Falling - On the Banks of Lake Saint Clare (Falling - Book One) (23 page)

“Nope,” I said, “
n
ot a word. But I also just came down here from changing.”

“
And may I say you look more amazing than I have ever seen you before.”

I blushed. I loved hearing his compliments but it also embarrassed me.

“He’s at the grill,” Michael pointed to Dad. “Wanna go talk to him.”

I shrugged.

“It’s not you that did anything wrong. You should confront him and see if he is going to change. If he isn’t, then you can give him the silent treatment. It doesn’t matter to me if he
doesn’t
want to talk to you, but they aren’t going to talk about you anymore.”

“Do me a favor thou
gh
, let me do the talking. I am sure he hates you right now, I don’t want it to get any worse, and I don’t want a scene.”

“Is there worse than hate?” He smiled. “Ok sport,
” he spanked me on the butt like a coach would do, “
you’re on your own. But I will be listening.”

I took a deep breath and walked over to the grill. “Hey Dad, may I have that one?” I pointed to a hamburger. “Are we okay?”

“Well Alex,” he said, not looking up, “we both said things we probably regret right now. I think we can just forget about it and move on.”

“What do you mean by we both? You do mean you and Rachel, don’t you?”

“I’m not going to get Rachel in
the middle of our disagreement
.”

“Rachel is the whole reason for o
ur disagreement
. How can you say she doesn’t need to be in the middle? If it weren’t for her, none of this would have happened.”

He slammed his fist down on the table making me jump, “Rachel does everything for you. You are being
so ungrateful
. Did she not drive you to school so you didn’t have to ride the bus everyday last year?”

“She was going there anyway and you and mom were paying her and the gas. It was not an inconvenience for her to take me to school. She was actually making money doing it.”

I had never argued with my Dad. I don’t ever recall having more than a three-sentence conversation with him in a week’s time.

“I don’t want to argue with you, Dad.”

“Alex,” he said sternly, “I am not the one who came over to you and started the argument. You did that yourself. You came over here wanting
a fight and now that you are lo
sing, you choose to bail out just like you do with everything you start.
”

“I wasn
’t aware there was winning or l
osing here. I just came over to make sure we were ok.”

“Well, t
hings get a little bit tough on little precious Alex and she bails out. You’re going to quit cheer because you might have to put a little effort into keeping your title. You sleep in the family room because you can’t stand to be nice to Rachel for ten minutes. You fucking bail out in everything you ever do. You are the one who instigates the fights, you are the one who gets Rachel all uptight, and you are the one tha
t no one can stand to be around.
We had a happy home and then your mom feels sorry for you and takes you in. You ruined everything that was good in this house. You cost us thousands of dollars
in medical bills
for nothing
.
Wasted money
.
I never wanted
to adopt you and most of the time I can’t stand the sight of you
.
”

I fought as hard as I could to not cry. “You know, Mr. Dillard,” I couldn’t believe I called him that, “For some reason I don’t care what you think about me. I am a good person. I have friends and a great mom. I don’t give a shit if you hate my guts. I don’t give a shit if I ever see you and Rachel ever again.

“A great Mom? Is that why she threw you away like the trash you are and dumped you on us?”

“Fuck you!” I yelled.

I saw his hand coming at me. It was like it was in slow motion. I kept thinking to duck, block it
,
do something but stand there and take it. But I stood there and took it. It felt like a truck slammed into my face.

In a blur, I saw Michael jump over the chair and with both hands push my Dad’s chest so hard he flew backwards crashing to the ground. I grabbed Michael’s arm, seeing he had a fist made and held it until I could feel it relax.

Dad sat up and pointed at
Michael, “You
,
m
uther fucker
,
ever touch me or threaten me or my daughter again, I will call the police in two seconds.”

Michael reached in his pocket and threw him his phone, “Call em. Cause I am about to smash your face in,” Michael said, so calmly it sounded like he was ordering take out.

“Oh my
l
ord, what happened to your face
?
” Mom
yelled
, dropping her drink on the deck.

“Its nothing,” I said, touching my cheek. It was hot and stung really badly when I placed my hand on it.
I fought with everything I had to not let him see me cry, but it was so painful.

Dad stood up and looked at Michael who didn’t react, move, or say a thing. He just stood there.
             

“She’s not worth fighting you
,
” he said and walked away.
“You will find that out soon.”

“I don’t want to go back out there,” I said, sitting on the side of the bed.

“Your face looks bad,” Michael said. “Did you look at it?”

“Not yet.” I walked over to the dresser and saw a perfect hand print across my face. “My grandmother thinks we should call the police and get a report. I just don’t know what I want to do.”

“It’s your decision. But I agree with her.”

“I keep thinking if he gets arrested he will press charges on you as revenge.”

“Don’t decide anything with me in mind. I pushed him. I know the only thing I hurt was his ego. He really hurt you.”

“You can see where his wedding ring got me,” I pointed at the small cut the 2
nd
finger
mark
. How long will it stay red like this?”

“A few days? I’m not sure.”

“What really bothers me is that he honestly thinks I am a bad person. Michael, I have never hurt anyone. At least I never did it intentiona
lly. I do cop out of things but
it’s
not because I don’t want to fight
.
I just don’t want to be an inconvenience on others. I never wanted to get my family into any extra drama.

