Cinders

~18~ Do Something

The next couple days are brutal. Mom lays into me once Taylor leaves, and she lectures me, quite literally, all day. I'm informed that my life is over, and that I won't see the sun again until graduation. I stay with mom all day, not hearing from my dad at all. I was still supposed to stay with him tonight.

The next morning I'm feeling a little better. I'm still sore, but not nearly as bad as I was expecting. Yesterday I even had to sit on a pillow to eat at the table. That was embarrassing, but I still did it—Beggars can't be choosers and what-not.

It's around lunchtime when mom suddenly puts on her shoes and grabs her keys. "Ok, let's go."

"Where?" I'm completely taken off guard. According to her, I'm under house arrest and getting the bread and water treatment.

"To the precinct," she says simply.

"What, now you're gonna have me arrested?"

"You really wanna continue with this attitude?"

Abort the sarcasm! Abort the sarcasm!—"I'm sorry"

We drive to dad's work in silence. Normally he doesn't work on the weekends, but he's had to lately. This case is really bad, apparently.

We get there and stop at Julie's desk.

"Hey Liam," she says, giving me a warm smile.

"Hey," I say, returning the smile.

Mom hasn't been here in a year or two, so Julie has never seen her before. It's obvious she doesn't like the way mom looks—She's giving mom major attitude.

"Can I help you?" She asks, rudely.

"We need to see Alex."

Julie crosses her arms. "Sergeant Clark is busy at the moment. You'll have to come back later. Calling next time would be preferred."

Mom chuckles and reaches in her pocket for her phone. She picks out dad's number and waits for him to answer.

"Alex, Liam and I are outside of your office, can we come in? Great! Oh, by the way, you need a new secretary. This one's a b****."

Mom hangs up the phone, glaring at Julie, and I stifle a chuckle. Mom's in a bad mood and laughing isn't a good idea right now.

Dad comes out immediately, looking from mom to Julie, in obvious confusion.

"What's wrong?" He asks, looking at mom.

"You didn't tell me how important you are, Sergeant. I'm so sorry we don't have an appointment to see you. Will you make an exception just this once, please?"

Mom is being overly dramatic. She's batting her eyes and sticking out her lower lip, pretending to beg.

Dad looks at Julie, now annoyed. "You told them they couldn't see me because they didn't have an appointment? It's Liam!"

"Sorry sir, you've just been so busy," she begins, but stops as soon as she sees dad's face.

"We'll talk later," Dad says darkly, motioning for us to follow him to his office.

We go in and he closes the door.

"Sorry El"

"It's fine. Do you have time to talk?"

"Of course I do. What's up?"

Mom sighs and puts up her hands.

"I need help, Alex," she says, trying not to cry.

"With what?" He asks as he goes in to hug her

She puts her hand on his chest, stopping him.

"With him"