Bad Company

Chapter 55: The Sound of Silence

What started off as a fairly sunny, decent morning, turned into a rainy, and cold spring morning. But, I didn't seem to care. The shower I had just had, made me feel 100 times better than I did when I first woke up and thrown up.

Lana - my older sister - had shown up when I was in the shower and we're now cuddling and hanging out with Shaun, giving me time to get dressed and head outside to speak to my dad.

A shiver ran down my spine as the cool breeze hit my skin, causing me to wince and pull my hoodie up over my head. Dad was in his garage, working on something or maybe just watching a rerun of the football game while he waited for me to show up. His garage/shop was a two minute walk from the house. While my parents' property wasn't large, it was spacious enough that my dad was able to have a large garden for growing food, a modular home - double wide trailer - that my older sister Lana, her man and their child lived in, my dads garage where his collector car was and was my dad's "man cave" and of course a few storage sheds throughout the property. It was home. It just took me a long time to realize that.

"Dad?" I called out as I stepped inside the garage. I could hear him coughing loudly, so loud that it was almost drowning out the music he had playing and the recorded football game on the tv, "Dad?!"

"Hey kiddo," He answered, clearing his throat. I watched as he stood up from being hunched over beside his car during his coughing fit, "How ya feelin'?"

"I'm fine, are you okay?" I pressed, slowly making my way toward him, glancing down at the pile of blood on the concrete floor. "Dad! What the fuck!"

"Amber, I'm fine. It's just this god damn shit they have me popping... Dries my throat to shit," he lied, walking over to the couch he had in here and plopping down, "I'm good."

"Are you sure?" I asked, joining him on the couch.

He nodded, "Good days and bad days baby, today being a bad day."

"Do you want me to text Lana?"

"Fuck no... I love that kid to death but she's driving me up the fuckin' wall. I'm alright, okay?"

I sighed in defeat, "Stubborn fuckin' man..."

"Sounds like you get your stubbornness from me," he laughed, leaning back into the couch and sighing.

"If I turn out to even be a fifth of the kind of person that you are, Dad, I'll be proud" I said, running my fingers through my wet hair.

"You're an amazing person, kiddo. Don't sell yourself short."

I let out a laugh of disbelief, "Far cry from amazing."

"That's what I'm talking about, always selling yourself short, kid"

I shrugged, "Believe me... I'm a bad person"

"What about Billy? What does he think?"

My throat became dry and I was at a loss for words. I knew dad wanted to talk about Billy, I just hadn't really gone over exactly what excuses and lies I was going to tell while on the subject of Billy. What exactly do I tell them? Oh you know, I fell in love with a drug dealing, gang leader. Then I got pregnant with him, and jump started Shaun's birth early due to a home invasion BECAUSE of Billy's lifestyle. Oh yeah, and he's...he's... He's dead.

He's dead.

Billy is dead.

I'm living in a fantasy-like mind frame, going out and having fun, like nothing is wrong. Billy is gone. He's dead, and he's never coming back.

"You still there?" Dad asked with a chuckle slightly shaking me bu the shoulder.

I nodded, slightly shaking my head as I awoke from my thoughts, "Y—Yeah, yeah I'm fine. Uh, Billy... Thinks I'm...a good person."