Cinders

~12~ Swimming

I get my "lesson" once I get back to the gym. When I say lesson, I really mean that Jake used it as an excuse to kick my ass. For a guy who was supposedly throwing his punches, they sure did hurt. After another hour Jake finally lets us leave.

"You're not too bad for someone who hasn't done this in years," Jake says, looking down at mom. "Before the suspension thing, did you have any other issues with any calls?" He asks as we walk back up to the apartment.

She shrugs and glances at me, not wanting me to hear. "Did something else happen?" I ask, getting a pit in my stomach. I remember the night she got attacked by that guy 5 years ago. It was bad.

"It wasn't a big deal; Just a guy with a knife. I was able to get it away from him before the men came over—Taylor tackled him to the ground. It was fine."

Jake sighs loudly. "I wish you'd give up this shitty job. I'd hire you on as a trainer, and give you more than what you're making now."

"Quit Jake. You don't need to throw that in my face every time I see you. I'm not interested."

We get back to the door and she pauses before opening it. "Anything else, or are we done here?"

The way mom says that, it's obvious she isn't inviting him in.

For a fraction of a second, I see Jake's face turn into sadness—Like mom hurt his feelings. Before I can confirm what I saw, Jake's back to his cranky self.

"Get rid of the soda; You're raising a teenager. He needs to eat healthier," Jake says as he storms off.

"Ugh! That man makes me so mad!" Mom says as she opens the door and we go in.

Mom's in a mood since Jake, so I decide to just go to my room. I've had about all of the crazy I can handle for one day.

~*~

The week goes by fine, but I'm really missing dad. He's coming by tonight to hang out with us.

He convinced mom to give me a "good behavior" night since I've been so good for her the last couple of weeks. To my complete surprise, mom agrees. She still isn't allowing me to watch any TV, but she said that dad and I could go to the pool that's in the complex—I'm pretty excited. The ONLY thing she's let me do is go to the gym. The fact that she's letting me and dad go to the pool is huge.

I mean, my ass has never looked better, but I'm ready for something else besides seeing sweaty dudes on treadmills.

Dad is bringing pizza over when he gets off work, and then we're headed to the pool after that. I get my homework done pretty quickly today.

I will say, that being with mom these last two weeks, I'm surprisingly completely caught up on my homework. I even got an A on a couple of tests!

I go out to the kitchen to start on the chores that mom has implemented for my grounding.

I start thinking about Aria while I'm doing dishes. She isn't happy. She's mad we can't text or hang out. It might be time to look for a lower-maintenance girl. She isn't the only hot chick in school.

I get done with dishes and start vacuuming. Mom is in her room folding laundry when dad comes in.

"Anybody hungry?" He yells, holding the pizza in one hand and trying to juggle bags in his other.

"Quit standin' there and help me out, lazy bones,"dad grins. I go over to him and take the pizza and a couple bags, and set them on the counter. Mom comes out when she hears dad, and smiles.

"I love a man that brings me food," she grins as she kisses his cheek and starts looking at the counter. "What's all this?"

"You're 'bout to love me even more. Brought you about three weeks of food," he says as he opens the fridge and starts putting things away.