Forgiven (18 page)

I smiled up at her. “Yeah, I’ll be fine. I have a ton of shit I have to get done. Plus I’ll probably run home and grab a few things on Friday.”

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” she asked worriedly.

“Yeah, Dad will be at work if I go in the morning so I should be able to avoid him completely.”

Emily had been home the few times that I’d come back from seeing my dad. Every time I was in tears—with a few more emotional scars to add to my already overloaded arsenal.

“Alright, if you’re sure. Night honey.”

“Night.”

The next morning when we arrived to class, I wondered why Caleb wasn’t in his normal seat. I figured he must’ve been running late, until I looked over to where Emily and I sat and I saw him sitting in the empty seat next to mine.

I walked up to him with a smile on my face. He looked up from his notebook as I approached, giving me a smile that almost sent me to my knees.

“Hi,” I breathed.

“Hi, how did you sleep?” he asked.

Emily gagged. “Would you two get a room?”

I elbowed her in the side and sat down next to Caleb. “Good, what about you?”

“Not bad, but definitely not as well as when I slept next to you.” He leaned into me to whisper the last part in my ear.

I felt the blood rush to my cheeks, and I ducked my head to get my notes out of my bag to hide my face. Class passed by pretty quickly, and thankfully Emily didn’t make any more comments to Caleb.

As we stood up to leave class, Caleb grabbed my hand. I was partly shocked by it, but mostly I was excited. I had never felt this way about someone before. I looked up at him and he smiled down at me. “Want to grab a cup of coffee before your next class?”

I gave Emily a look—normally we would grab something between classes—but she gave me the go-ahead wave. I looked back at Caleb. “Sounds awesome.”

We walked over to one of the carts set up outside and ordered. Since the weather was warm for a change, we decided to sit outside on one of the benches. We sat in silence, drinking our coffee.

“What are your plans for spring break?” Caleb asked after a few minutes.

“Staying here. Em’s going on a cruise with her parents, and Heather and Jillian are taking a road trip. I figured it would be nice to have the apartment to myself. What about you?” I replied, feeling a little uncomfortable.

I didn’t want to talk about my trip to my dad’s house, I just wanted to change the subject. Even though I was willing to give him a chance, I still wasn’t sure how much I was ready to tell him.

“Josh, Andrew, and I are taking a road trip to the coast. Nick was supposed to go with us, but I doubt that is gonna happen now.” He said, taking a sip of his coffee.

I thought back to the fight on Tuesday night. It was awful—I couldn’t believe Caleb had taken a swing at Nick. Then again, Nick had started it.

I turned to face him. “Why did you hit him?”

He took my hand in his before he answered. “I couldn’t stand the thought of you being with him—the thought of me losing you because of my stupidity. But I never would have fought him over just that, because you deserve better than a guy who throws punches ‘cause he’s an asshole who pushed you away. What really sent me over the edge was the way he talked to you.”

He pushed a lock of hair behind my ear. “You don’t deserve to be treated that way. Not by me, not by him…not by anyone.”

I turned away as I felt the tears build up in my eyes. I didn’t want him to see me cry, because I wasn’t sure I had it in me to explain that I had been treated like that my whole life.

He turned my face towards his, but luckily I’d managed to get my emotions under control. He looked a little sad. “Please don’t be mad.”

I squeezed his hand. “I’m not mad. That is the sweetest thing anyone has ever said to me.”

He leaned over to kiss me. When he sat back up I smiled at him and changed the subject. “When are you guys leaving?”

“Probably Saturday morning. Josh still has class on Friday.”

I laughed. “That sucks. Thankfully mine got cancelled.”

I looked at my phone and realized I had to leave for class. I stood up and grabbed my bag. “Sorry, I have to get to class.”

“Wait, I’ll walk with you.” He stood and grabbed his stuff.

We walked in comfortable silence. Once we were outside of the building, Caleb turned to me. “I have a workout tonight and Coach is probably gonna kick our asses because of the fight, but I want to see you before we leave on Saturday.”

“Why don’t you text me on Friday. Em and I usually hit the bar on a Thursday and since she is leaving Saturday morning, there is no way I’m getting out of it this week.”

He laughed and pulled me in for a hug. “Well we wouldn’t want to piss Emily off since it seems she is
finally
starting to not hate me.”

It was my turn to laugh. “True.”

“Alright, I’ll text you later.”

He gave me a quick kiss and then headed off toward the parking lot as I headed inside.

I woke up Friday morning with a slight hangover. We got in really late and I hadn’t managed to get much sleep. Caleb, Andrew, and Josh had showed up at the bar, and Emily was thrilled to see Andrew again. Since there were no reasons to fight, we all had a pretty late night. Caleb and I spent most of the night on the dance floor. I loved having him so close to me, especially now that he wasn’t trying to push me away.

Unfortunately, I had to get up and head to Dad’s house. I hadn’t seen him since Christmas—a pretty awful experience in its own right. Emily had tried to convince me to go home with her for the holidays, but it just didn’t feel right not going to see my dad. I understood he had it hard after mom left, but Christmas was the breaking point for any type of relationship we might have had. Not only did he call me all kinds of names, he also broke every dish in the house—for every name he’d called me, he’d thrown another dish against the wall.

