Pictures Of You

Chapter 3

Amy had been trying to get her life back to normal and just forget that night. She kept telling herself that she had everything she needed, that's what she said to everyone else too but for that split second that she let her mind wander; she always wondered what it would be like to finally have a father, but she didn't let herself think about it too much. She wanted to move forward, with the people who'd picked her.

Amy's father had been almost stalking her, waiting outside her house, constantly. Amy hadn't said anything at first but she was starting to get sick of it.

"You need to leave." Amy said, closing the door of her house behind her, as she left for school.

"Amy." The man said.

"I'm going to call the police." Amy said.

"Come on, just listen to me." The man said, trying to keep pace with Amy.

"Why should I listen to anything you have to say?" Amy asked, stopping to finally look at the man.

"Look, I know I screwed up but I'm trying to make up for lost time, I'm trying to fix my mistakes. Please just give me a chance." The man said.

"You had sixteen years to try, but you never did. It's too late now." Amy said, beginning to walk away from the man.

"I wrote you letters and tried calling. I did try to get to know you Amy, but your mom didn't let me." The man said, not chasing after Amy anymore.

Amy stopped in her tracks and turned to look back at the man. "What? My mom would never do that."

"She did, ask her." The man said.

Amy didn't respond, she just kept walking but what the man said, hit her like a ton of bricks. Had her father actually tried to reach out to her? Did he really care? And if he did, why would Amy's mom keep that from her, when she knew how much knowing her father had meant to Amy.

Amy met Karma at the bus stop. She just sat on the bench while Karma stood in front of her and just stared at her.

"What's wrong?" Karma asked.

"Huh?" Amy said, snapping out of her thoughts.

"What's wrong?" Karma asked.

" You know how my dad is practically camping outside my house?" Amy said.

"Yeah." Karma said.

"He was there this morning and he told me that he'd tried contacting me, but my mom never let him get through to me." Amy said.

"What?" Karma asked.

"Yeah, but I don't know.." Amy said.

"Do you believe him?" Karma asked.

"I don't know what to believe anymore. A part of me wants to believe he's telling the truth, because then I can finally let myself get to know him but the other part of me, doesn't want to believe my mom would do that to me." Amy said.

"Maybe you should ask her." Karma said.

"Yeah I think I will, but I just don't want to upset her if it's not true, you know?" Amy said.

"Yeah, but you need to know the truth, you owe yourself that, Amy." Karma said.

"Yeah." Amy said.

Karma sat next to Amy on the bench, put her arm around her as they waited together for the bus. Amy was completely lost but at least she wasn't alone.

Amy walked around school like a zombie, flooded with thoughts of her dad and what things could've been like for them, what things were actually like for them. Amy was standing at her locker, taking books out and thinking; she didn't even notice Shane, till she closed her locker.