The Secrets We Share

SIXTEEN

Dawn

The owl hoots were totally giving me the creeps as I tiptoed down the hallway towards the darkened living room. I passed Dad's room quietly, noticing the yellow light still shining underneath the doorway with a rather loud thump of my heart. If he was still awake, and he heard a noise, a.k.a me, he could easily just come out of his room and freak me out. After all, it was eleven thirty, way past my bedtime, though not necessarily past my actual sleeping time. 

Since there was no door to the living room, thank god, I easily slipped towards the couch with a small rustle of bare feet on the carpet, my eyes vainly trying to pierce through the dark room. Locating my phone at last resting on the couch armrest, I smiled victoriously and took a step forwards.

And tripped.

Yes, the extremely loud crashing sound of feet colliding with a low lying table was me.

And yes, the second loud thumping noise of a body hitting carpet was also me.

Yay.

I stayed silently on the ground for ten absolutely scary seconds, hearing the loud beat of my heart in the dark silence of the room while feeling frozen with shock.

There was no doubt Dad had heard me. The question was, how would he react? Knowing him, it'd probably just be a few minutes of him being a little angry and then sending me back to bed saying some 'if I didn't wake up in time to get ready for school he wouldn't be waking me up' shit.

An idea came to me- what if I pretended I was really here for something else much more innocent, and not my phone with the tantilizing message from Noah?

What if I pretended I just needed a glass of water from the kitchen because I was thirsty and tripped over the table when making my way back to my bedroom through the living room? 

Skills.

I squinted through the dark and noticed a half-empty glass of water next to me on the table I'd just tripped over, probably left over from earlier tonight from Dad who hadn't put it in the sink. 

Perfect. I didn't have time to run to the kitchen to get some water to make my plan realistic anyway.

So I grabbed the random half-empty glass sitting on the table that I'd somehow not knocked over, and sloshed it with gritted teeth all over my front, shivering as cold water ran inside my shirt. I needed to look as realistic as possible, and though it was so dark I couldn't judge my handiwork, I figured it was good enough. And no, I was not going to wonder why the liquid wasn't see-through like water normally was.

At least it would be obvious that I'd tried to get a glass of water and tripped over the low lying table as I went back to my bedroom through the living room. Dad did not need to know that the glass of water was actually just a random glass sitting abandoned on the table, that he'd probably been using. I really, really hoped he had a bad memory. 

I waited patiently, lying on the ground, with a sopping shirt and gritted teeth.

The living room light flickered on, announcing Dad's arrival.

"Are you okay swee-" He froze, his eyes locking onto my chest, eyes widening.

My explanation that had been ready on my lips died as I watched him take in my front. 

Okay, yes, I wasn't wearing a goddamn bra, but even if my shirt was wet and you could probably see through it, this was my goddamn dad-

I looked down and my mouth widened in a silent scream.

My front was covered.

In red liquid.

That was the time I realised that the random half-empty glass of water sitting on the table left by Dad was not filled with water.