I’d left immediately and went back to campus. Emily was pissed when she found out, and arranged with her parents for me to stay with them during the summer. I’d slowly been collecting my things from the house. I always went back when I knew that Dad would be at work because I didn’t want a repeat of Christmas. My plan was to call him closer to summer and let him know that I wouldn’t be coming home.

I got in the car and turned the radio up because I liked to sing along. It was a short drive to the house and I soon pulled into the empty driveway. When I got out of the car I noticed the full trashcans to the side of the house. It looked like Dad had been increasing his daily intake.

I shook my head and made my way into the house. My room was exactly how I left it. Thankfully Dad hadn’t been in here to trash it. The rest of the house looked like a bomb had gone off.

I pulled a duffle bag out of my closet and started to pack up my summer clothes. My phone started to beep.

Caleb: Dinner 2nite?

Me: Sounds G8t, where?

Caleb: It’s a surprise

Me: K, what time then?

Caleb: 7?

Me: Works for me, pick me up?

Caleb: Of course

I was happy that I was going to get to see Caleb since I wouldn’t see him for a whole week. I pulled my iPod out and turned it on. Things were finally starting to look up. It took me an hour to fill two duffle bags, mostly with clothes. I grabbed both bags and headed out to the car. I decided to run back in and grab the last few framed photos that were on my dresser.

I looked around my room. There were so many bad memories attached to this house, and I realized that this would be the last time I would need to come here. Finally, I had everything that I wanted to take with me. I slowly walked down the hall but stopped dead in my tracks when I saw Dad standing in the foyer staring at me, a menacing look on his face. Shit!

I pasted a smile on my face, “Hey Dad, how are you?”

He took a step toward me. “Where the fuck have you been?”

I looked at him. The anger rolling off of him made my heart race and my palms began to sweat. “Dad, I’ve been at school.”

He reached out and grabbed my right wrist. “Don’t lie to me, you’ve been spreading your legs all over town!” he shouted.

I felt the tears burn my eyes. I needed to get him to listen. “No, I’ve been studying history at school.”

I yelped when he twisted my wrist, feeling the pain shoot up my arm. My stomach started to churn, this was the first time he was violent. “Don’t fucking lie to me! You’re a whore…just like your good-for-nothing mother.”

He pulled me closer, and I could smell the beer on his breath. I felt the tears pour down my face, and I tried to ignore the pain shooting through my wrist. I was hoping I could get him to let me go so that I could get out of there. “Dad, don’t you have to be at work?”

His eyes enlarged and he looked even more enraged. “WORK? I lost my fucking job because of you and your whoring ways. Constantly having to stay home to keep my eyes on you.”

The fear tingled up my spine, my breaths coming faster as I started to sob. “I haven’t been sleeping around, just been at school.”

I was still trying to convince him, even though I knew there was no use—he had never listened to me.

“Now you listen to me. You better start handing over some of that money you’re earning on your back. You owe me for putting up with your disgraceful shit,” he yelled, twisting my wrist a little farther.

“I don’t have any money,” I sobbed. I was still living off what I had saved up last summer.

He let go of my wrist and I thought I was going to be able to get away, but then I felt his fist connect with the side of my face. I went crashing into the wall and my shoulder took the brunt of the force. While I was disoriented, he grabbed my shoulders and pulled me to my feet before hitting me again. I could taste the blood in my mouth this time. Shaking my head to clear the cobwebs I scrambled to my feet. I backed away toward the front door, and when he came at me again, I kneed him in the balls before running out of the door.

I jumped in my car and started it. Throwing the car into reverse I flew out of the driveway and sped down the street, my tires screeching in protest. I cradled my wrist to my chest so I wouldn’t try to use it and burst into tears, crying the whole of the way back to campus. My father may have been a fucked-up son of a bitch when I was growing up, but he had never laid a hand on me—at least not until today. I should’ve listen to Emily and stayed on campus.

When I arrived back at the apartment I knew I was safe. Dad didn’t know where I went to school—I never told him where I was going when I left. I didn’t want him to be able to find me. Heather and Jillian had headed out early that morning, and Emily was supposed to have left a few hours ago. At least no one would see the bruises, and they should heal enough for me to cover them with makeup by the end of the week. I text Caleb and told him I wasn’t feeling well and couldn’t meet him for dinner. I walked into the apartment.

“What the fuck happened?” Emily screamed as she jumped off the couch. “I told you not to go!”

“He wasn’t supposed to be there,” I cried, the tears still pouring down my face. I held my wrist protectively against my chest.

Emily pulled me into a hug, taking my keys from my hand. “Come on, we need to get that wrist checked out.”

“Okay,” I whispered as she led me out of the apartment and down to the car.

After two hours in the waiting room of the ER, and another hour and a half waiting for X-rays and talking to the police, we were on our way home. My wrist was sprained, I had bruises all over my face, plus a split lip. I still couldn’t believe that my father had actually hit me, but eventually the pain meds took over and I fell asleep in the car.

“Angie, honey, wake up. We’re home,” Emily said as she tapped my good arm.

“Huh, Did I fall asleep?” I asked, rubbing my eyes. The pain meds were making my head fuzzy.

“Come on, babe, I’ll help you get into bed. You can sleep off the pain meds.”

“Thanks, but—”

“No buts,” she cut me off, “We’ll deal with the rest later. I’ll call my parents while you’re sleeping and tell them I’m not going.”