Cinders

~37~ Won't Happen Again

I spend all of the morning, and most of the afternoon, at the firehouse.

It's nice to goof around with the guys—They feel like a bunch of crazy uncles. We played basketball and poker. I'm becoming a man, ladies and gents!

Since mom isn't here, we even used real money for a game—I'm sworn to secrecy though. NOBODY wants to deal with the wrath of mom if she found out. Taylor told them he wasn't taking the hit for it if mom caught wind—He knows mom will lose it, and he refused to take responsibility. He wouldn't even play the game when we used real money; Instead, he did paperwork in his office.

The replacements they got for mom and Megan are ok—It's obvious the guys are missing the girls, though.

"There sure is a hole without those gals, huh?" Keegan asks, getting agreement from everyone. Taylor doesn't say anything, he just puts his head down. He's so in love with my mom, and he's crazy lonely for her. I'll have to tell her that when he isn't around.

Around 4:30 p.m., dad shows up looking like dad again. I can INSTANTLY tell that he's finally snapped out of his rage. I go up to him, and we just hug each other for a long minute. Dad pulls away from me, looking embarrassed and sad.

"I'm good now, but if you're not comfortable coming home, it's fine. I'm sure Taylor won't mind if you stay here," he says, staring at Taylor. Taylor simply shakes his head and gives him a small smile.

"No, I wanna come home."

Dad smiles big and squeezes my shoulder. "Let's go then, champ."

I go over to Taylor and give him a hug goodbye, and wave to all the guys—Then dad and I leave.

Once we get home, dad looks at me hard. "Can we talk about it?" He asks, sitting on the barstool in the kitchen.

"Yeah," I say, getting nervous again.

"I just need to know why—Did you think I wasn't being serious? Were you trying push me? Did you just not care?"

"I think a little bit of all three," I answer honestly.

Dad nods, and his face is hard to read. I can tell he appreciated my honesty, but he really didn't like that answer.

"I don't want to EVER do that again, Liam. That was the worst moment of my entire life—But I will, if it happens again."

"It won't happen again, I promise you," I say, meaning every single word. I will NEVER do that again. Last night was the worst night of my life too.

Dad nods again. "Ok, then that's all I have to say about it."

"Dad?"

"Yeah?"

"How badly did he abuse you?"

I don't wanna know his answer, but I have to. I just think there's an entirely different life of dad's that I don't know about—I thought I knew everything about him.

"Horribly, Liam. I'm not even gonna go into detail about it. I'll just say that I've been in therapy since I turned 18."

He closes his eyes for a minute, and I see it on his face. There's so much more that I don't know....

"Thank you for not being your dad," I say, going over to give him another hug.

Dad hugs me back and messes up my hair. "I'm trying."

The rest of the night goes good—We stay in, playing video games and eating pizza.

~*~

The next day, dad takes me back to mom's about 3 p.m. Mom is supposed to be back at 4 p.m. or so.

Mom comes back about 4:15, and I don't think Taylor has ever smiled so big.

"There's my girl!!!!!" He says, coming over and picking her up, kissing her hard.

Then grabs her butt, squeezing it firmly. "Woah! So firm—Definitely worth it."

She laughs and kisses him back, hugging him too.

"I missed you, ya goof," she says, smacking his butt lightly as he puts her down and hugs her hard.

"You have no idea," he says simply...quietly...as he bends down to kiss her gently again.

She gets out of his embrace after a minute and comes over to me. "Hey buddy!" Did you have a good weekend?"

She hugs me tight, and I immediately relax. My mom is home, and everything is as it should be—I'm well aware that if I say that out loud, someone would beat me up for being a momma's boy.

"How was your trip?" I ask, trying to change the subject.

"It was great! I'm so sore though—I'm gonna need a big, strong man to rub the knots out of my back," she says, looking over her shoulder and smiling at Taylor.

"I thought the whole point was for them to do that for you," he teases.

"Yeah, well, the boot camp was insane. Megan could barely walk after the first class."

Taylor chuckles quietly and looks at me, wondering how we should tell her.

"So, you didn't tell me how your weekend was—What did you do?" She asks, looking back at me. I give Taylor a secret look, wondering if I should tell her now. He just shrugs

He's a lotta help!

"Ummm. Well I kinda got in trouble....."

She turns to Taylor, assuming it was Taylor who did it. "What happened?" She asks, immediately back into mom mode.

It's creepy how fast she did that.

"I got caught smoking pot," I say. Might as well just rip the bandaid off quickly.

"You didn't!!!"

Welp, she be mad....

I simply nod—I'm too scared of her to talk right this minute.

"Does your dad know?"

I nod. "Yeah, he wants my car taken away."

"Good," mom says, turning to Taylor. "Has he been spanked?"

Taylor simply nods. "It's been taken care of."

Mom nods, trying to read him. "There's more you're not telling me, isn't there?"

Taylor sighs and looks at her hard. "Yeah, there is. I'll tell you if you absolutely have to know—I'm hoping you'll just trust me though, and not ask."

Mom looks at him for a long, hard minute. Finally her face softens. "I trust you," she says, turning back around to look at me.

"Do I need to lecture you on how stupid that was?" She asks, crossing her arms.

I shake my head. "I've had a whole weekend of lectures."

She nods. "How long does dad want your car taken away for?"

"He said it was up to you and Taylor."

She nods and looks at Taylor. "Have you done anything?"

He shakes his head. "I wouldn't do that without you."

Mom just nods. "Ok—I'll let you know later. Do you still have homework?"

I nod.

"K. Go do it."

I nod and go to my room.

I don't know the extent of my punishment, but at least I'm not getting spanked again. This has been such a horrible weekend. One thing I know for sure though, I will never, EVER do drugs again.

I never promised I wouldn't drink again, though!