“He called me a piece of trash that was dumped. How cruel is that? I don’t know what I ever did to deserve him saying that. This is the man I thought was my father for 17 years, then even after I find out he’s not, I didn’t care. Oh gosh, I don’t want to care. I really don’t.”

Michael pulled me against him and held me, wiping the tears from my cheek.

I heard a knock on the door and wondered why the knock, the door was open.

Mom walked in and sat on the side of the bed. “I am so sorry, Alex.”

I couldn’t talk. I just looked in the mirror feeling my tears burn my face.

“I don’t want him near her,” Michael said, “It might be a good idea to get a restraining order.”

“You think? I think that is drastic, isn’t it?”

“Look at her face? Or are you blind to that, too?”

“It’s all happening so fast. I don’t even know what happened out there. I just know my daughter got slapped and you were on the verge of hitting him.”

“I wasn’t going to hit him. Trust me. If I was going to hit him I would have. You think this 100-pound girl is what held me back? I pushed him so he would get away from her and not slap her again. This is not what you want to hear, but I am saying it anyway. I want you to tell him that if he ever touches her again, he will get hurt. And I don’t mean falling backwards on the ground hurt. I mean, probably in the hospital hurt. I am not a badass tough guy that goes around intimidat
ing people,
but I swear, I will mess him up.”

She nodded and walked out the door. Michael looked over at me.

“Where’s a blanket?” He yelled, startling me. “Let’s go camping!”

I smiled, “You still want to go?”

“Hells yeah! Come on, come on,” he grabbed my arm and started pulling me to the door. “What do we need to take? Should we make a list?”

“We are just going 100 yards from the house. We really don’t need a list.”

“If we pretend it’s a safari?”

“You can be such a dork.”

We went out the back way since people were still there. I begged my grandmother to not let anyone know what was going on. Thank goodness everyone was inside in the living room and wasn’t aware there was a major brawl going on outside.

I grabbed some blankets and pillows out of the linen closet. I had asked my grandmother to pack us some food since we hadn’t eaten yet. Any other time, I would have loved to stay at the party, but I loved being alone with Michael so much that there was nothing I wanted more than to be alone with him.

“I am so hungry,” I said, hearing my stomach growl. “I bet I can eat two hamburgers,” I said
,
handing him his plate.
             
“A quarter
,
”
h
e agreed.

“If you bet me all the time, you are going to be one poor pro basketball player,” I laughed.

“You really see us together that long?” He asked.

I couldn’t tell by his voice if he was serious or thought I was out of my mind for saying it. It was too dark for me to see his expression. “Oh gosh what do I say, what do I say
?
” I kept thinking.

“I just think you will have a million IOU’s by the end of the night.” Good save, Alex.

“Hm
m,” he said, getting the lantern started, while eating. “Pretty impressive for a city boy, isn’t it?”

“Very,” I smiled. “Ok, that’s one.” I said, polishing off the first burger.

“You are a lard ass,” he smiled.

“I probably will be one. There is nowhere for the fat to go but out. I’m not getting any taller. Maybe it will just go to my boobs.”

“I hope not. I love your boobs.”

“You’ve never seen them,” I smiled.

“Yet,” he winked again.

Damn, stop doing that to me.

“You owe me a quarter,” I said, pointing my finger in his face.

“I’m not even done with the first one. You never answered my question.”

“What question?” I sat cross-legged on the blanket facing the campers. “I think there’s going to be a fight. Look at that guy with no shirt. He has been taking that guy with the cowboy hat’s beer every time the guy looks away. He just figured it out his beer keeps disappearing. Yikers!”

“How long you been watching that go on?”

“Since we got out here.”

“You are crazy,” he laughed, lying down on the blanket. He put his pillow between my legs and laid his head on it and started to watch them with me.

“Better than TV,” I laughed.

“Where’s my beer, Pardner?” Michael said, imitating the cowboy hat guy looking around. “I can’t find my gosh darn beer. Am I that much of a dumb ass I cant track my beer?” The guy got on his hands and knees and was looking under the table, “Where’s my horse?” Michael laughed. “Oh shit, close your eyes, its
Brokeback
Mountain
reenactments.”

“You make me laugh so hard. Stop! My tears are burning my face.”

“Look, he’s not moving. Did he fall asleep under the table?”

“I think so. So
,
so funny.”

I ran my hand across his head, feeling the stubble across my hand. “I wish you had hair so I could style it.”

“I’m not a girl. This is a dude slumber party.”

“What do you do at them?’

“I don’t
do
them,” he smiled.

“When you and Derek stay up all night, what do you do?”

“Watch a game and talk basketball and do each others nails, but we never do our hair. That would just be gay,” he said with a lisp.

“You make my stomach hurt,” I laughed.

“Gosh you’re a nag. My face hurts; my stomach hurts. Maybe if you didn’t pack in 8 burgers it wouldn’t hurt.” He smiled. He moved his hand to my face and touched it with the back of his hand. “It’s still hot. I want to go beat his ass so bad. What idiot made it a law that one can’t beat ones as
s when one truly deserves it. Hm
m, who did it? I’ll beat his ass, too.”

“You are such a rebel,” I smiled.

“Damn right,” he said
,
punching the air. “Was that pretty tough looking?” He laughed.