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Chapter 12

I get home and realize right off the bat that my mom is gone.

"Mom??" I say.

No one answers so I call.

The phone just rings and I start to wonder why she's been acting so weird lately. I hope it has nothing to do with her health.

Stacey walks through the door not long after and has a friend with her.

"Who's this?" I ask curiously.

"It's Nate."

"What happened to Brian?" knowing I'm going to annoy her.

She shoves me out of the way and goes straight to her room, holding Nate's hand all the way. Well someone's in the mood.

I hear them kissing and the bed starts creaking. Ugh I wish dad were here. He'd know how to handle her. He needs to get a job where he can be home more often. I can't stand this feeling of abandonment when he's not around.

Not long after I hear the bed hitting the wall. I pound on the door yelling for them to shutup but they don't stop. They just continue being the wild animals that they are.

Mom walks in with a puzzled look on her face as soon as she spots me and I give her the same expression.

"Where've you been mom?"

"Out," she says sharply. "Go to your room. Now."

"What? Are you kidding me?? I haven't don't anything wrong! You weren't even here when I got home and you want to yell at-"

"Go to your room right now Alyssa. Don't argue with me."

I turn my body away from her and run to my room. Now I really wish my dad was here. I have such a closer bond to him than my mom anyways.

In my moment of distress, I make an irrational decision to text Tyler.

What am I doing, what am I doing, what am I doing.. I ignore my brain and start typing.

"Hey.."

Oh god. What did I just do!! Ugh no wonder I have no friends. I'm so stupid. I turn on the t.v. To hopefully get my mind off of what I've just done, but nothing is good on.

By the time I skip The Bachelor and turn the t.v. off, I realize someone's texted me.

I jump up and start to pant. I'm basically trembling with fear, not knowing what he could've replied with. Countless things are running through my mind and I don't know how to stop myself from breathing so heavily.

Okay. I take a deep breath and pick up the phone. It's not a message from Tyler like I had expected.

"You're such a slut. You'll never get what you want."

This is really annoying me. Why am I being targeted. And what is it that I "want"? I think maybe ignoring it will help so that's exactly what I do this person must be pretty desperate to want to hurt me like this. I honestly don't understand what I've done.

But then I start to think..maybe I haven't done anything. Maybe this person is just an evil person. I bet on that instead.

"Stacey you come out of that room right now!!"

Oh no, I totally forgot about Stacey's friend. It's not surprising to me at the least that she's with another guy after Being with Brian for a week. She frequently swaps the old guys for the new ones.

"Mom please, he's just a friend!" Stacey cries.

"If you don't come out of that room in less than 10 seconds, you're grounded."

"For how long?" I laugh to myself quietly. Stacey rarely gets grounded for long. She may be a rebel in the outside, but her grades are superb and she never fails to please my mom when it comes to behavior-at least the behavior my mom knows about.

Stacey finally gives up and comes out.

"Happy?" Stacey pouts.

"No," my mother glares, "and you're still grounded. One month."

"What?! I came out! I am not going to stay confined to this house for a whole month!"

"Try to challenge me and you'll just be grounded for longer. Now tell your friend goodbye."

"Bye Nate.."

I start to recognize that like Brian, Nate is also a player on the football team, just like Tyler.
My mom slams her door and I hear her sigh as she plops down onto her bed.

I smile a little and Stacey just rolls her eyes at me. I look down at my phone and almost scream when I see a message from Tyler saying, "Hey, did you start on the project?"