This is my first book.... i hope you like it!
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“Go sweep the floor!”, the burly man bellowed; voice booming, breaking the peaceful silence that had settled over the house since his last outburst.
Silence.
“Am I talking to somebody?”,he yelled, getting more and more aggravated as the seconds passed.
Silence.
“Ali, please answer your father. Please?” , her mother pleaded, trying to salvage the situation.
“He’s not my father.” Ali said to her mother. She had no desire to call that man father. He treated her like awfully, yelling at her like she was worthless when he was angry, and being nice to her when he felt they should be friends.
“Go, sweep the floor Ali. Now.”, her ‘father’ said. He was her stepfather. She had no idea why her mother called him her father. For a while her mother had insisted that she call him father, but Ali couldn’t bring herself to do it. Her father was the best man that ever lived. On a good day, Charles wasn’t even half the man her father was, so she had never called him her father. Her mother eventually gave up trying to get her to say it, but she still referred to him as her father and it drove Ali insane.
Ali opened up her mouth to refuse, but she knew that it would get her nowhere. Arguing with him was pointless. He never listened to what she said, he usually just dismissed her. So even if she told him that she had already swept the living room last night, he’d just call her a liar and proceed to scold her for lying and arguing.
“Okay.”, she said, looking at him, keeping her voice cold, indifferent. Her face held no emotion. She wouldn’t let him see how he had aggravated her; it would only give him a reason to continue.
She walked to the closet and got the broom, then she walked to the living room silently, still keeping her face clear of all emotion.
She swept the floor and the hallway just in case sweeping the room wasn’t enough, knowing that he might get mad about her doing the bare minimum. She put away the broom then went to her bedroom.
Just as the click of the door sounded, Charles yelled.
“Ali!” he said, calling her back to the hallway.
She braced herself for the scolding she was about to receive, not knowing what it could be for.
“Why didn’t you clean the carpet? I told you to clean the carpet!” he said through clentched teeth, seething with anger.
“You didn’t say to clean the carpet.”Ali said, not recalling Charles mentioning anything of the sort.
“I told you to sweep the living room, that means clean the rug.” He said, getting louder as he got to the end of his statement.
“But-okay.”, she replied, defeated.
She was going to tell him that she had cleaned it yesterday, that it would be a waste of time for her to get the brush and get out all of the cat hair when she should be asleep in a few minutes, that he should just leave her alone and go away. But she didn’t.
“C’mon Ali! Let’s clean the carpet.” her mother called.
“He didn’t say to clean the carpet.”, she mumbled to her mother.
