Beauty and the Beat

Beauty and the Beat (28)

My mother was pacing back and forth. My father sat in the recliner chair, though it wasn’t up. Riley wasn’t home yet, and I was glad.

Though I tried to appear brave, I was actually really nervous. I didn’t know what my parents were going to say. I didn’t even know how Riley was going to react when he found out. If he hadn’t found out somehow already.

I wondered if Ethan had left school already. I knew Mrs. Crandall hadn’t wanted him to leave until mostly everyone was gone, because we all knew people would harass him for what had happened. It wasn’t as bad for me to hear all the nasty things people were saying.

I hated it when my mother paced. It always meant that she was so angry or stressed that she was going to end up yelling her head off. I was definitely not looking forward to that.

“Look, Mom,” I nearly whispered, and then cleared my throat as I tried to get louder. “I’m sorry…”

“Sorry?” she spat, and I flinched at the ice in her tone. “You’re sorry?”

I guess that was the wrong things to say…

“Are you really sorry, Sadie?” my mother demanded, and I could have sworn I saw fire in her eyes. “Are you? I’m sorry, but I just don’t believe you.”

She wasn’t sorry. I knew she wasn’t sorry. And she thought she knew that I wasn’t sorry, even though I was. I didn’t regret what I had done, but I still was sorry because I knew it was wrong. But I wouldn’t have changed anything if I could go back in time. I was in love with Ethan and he made me happy.

“Mom…” I rasped. “Mom, I…”

“I can’t believe this!” my mother shouted, continuing to pace. I sunk back into the couch, just wanting to be away from her. She was scary when she was angry. “After everything we told you! I thought you were smarter than this, Sadie!”

I thought I had been, too. But obviously, that wasn’t true. I knew it was stupid to date Ethan. But that didn’t stop me from falling in love with him.

I didn’t know what I could have said to defend myself. What I had done was wrong. I knew that. I knew they weren’t going to let me being in love with him be an excuse, and that was all I could really say.

“Regina,” my father sighed, and I knew he was trying to reason with my mother as much as he possibly could. “Please, keep your voice down. We don’t need to yell at her.”

My mother looked at him as if he was insane. “We don’t have to yell at her? Rod, she was having an affair with a teacher! She got herself suspended!”

I was almost expelled, but I was not going to tell her this when she was this angry about me getting suspended. I didn’t really think she’d be proud that I had talked my principal into suspending me instead of permanently kicking me out of school.

“Rod, she was having an affair with a teacher,” my mother repeated, as if my father hadn’t heard her the first time. “She was having an affair with a teacher! She lied to all of us! She defied everything I said!”

My father sighed. “I understand, Regina, but—”

“You’re grounded,” my mother snapped at me now, cutting my father off. I already knew that I was grounded; she didn’t even have to say it. “I don’t know for how long, but you are. No going out anywhere except for school, no TV, no internet. You’re only keeping your phone so we can get a hold of you, but we will be looking to see who you’re in contact with.”

I knew that I was on complete and total lockdown, but this was just unfair. They were only going to look at who I was in contact with for one reason.