"When I feel what I feel
Sometimes it's hard to tell you so
You may not be in the mood
To learn what you think you know
There are times when I'll find
You wanna keep yourself from me
When I don't have the strength
I'm just a mirror of what I see"
"Lying to you about what?"
Naomi muttered timidly, nervously clutching the strap of her purse in her fingers. She wasn't in trouble often; her grades were good, she wasn't late to work at the garage, she never missed curfew, whatever chores she was supposed to do, she did to perfection. The coldness in her fathers tone was bone chilling and unfamiliar. It sent a shiver up and down her spine.
"Wrong answer." Sean spat. "A friend of mine told me he seen you and Joy's son tonight. Kissing and holding hands and shit all over Roller Jam."
If she could've disappeared right there into thin air she would've. It was her worst fear realized. No words or explanation even came to mind. What could she say? It wasn't true? He was mistaken? It was an accident?
Every excuse sounded stupider than the last.
"Hello? What, you can't hear now or something?"
"Daddy...I..."
"Don't fix ya mouth to lie no more neither Naomi. I'm only gon' ask you to explain this shit to me one time, and if you sit in my face and tell me a bold face fucking lie imma whoop your little ass up and down this living room, you feel me?"
She nodded, feeling anxious tears behind her eyes. Sean had never put his hands on her, aside from the few times he popped her as a little girl. He'd never even really threatened it.
He was mad...fuming...and she knew the only answer was to just tell him the truth.
"I...was with Chris at the skating rink...and...we were kissing because...he...he's my b-boyfriend."
Sean pulled his bottom lip into his mouth, pausing to pace his breath and collect his thoughts. He sat in the same spot for two hours before she came home, pondering this possibility. It still didn't prepare him to hear the words.
Not from his 13 year old baby.
This wasn't how he pictured this happening. He wanted her to be three years older and under different circumstances.
"Chris is your boyfriend." He stated, nodding his head up and down. "How long this been going on?"
"For...2 years now." He slowly shut his eyes, nodding up and down still. "Daddy-"
"Do yourself a favor." He quickly interrupted her, holding his hand up and opening his eyes to look into hers. "Get up, take your little ass upstairs and don't come out that room until the morning, aight? I don't wanna see your face for the rest of the night."
"But Daddy-"
"Naomi, if I was you I would save the additional mouthpiece and all that. I don't give a fuck about nothing your lying ass got to say, aight? Go upstairs."
The look in his eyes and the grit in his voice was enough to shock Naomi into silence. She quickly stood from the couch and hurried up the steps in fear, suddenly grateful he banished her to the room. Once the door was shut, she looked around in confusion. He'd ripped her phone and her computer out of the wall. She had no way of checking on Chris, no way of asking any of her friends for advice. Or calling Steph.
She was completely alone.
---
She cried for hours, but eventually fell asleep. Her eyes opened the next morning and the complete day before immediately flashed in her mind. It went from bad, to best, to the absolute worst.
YOU ARE READING
Things Fall Apart
Romance"we will struggle not the way people do and you will hurt me but not the way everyone else can and you will love me harder than anything I've ever known and I will need you it will be strong and terrifying and I will listen even if it's the sadde...
