe I was talking to my dad about all this, god I must be desperate. "He was going through a hard time, Hunter's dad died recently, it really hit him hard. Things went downhill from there, we didn't speak for a couple of months then the other night I bumped into him, now he wants to go back to normal, well I think that's what he wants, and now I'm not sure, I don't want to get hurt again but it's so hard to cut him out my life, but then he hasn't tried to contact me so I don't know what to think, it's not so easy to forgive him he blamed me dad, he took all his guilt out on me and blamed me for his father's death."