Forever and Always, In my heart

Chapter 8:

Ch. 8

“Morning mom.” I yawned sitting at the table, still in my pajamas. I had on a softball sweatshirt and shorty shorts.

Mom walked over and sat down with a bowl of cereal. “Morning.” She didn’t seem like her usual peppy self.

I looked up at her with a confused expression. “What’s wrong? Everything okay?”

She barely even glanced up at me from her bowl. “I just thought I raised you better was all.” She took a bite of her cereal and sighed. I’m not going to lie, that hit me hard. She did raise me right. She finished her bite then started talking again. “Tim told me you snuck out last night. I’m not happy about it one bit.”

“Look, I’m sorry but…” I didn’t know what else to say. I couldn’t say anything else. I knew what I was doing and I knew I would have to face the consequences if I got caught, which I did.

She shook her head, “No, there are no excuses. You snuck out and have now lost a lot of my trust. What has gotten into you lately? Where is the Peyton I know?”

“Mom, I’m right here. I haven’t changed. Okay, so I snuck out one time. Every teenager does it. I promise I wasn’t out doing anything bad. I just went out to eat and to bowl.” I leaned on the table trying to get her to look at me.

“Who did you go with, might I ask?” She watched me like she already knew the answer and was waiting to see if I would lie or not.

I sighed, “David.” I mumbled.

“I’m not surprised. Ever since you met him, you’ve changed a little.” So she was about to put this all on him, even though I’ve really truly known him since a week or so ago?

My mouth dropped open. I couldn’t believe it. I wouldn’t be grounded in the first place if it wasn’t for her stupid husband overreacting. “It’s not his fault mom! Look at the problem here. We haven’t gotten along since you married Tim! Does that show you anything?” I snapped then felt bad for it but I couldn’t take it back. It was already out there and it was the truth.

I could see the hurt in her eyes, but then they instantly turned angry. “Don’t you dare put this all on Tim. He has provided a house for us. He puts food on this table for us and makes sure we aren’t starving. He’s been your dad for the past ten years of your life. He’s been to every sports game. Don’t even try to say this is his fault!” She yelled back at me.

That was a slap in the face. She just said he was my dad for one thing. He is nowhere close to my dad; sure I haven’t seen my real dad since they got divorced but he was still way more a part of my family than Tim ever would be. So what if he was at every game? It was all just for show. He hated going to all of them. I know he did. I stayed silent, not sure what would come out of my mouth if I tried to talk. I took a deep breath. “I have an English project to work on and David will be here soon, so I need to go change.”

I got up scooted the chair back, making an extremely loud noise and then slammed it back to the table. I ran up the stairs and then slammed my door shut. Running over to my bed, I jumped on it and grabbed my phone out from under my pillow, texting David. I made sure to get his number last night so I could contact him. I sent him a text and asked if he could be over soon to work on the project. I didn’t want to be here alone with them anymore. Not after getting into it with mom. Besides, she would be leaving for work soon and that would leave me all alone with Tim and Mike. No thank you.

Almost instantly, he texted back and said he could leave in about five minutes, putting him here in a little over a half an hour. I could survive thirty more minutes alone. I hoped. While I waited, I walked over to my dresser and pulled out a maroon long sleeved shirt. My wrist had a hand print from where Tim grabbed me and my forearm had one too. After I put on the long sleeved shirt, I got in the next drawer down and got out a pair of black track pants with a white waist band and a white stripe going down both sides of the legs. Lastly, I threw on a pair of warm fuzzy socks. I figured since we would be trapped at the house, I might as well be comfortable.