Authors: Chloe Walsh
Derek sighed loudly, for the fiftieth time in the past hour.
“If you do that again, I’m gonna stick my foot up your ass and give you a fucking reason to sigh.”
Christ he was getting on my last nerve.
I was trying to keep my mind off Lee and how fucked up the situation between us had become, and Derek was irritating the crap out of me.
“Dude we are so pathetic, sitting here like a pair of ninnies. Fuck the girls. We should be out on the tiles, munching some bush.”
I groaned, and tossed the remainder of my sandwich down.
There went my appetite.
Uh, how was I friends with this freak?
“Munch some bush? What are you the pussy patrol? Dude you have a girlfriend, you remember Cam right?”
Derek dropped his controller down on the coffee table.
Thank God.
I tossed mine down before he changed his mind.
I couldn’t take another minute of that game.
“Yeah I remember, and I also know where she and Lee are right now.”
Wait, what?
Where was Lee?
I glared at his sulky face, “Where are they right now?”
Where the fuck had Cam taken her?
Didn’t she realize Lee was innocent?
“Fucking Montgomery,” Derek sighed and my blood boiled.
“As in Louisiana? What the hell? Why?”
How did I not know this?
“Lee had to go home, or some shit, Cam went with her. They left last night.”
I was on my feet and moving before my brain caught up.
“Dude, you waste half my day and about fifty chromosomes I’ll never get back playing that shit, when you knew the girls were gone to fucking Louisiana?”
Derek groaned, “Fuck them Kyle, Cam’s probably honky-tonking her little ass around some bar by now, and not giving two shits about me.”
Could he hear himself?
“You dipshit, don’t you care that there’s probably fifty guys right now trying to get in your girl’s panties.”
And mine.
I grabbed my keys and headed for my truck, not waiting for Derek’s reaction.
“Awh shit,” I heard him shout a few moments later.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
LEE
“What are you going to say to him when we get there?”
I knew what Cam was asking, but I honestly had no answer for her.
I didn’t know what I was going to say.
What do you say to the man who raised you, tortured you your whole life, and was now lying in a hospital bed?
A heart attack, he had said.
I was not surprised.
Daddy smoked cigarettes like he breathed air; constantly.
“I’m not sure Cam. I’m more worried about what he’ll say to me to be honest.”
We had been driving all night, and we had another two hours to go.
I planned on using those to plot how I was going to approach my father.
“You know, you don’t have to do this Lee. We can turn around be home by nightfall. You can walk away from this. You owe him nothing.”
I nodded but didn’t say anything.
There was no point; nothing I could say to Cam would redeem my father in her eyes.
I kept thinking that this was the right thing to do.
My mother wouldn’t have wanted him to be sick and alone.
KYLE
My head was bursting. I had a headache to kill all headaches, and Derek would not shut the fuck up.
“Dude I swear if she’s with another guy when we get there, then I’m totally done. I mean it this time. I’m not taking her shit anymore.”
His rants didn’t even render an answer.
He was talking out of his ass.
I just nodded or shook my head when he looked over at me, which seemed acceptable.
To be honest, my mind was nowhere near Cam and Derek’s fucked up relationship, it was fixed on mine and Lee’s fucked up one.
Why did she need to go home?
Was she sick?
Was she running again?
Was she leaving me?
I sounded fucking pathetic; I wasn’t hers to leave.
I wasn’t anything.
“Dude did Cam mention anything about why Lee needed to go home?”
This was the fourth time I had asked Derek that question since we hit the road.
Every time he distracted me with some sob story about Cam.
I wanted to puke.
I should have caught a flight, but I hadn’t fucking thought it through.
When Derek told me where Lee was, I’d gotten in my truck and drove.
His phone rang just as he was about to answer me.
“Who is it?” I asked.
“Fucking Camryn,” Derek grumbled as he looked at the screen.
I wanted to grab the phone off him.
“Answer it dumbass.”
Derek pressed a button and put the phone up to his ear, “Babe are you okay? Did you get there safely?”
What a pussy.
So much for his ranting…
“Oh that’s good I guess. How’s Lee holding up?”
I strained to hear Cam’s voice on the other line, but it was too muffled.
“No, I didn’t say anything.”
Didn’t say what?
“Cam baby, I didn’t tell him.”
Derek looked at me and shifted uncomfortably, “Can I call you back later, I can’t talk right now.”
Oh, this was getting interesting.
“Yeah Kyle’s here. Gotta go.”
I waited until he put the phone back in his pocket.
“You’ve been holding out on me buddy. Talk. Now.”
LEE
My feet shook with every step I took towards the hospital room.
“Do you want me to go in with you?” Cam asked.
“No, I have to this myself.”
I stepped inside.
“Delia, baby?”
I approached the old man in the bed in front of me.
Tubes and machines were surrounding him.
I swallowed the vomit that threatened to spill.
“Hello daddy.”
His face looked much older than when I had last seen him.
I felt like crying.
