Seafoam //Completed//

Chapter 43

WARNING: GRAPHIC IMAGERY

A small black car shone brightly beneath the autumn sun. Lulu's father handed her the keys hesitantly, but she was too excited to notice.

"It's ours. Since I can't drive right now, you're going to have to take me to work before school. And to the clinic. And to AA." He rubbed the back of his neck anxiously. "Maybe this was a bad idea."

"No, dad. I need to get to school somehow, don't I? The buses don't come this far."

They climbed in and she drove, while her father took the time to point out every time she had to stop when her foot was already on the brake. The way to his new job was twenty minutes out of town, but she didn't mind the drive. He'd lost his old job at the law firm he worked at but found a position as a legal assistant willing to give him a shot.

When she dropped him off, he didn't get out of the car immediately. He sat there, looking up at the building that would be his new office. Lulu knew it must pain him to regress in his career. As much as she had suffered, he had suffered more.

"Lulu," he said, turning to look at her with sad eyes.

She waited, but her name is all he said. "Yes?" she asked, but her father just shook his head, changing his mind.

"Have a good day."

"You too, dad."

Lulu was too nervous to even drive the speed limit. Instead, she inched her way to school, after dropping off her father. There was something foreboding about the morning. The sun was hidden behind heavy black clouds, and the wind was biting on her bare skin as she walked up the steps of her school. Her feet slipped on the wet stone, and she almost fell.

Zac still hadn't called her, and she hadn't called Ava back after rejecting nine of her calls. When she spotted Matty inside, he was talking to Michael who looked up when he spotted her. He said something to Matty who turned around and looked like he wanted to walk over to her, but she ducked into a crowd of people, dodging him completely.

Her hand clutched her belly protectively as her stomach flip-flopped at the sight of Zac walking with his cousin down the hall. She needed to talk to him, but seeing him here so casually made her realize he had been ignoring her. If she had bothered to call him, he wouldn't have picked up, of that she was sure. Lulu let the day go by, pretending not to be there. She'd become a ghost, walking through walls, haunting the halls, but not being fully present for anyone. If she saw Matty, she didn't catch his eye. Ava tried to say hi, but her voice barely registered with Lulu. It wasn't until lunch, when she walked outside into the downpour of icy rain that she finally returned to her animate form when she noticed Zac standing under cover of an overhang, taking shelter from the storm. The same nerves which had accosted her in the morning returned full throttle as she approached him.

"Hey," she greeted.

"Oh, hi," he replied stonily, recognizing her voice.

"I thought we should talk."

"Sure."

"About...the other day."

"Okay."

He made no move to say anything, leaving everything in her hands. He was the one who owed her an explanation, and yet here he stood silent and immobile.

"Uh," she took a deep breath. Bracing herself. "What happened?"

"Your dad came and took you away."

"Yeah, but you let him." It was less of an accusation and more of a question. Why did you let him?

"What the hell was I supposed to do? It's not like I could physically stop him."