FOUND II [COMPLETED]

XXVI

I sighed. Yeah I wanted to argue, but it was pointless. And remember what I said about not stressing my mom out? I'm trying to hold myself to that.

"Fine." I reluctantly agreed.

My mom smiled. "Thank you." She kissed my forehead before standing up. "Go ahead and get your stuff together. I'm going downstairs to talk with Kelly for a minute, so I'll give you some time to wake up."

"Wait!" I said when she started walking out. She turned around and I motioned for her to come back. She did. "Is Jeremiah okay?" I asked.

My mom's face changed. That must not be a good sign. "He's doing better. When he first woke up he didn't remember much, but he fell back asleep before I left and I'm scared he will when he wakes back up."

"You don't want him to remember anything?" I frowned.

"I don't want him to resent your father." She said softly. My frown deepened and I shook my head.

"Mommy, you can't lie to him about that. Even if he didn't remember, you have to be honest when it comes to something like that. Because I know what happened, and I'm not lying." I told her. "It's not fair to ask me to either. I don't know how I feel about dad right now, I'm kinda glad he hasn't contacted me, but still–"

"Wait, what do you mean he hasn't contacted you?" My mom said, interrupting me. I was gonna say something about her cutting me off but she looked pissed so I decided to let that go. "Jay hasn't called you since he left?"

"No." I said.

Speaking of calls, I remembered the thing with Gina but decided not to bring it up. My mom's already stressed and the last thing I'm trying to do is push her over the edge, especially since my dad is nowhere to be found. I'm not trying to be an orphan okay.

"Okay." Was all my mom said. I'm glad that anger isn't directed towards me or I'd be shaking in my boots right now. I can tell she's like, furious, but she's hiding it well.

"Okay." I said. My mom sat down next to me and looked at me for a minute.

"Bella, are you okay?" She asked. I frowned.

"Yeah, why?" I replied. She shook her head and sighed.

"No. With everything that has happened between me and your father, are you okay?" My mom repeated.

I was about to say yes again, but stopped myself to really think about what she was asking. Was I okay? I know I haven't been sleeping, I've been feeling more anxious lately and I've had this sick feeling in my stomach that hasn't gone away yet. I saw my dad put his hands on my mom, then my brother, before disappearing.

"I don't know." I answered honestly. The little recap I had made me tear up a little, but I didn't feel like crying. It requires so much energy, and I barely had enough to function normally right now. "It's a lot."

Of course, much to my dismay, I started crying. I'm an emotional person and I've been holding all this in, which is a very, very bad thing for someone like me. If I don't cry when I need to it builds up until I physically can't hold it in anymore.

And now we're here.

"Baby, come here." My mom said. I continued to cry pathetically as she pulled me into her arms and let me cry it out into her shirt. "I'm sorry this happened, and I'm so sorry you had to see it. That was the last thing I wanted. I've tried so hard to keep you five out of our arguments, whether it was something serious or not, I didn't want you hearing it."