Secret // Calum Hood

23: PART TWO

Elena

The return to school brought more complications than I cared to talk about.  The day before my return, I received a package that had a pair of black stilettos in it.  I thought maybe it was a late Christmas gift.  I couldn’t think of who sent it, because everyone who knows me knows that I don’t wear heels often.  And the only time I’ve worn black stilettos was Sophomore year, at a party that I was mistakenly invited to, and should have never attended.  I put them in the back of my closet and the back of my mind as I got ready for bed.  A few minutes later, Mom came into my room.

“Did you do your chores today?” she asked, just getting home from a very long day at work.

“Yes” I answered, suddenly not having the energy to talk.

“Did you happen to move my very expensive bottles of wine, imported from Italy might I remind you?” she asked, sounding accusatory without even knowing one detail.

“No, I didn’t even know you had those.  But I mean..maybe it’s better that they’re gone, you don’t need so much-” I started to say quietly, but she shut me up with a look that I was all too familiar with.  That look was one she got right before she would hit me.

“I mean...I’m sure they’re around here somewhere,” I said, and turned my back to her under the covers.  

“They better be,” she threatened, and closed the door on her way out.  I fell asleep wishing and hoping and praying that this wasn’t the start of another spiral.

When I woke up the next morning, I heard Mom downstairs cooking breakfast.  I went downstairs to see that she had indeed poured herself a drink of the adult kind.  I had stayed quiet about this before, but I was really starting to find my voice.  And I wanted her to know that I’m getting more than upset.

“Alcohol before seven in the morning?” I asked.

“Don’t get an attitude with me Elena.  I had a tough day yesterday,” she said.

“You seem to have a tough day everyday,” I said.

“Well that’s the life of a successful advertising executive,” she said absentmindedly as she burned the bacon.

“You know, some people take a hot bath or get a massage when they have a tough day, they don’t drink the entire contents of a vodka bottle,” I snapped.

“That’s enough!” she yelled, throwing a glass plate on the floor.  The crash was deafening, and echoed around the house.  It was dead silent. “Look what you made me do!”

“I’m sorry,” I said as I tried to help her clean up.

“Just get ready for school, I don’t need you,” she snapped.

She might not have realized what she said, but it still hurt.  As I dressed in a warm sweater and black skinny jeans, I thought that I didn’t need her either.  I looked at my wrists, wishing to make another scar.  I thought about how...inviting it would be.  How it would almost look...attractive to make another mark.  But I shook those thoughts from my mind as I got in my car and drove to school.  The minute I parked, I spotted Calum, and I ran up behind him and covered his eyes.