Promise

9.

Lucy

I saw them drive away as soon as i had closed the door. I left out a deep breath. My heart was racing. I didn't think sitting in the frontseat of a car would be that scary. But i don't think they noticed that, i tried to be as calm as possible. I sat down on the ground until my breathing had calmed down a bit.

After 10 minutes i got up and looked for my uncle. I surprisingly found him in his own room on his bed. I can't even remember the last time he actually slept in his own bed. He would always just sleep on the couch or even on the floor. He still had his normal clothes on and smelled like beer and cigarettes, but the fact that he was able to drag himself upstairs gave me a little bit of hope. Mabye he was still able to get sober and realise that i needed him as un uncle again. Not just as a an angry ,drunk scumbag who would eat my food.

I unfortunately didn't feel tired anymore . It was 1AM. I decided to do some research on the math professor who would give my free lessons. I would like to know something about a person before i met them. Especially if i had to be alone in a room with them. I had even looked up mrs Middleton's doctors the night before the appointment was. But i wasn't able to find much because i didn't know there firsts names back then. But now i did so i might look them up again later, but i didn't feel like doing that now.

I typed the professors name in google and clicked search. The first thing that popped up was an article about how he had solved an extremely complex equation. I didn't really needed that i formation so clicked on the website of the university he worked for. There was a picture of him and some basic information. He was 46 and married with 2 kids. He had worked at the university for almost 15 years and student's apparently lived him. I doubted that because when i looked at his picture i immediately got goosbumps. He looked kinda creepy. But then again i find almost all male scary.

I closed my laptop en decided that it was probably for the best that i would try to sleep for a couple of hours. I brushed my teeth and removed all the make up. Most bruises had faded only the one on my cheek was still visible.

I woke up to my alarm at 6 o'clock in morning. I had survived another night without nightmares. I wanted to get ready for school but then realise that i was saturday and that i didn't have school so layed back down in bed. I didn't really feel like going back to sleep so i just scrolled to instagram.

After an 3 hours i decided that i was time to check on mrs Middleton and my uncle. I wmet downstairs and saw my uncle sitting in front of the tv with a bowl of cereal. "Goodmorning sir"
He mumbled an goodmorning back and continued to eat his cereal. I wanted make a little jump from happiness, this was the first morning in weeks where he wasn't drunk or extremely mad. He was making progress.

I also grabbed cereal and went back to my room. My uncle may have been in a good mood this morning but i was still to scared to sit next to him to eat my breakfast.

I opend my phone and saw that i had a text message from my boss and from an unknown number. I opened my bosses text first.
Boss: Greg called in sick today so can you start at 5 instead of 10?
Lucy: yeah , no problem i will be there by 5
I knew that i didn't really have a choice because had already missed worked yesterday. I worked on friday, saturday, sunday and monday at the gas station. The rest of the week i would sometimes babysit or walk people's dogs.

I opened that text from the unknown number.

Dear, Lucy Green's

My name is Walter Whiteley and i am i going to give you extra math lessons. I would like to see you once a week to work on equations together and teach you new tricks to solve them. I am available on thursday and Friday at 5 pm. Let me known which day is more convenient to you.

He texted like he was emailing me, which is pretty typical for older people. But i didn't feel obligated to do the same so i simply texted back:
I would like to thank you for this opportunity. Thursday at 5 sounds perfect to me, where would i meet you? And how long will the lessons take?

He immediately responded this time not as if he was writing an email.

Prof. Whiteley: The lessons will take an hour. I will see you on Thursday at 5 pm at the university in my office. I sent you a link with the location of the university and a map of the university so you can find my office.
I will see you on Thursday.

Lucy: Thank you, see you on Thursday.

I closed my phone , got ready and went to mrs Middleton's house.

I unlocked the door and called her name, she immediately responded back which made my happy. She was upstairs in her bedroom. She sat infront of her window in her chair while she was reading a book. "How are we feeling today bunny?" she asked once i walked into the room and went to sit on her bed. I told her all about the hospital visit, but left out the part where i had to walk alone. I told her my uncle drove me. And i told her about the extra math lessons. I felt nice to be able to talk to somebody even it was just about silly little things. She looked at my hand "Does it still hurt?"
"No not anymore the doctor did a pretty job stitching it up"
She smiled at my "You mean that my doctor did a good job"
I smiled back and asked her how her day has been so far. "Good, i just had my morning coffee and toast." Then she looked at me more seriously . "I was looking through some old photos last night and suddenly rememberd that it would be Jake's 18 birthday next week. Are you doing anything to celebrate it ?"

I didn't response. Besides the nightmares i got of him i hadn't thought of my brother. He killed himself 2 years ago. Even though it happend 2 years ago i still had nightmares and felt like crying when i thought about it. He was my best friend and he left me. I hadn't talked to anyone in detail about what happened that night and i intended to keep it that way so i could forget everything easier.

I looked to mrs Middleton who was waiting patiently on my response. "I guess i haven't really thought about it. But i think i might visit him but I'm not sure yet"
"You know you can always talk to me about it if you want to and if you want me to visit him together we can do that."
I smiled at her, she was always so sweet and caring. "Thank you"