part of me | e.d

ten

RYLIN'S POV

i stop dead in my tracks on my way to the front door. it was wide open, unlocked, and all the lights in the house were on. 

my dad should not be home right now. no one should.

after a few moments of just staring at the door, i hear ethan's car door close. i feel his presence behind me as he places his hand on the small of my back. 

"i'll go in first." he walks in front of me, cautious as he enters the house. i follow him.

once we're inside, i can hear the sound of glass shattering. it was coming from the kitchen. 

ethan turns and heads to the doorway of the kitchen. i remain a few steps behind him. 

i was so grateful he noticed something was wrong and stayed with me.

when we got to the kitchen, i hear ethan exhale heavily. almost like a sigh of relief?

"mr. avery," he says. what was my dad doing here? and leaving the door wide open and breaking glass?

i finally see him, or should i say, smell him. he reeked of alcohol. i didn't even want to get near him.

my dad grabs another glass frame hanging on the wall, a family portrait from seven years ago, and it shatters when it makes contact with the floor. "dad, what are you doing?"

"oh, n-nothing rylin. i'm j-just cleanin' up, that's all," he continues reaching for another frame, this one of my mother and i from five years ago. 

seeing him this drunk was frightening. memories of my dad coming home wasted from work and abusing my mother flood my mind. his drinking tore apart our family. he'd hit her for no reason. blame her for all of his problems. she put up with him for me, so i could have somewhat of a family.

his abuse finally got so bad that one day, i came home from school and found my mother overdosed and unconscious on her bedroom floor. i couldn't help her. i couldn't save her.

i went to ethan and grayson's after school everyday after she passed away. they made me forget, even for just an hour before i went back home and felt the grief flood me all over again.

my dad had eventually stopped drinking for my sake. he'd come to reality through the consequences and death of my mother. he's been sober for three years now. seeing him in this state again scared the shit out of me. and ethan knew that.

ethan's warm hand grabbing mine brings me out of my thoughts, and back to what was happening in front of me.

"dad, why were you drinking?" he starts stumbling around the room, probably looking for more stuff to break.

"because i can do whatever the damn i want," he replies, his bloodshot eyes meeting mine. "it's not like i got any reason not to since i was fired today."

i stand there shocked. he was fired? 

"why were you fired?" i began to worry. how were we going to pay bills? get groceries? live here?

"apparently my boss doesn't like it when his employees come to w-work drunk," he slurs.

i shake my head, feeling extremely disappointed. "do you not remember what your drinking did to our family? to mom?"

i can see some emotion, maybe even pain surge through him for a moment. but that moment was brief.

"don't you ever talk about her again rylin," he walks closer to me, pointing his finger in my face. "it was her goddamn decision to leave us."