The Preston Playboys

chapter twenty-five - past lovers and self help

chapter twenty-five – past lovers and self help

"Look at me, Thea." Mom bent down to my height. "You never, ever let any boy make you cry."

"But Marc's a butthead!" I cried out.

"Right now, he is a butthead." Mom grinned. "But one day he won't be. And then he will be. And then he won't. That's how life works. Daddy was a butthead to me a few times."

"Really?" I glanced over to where Daddy was talking to Marc's daddy.

"Yes, really." Mom grabbed my hand. "He never dumped sand in my hair, but Daddy made some mistakes that made me really sad. But I love him. But not more than I love myself. That's what you need to always remember, baby girl."

"Mommy you're silly." I giggled. "That's not hard because I don't love Marc!"

I opened my eyes, listening to the beeping of my alarm.

6:00am

Usually I wouldn't wake up until 7:45. All I had to do was get up and leave my house. But today starts a fresh new me.

The old me. But a new version of her. I won't let the Preston's influence me unless I want them to.

I dragged myself out of bed, realizing that this will be a lot harder than I expected.

All I want to do is lay in my bed and cry. But I can't. I have to do this for Dad. For Mom. For Wyatt, Laurel, Charlie and Millie. I need to let this go. For myself.

I made my way to the bathroom, grabbing a towel from the linen closet and turning the shower on.

While waiting for the water to heat up, I brushed my teeth and detangled my hair.

My quick 10 minute shower turned into a 25 minute crying session when I realized that Marc would always comment about how much he loved the way my hair smelled after using this shampoo and conditioner.

But I stopped myself and made myself get out of the shower.

Once I had my hair wrapped up in a towel and a towel secured around my body, I made my way back to my bedroom to find an outfit.

I searched my closet for something, anything that didn't have a memory with Marc attached to it.

Not that top, I wore it the day Marc came back.

Not those jeans, I wore those to the football game where Marc first kissed me.

Not that dress, I wore those to Marc's house when we worked on our project.

Then I saw it. It was my Mom's. A simple long sleeve hot pink shirt. It honestly sounds really ugly but all it made me think of was my Mom. And that made me happy.

35 minutes later I was ready for school. I made my way downstairs and found my Dad eating breakfast by himself.

I suddenly felt really guilty. I forgot about our morning routine. Every morning at 7am, Dad and I would eat breakfast and just talk until Wyatt woke up to drive me to school and Dad left for work.

He's been eating by himself for weeks while I sulked up in my room...

"Good morning, Dad." I smiled at him as I pulled out a chair at the breakfast nook.

"Hey, pumpkin. You're up early." Dad smiled up from his newspaper.

"Yeah. I wanted to look good for school." I laughed.

Dad and I just ate and talked about a bunch of random things until Wyatt slithered down from his room because he smelled the scent of bacon. Not long after that, Dad had to leave for work so he kissed me on the forehead, patted Wyatt on the back because Wyatt had bacon fall down the wrong pipe and he was off to work.