New Girl In Town

Chapter 23

 Sweet Pea dropped me off at my house to get ready for our double date with Jughead and Betty. He still wasn't completely on board with the whole idea, but he'd get over it. I haven't been home for two days since I had spent the past couple nights at Sweet Pea's, so it'd be nice to shower and change in my own room again.

When I walked in the front door, however, I was mortified at what I saw. Two of the spokes from the stair railing were snapped and hanging down. Garbage littered the ground in the hall, and the small table by the door was tipped over, causing the few items that were in its drawer to fall out and be scattered across the floor.

"Dad?" I called out, worried as to what had happened. At first, I thought that someone had broken in, but when I rounded the corner into the living room, I found an equally torn apart space with my father standing in the middle of it, a bottle of beer in his hand.

"Dad," I repeated, "what happened?"

He turned his attention to me, wobbling slightly as he did so. Great. He was drunk. I rolled my eyes at his current state and the mess that he had made, but as I started to approach him, a wild look of fury flooded his eyes. In one swift movement, he violently threw his bottle in my direction, and I quickly ducked down as it sailed over me and nearly hit my head. The bottle smashed into the wall with such force that it shattered, causing broken glass and the remaining beer to shower over the ground and me.

"What the hell?" I hissed as I stood from my crouched position, glaring at my father with a confused expression. What was his deal? He's never been this aggressive with me before.

"Two days," he simply stated as he began to slowly approach me. "I don't hear from you or see you for two days, and then I get a call from your school saying you're suspended!" He was yelling at this point, and when he reached me, he grabbed me by the shoulders, and shoved me backwards. The force of his push caused me to stumble and fall down, and I landed on the small pile of freshly broken glass. Stinging pains immediately spread across my body as the razor-sharp edges of the glass made contact with my skin; small pools of blood began to stain my shirt.

"Want to know what else I found out?" he continued as he pulled me up roughly, forcing me to stand. "That the fucking sheriff had to get involved!" Again, he shoved me violently, only this time it was in the opposite direction. I fell into the wooden coffee table which broke from the immediate pressure of my body slamming into it. As the table gave way, I was propelled further forward, and my head hit the small bookshelf next to it, causing me neck to snap into an awkward position and creating a new pain where my skull had connected with the metal shelf.

"Who the hell told you it was a good idea graffiti your damn school, huh?" he screamed. "Was it your new boyfriend?" That got my attention. I turned to look up at him, trying to anticipate what was coming next.

"What, did you think I wouldn't notice him pick you up on his fancy motorcycle every day?" He crouched down next to me, and pulled me up so that I was inches from his face. "Well let me tell you something, if I ever meet him, I'll beat the shit out of him, too!"

"Dad, please stop," I whimpered, trying to hold back the tears that threatened to spill from my eyes. But he just dropped me back onto the ground, grabbed hold of the bookcase, and shoved it over, causing the few books that were in it to fly out and tumble to the floor. I tried to crawl away, but he just grabbed me again, forcing me to stand.

"And do you want to know something else?" he snarled, his face inches from mine. "If you continue down this path as a delinquent, you'll end up just like your damn mother". And with that, he raised his hand and brought it down on my face for a final blow, causing me to drop heavily back onto the floor. I didn't move, afraid that if I did, he'd come back for more.

"I'm going to be late for work" he finally muttered as he turned to walk away. I could barely keep me eyes open, but through my blurry vision, I could see him pick something off of the ground before leaving the room and going out the front door. After a moment, I heard the dull roar of our old car's engine as my dad pulled away from the house and flew down the street.

My whole body was in pain, and I could feel a hot liquid drip down my face as blood exited the gash on my forehead. My clothes were sticky from a combination of blood and sweat, and the small cuts that littered my body stung horribly. My head was throbbing from where my father's hand had collided with it. I couldn't believe what had just happened.

I tried to get up slowly, but my arms gave out under my weight almost immediately. I suddenly felt drained of all energy, as if some unearthly force had sucked it all out of me. My eyes began to droop shut, and I couldn't fight the exhaustion that flooded my body. Everything went black.