I knew he had done some terrible things to me, but this was my father; the only family I had in the world.
“I’m so happy you came, didn’t think you would, I wouldn’t have blamed you if you didn’t.”
I sighed, and sat on the chair beside his bed.
“I almost turned back twice.”
He patted my hand and I flinched, pulling it away.
“We’ll im glad you changed your mind.” he whispered.
“How bad is it daddy?”
He shrugged and tried to pull himself up, but winced in pain.
“Don’t you worry about me darling, I’ll be just fine.”
“It’s kind of hard not to worry considering you’ve just had a heart attack. I am worried about you.”
He visibly shook when I said that.
“Awh darling, you don’t know how happy it makes me to hear you say those words. I thought that you’d hate me after what I did.”
I had no answer.
“Delia, I’ve stopped drinking. I’m taking meetings, every day. I’m sorry baby, so sorry for what I did to you.”
I flinched, “Which time daddy?”
“Every time. What I did to you, the way I treated you was unforgivable. I realized that the day I found out you had left.”
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.
My father was actually showing remorse.
He was up to something.
“I’m not coming home daddy, if that’s why you’re saying these things. I won’t come home.”
He nodded and sighed.
“I wouldn’t expect you to sweetheart. I’m just glad I got a chance to tell you how sorry I am before…before it’s too late.”
I stood up quickly.
I could not listen to anymore.
I needed to think.
“I’m going to go. I can’t take this all in right now. I’ll come back tomorrow, okay?”
Daddy nodded, “Sure, sure, do you have somewhere to stay tonight? You can stay at the house for as long as you like.”
I shook my head, not wanting to go anywhere near that house.
“Camryn is with me, she drove me here.”
Daddy pondered this for a moment.
“I guess I owe that girl a thank you,” he said, “Taking care of my baby when I didn’t… She has been a good friend to you. You’re both welcome to use the house.”
I opened the door, “Goodnight Daddy.”
Cam was unusually silent in the car on the way to my father’s house.
She had said, no told me that we were staying at the house.
She wanted me to get some of my things, and knew this was probably my only chance of getting any of my possessions.
We pulled up outside the old battered farmhouse, and the sound of a dog barking had me leaping from the car.
“Bruno,” I squealed.
The sight of my old chocolate lab bounding towards me made me drop to my knees.
“Hey boy, I missed you, yes I did. Did you miss me?”
Bruno barreled into me, attacking my face with wet kisses and drool.
“Oh you did miss me, didn’t you boy.”
I hugged the chunky old guy.
By the looks of him, my father had been feeding him well.
“That old guy's still alive?” Cam chuckled from behind me.
“Of course he is, aren’t you Bruno,” my voice taking on the universal ‘dog’ tone.
I stood up and went to open the front door, Bruno bounded in before us.
I was half-afraid of the mess in front of us but the house was…clean.
I guessed my father was telling the truth about kicking the booze.
KYLE
I waited impatiently while Derek muttered and moaned through his fucking explanation.
“Lee’s dad had a heart attack, that’s why she’s rushed home. He’s fine though as far as Cam knows.”
Relief flooded through me, she wasn’t running from me at least.
“That’s it? That’s the big secret?”
“Well not exactly…”
I looked over at him.
“Dude you better start fucking talking fast, or I’m gonna toss your ass out of this truck quicker than you can say Okla-fucking-homa.”
Derek shifted uncomfortably in his seat, “Okay promise you won’t flip out and go crazy?”
I grimaced.
“Don’t give me a reason to flip out and go crazy.”
Derek sighed loudly, “Okay, well, I found out some stuff about Lee, and why she might be staying with us.”
I tensed, but kept my mouth shut.
“You’re not gonna like this dude,” he warned and let the words rush from his mouth.
“Cam said Lee’s dad used to knock her around.”
I slammed on the brakes.
“Jesus fucking Christ, Kyle, are you trying to get us killed?”
Horns were blaring around us, as I pulled into the hard shoulder.
I turned to face him.
“What do you mean used to knock her around?”
Derek fidgeted with his hands, “I’m not sure dude, I’m not even supposed to know this. Cam let it slip the night you and Lee had that fight in the kitchen.”
That was nearly two months ago.
Derek had been holding back crucial fucking information from me.
I cringed.
“She was drunk Kyle. I wasn’t sure if she was talking out of her ass,” he groaned, and rubbed his forehead, “She said that Lee had a piss poor life with the guy, and that he was a control freak. He knocked her around and she had some scars on her back or something.”
I couldn’t deal with this shit.
Lee didn’t have any scars.
I would know.
My mind reverted back to the night of her birthday.
I had felt something on her back…
But I’d been too fucking horny to stop and check.
Were those grooves I felt scars?
Fuck, I wanted to hit something.
“And she’s what? Gone back to Louisiana to hold his fucking hand?”
Derek shrugged, “Kyle he’s still her old man. Her mom’s dead, she has no brothers or sisters. Her dad is all she’s got.”