The Unknown Road

12 - Archie

NOW WE WERE MOVING into the colder months, I'd realised just how bad the last few weeks had been for Millie and me.

From the end of September Dad was home and in one continuous bad mood after another. Thankfully the physical mood swings were kept to a minimum but it had still been horrible.

Millie and I had decided to go home, rather than overstay our welcome at the Grangers, but if we'd have known he was home, we would have taken up on Matt and Tessa's offer.

We'd been home for an hour before we realised he was back. And from what it sounded like, he'd gone straight to the drinks cabinet in his study and had proceeded to drink himself into a stupor.

The first evidence I'd heard of him was a glass shattering distantly downstairs. Millie must have heart it too, because she had immediately come into my room crying. I told her to stay put with the door locked whilst I investigated.

When I got downstairs to the kitchen he wasn't there, so I went to his study. Sure enough, there was broken glass everywhere, and it looked like it was spirits he'd dropped, because it smelled like pure ethanol in there.

I was just cleaning up, trying not to cut myself, when I heard him bellow from the door, making me jump. He accused me of trying to steal his drinks again, and I was terrified it would be a repeat of the last time. But when he was satisfied I hadn't taken any, he finally let me leave. However, that wasn't before he'd swung at me on my way out. He awkwardly pushed me, and I fell hard onto the coffee table. It didn't hurt, but I fell hard enough for another large bruise to spread down my side.

I ignored the pain, but I knew he'd be in a nasty mood for the rest of the weekend, so I made a decision and thought it best we didn't go to either of our parties. I couldn't take the risk, not when it came down to Millie's safety. And it was definitely better to stay home, rather than go through the process of asking him and risk him blowing up at both of us.

When I rang Dee to tell her the bad news, she didn't take it well at all.

She screamed down the phone at me, not letting me get a word in edgeways. She accused me of not wanting to go in the first place, and finished off by saying this was just another pathetic excuse. Her shouting just went on, but I just had to take it, as there was no way I was admitting the truth about why I couldn't come.

Unfortunately that meant the following few days at school were testy, to say the least, and I genuinely thought maybe she'd be done with me. But when she saw me on the Monday after the party, she could tell something was wrong, and I suppose that's a good thing. But it didn't stop her from ignoring me until practice the week after, practice we had with the girls, where she was practically all over me, barely leaving my side.

I sensed her behaviour was for Tessa's benefit, again, and I tried to stop her. I did mostly... but Dee clearly had it in her mind that I was with Tessa that night and obviously wouldn't take my word for it, no matter how many times I said it. Shamefully, I felt like I needed to show her I wasn't... so I ended up hurting Tessa instead, rather than just telling her the truth.

On Friday after their match against Newport, Dee was in an incredibly happy mood. When I'd asked her what had got her smiling, she'd told me that Tessa played terribly and was laughing about it. She'd played badly enough that Coach had apparently benched her at half time. And when Charlotte confirmed the story the next day I felt awful because I knew I'd been responsible.

Charlotte also told me that Tessa had her captaincy stripped and given back to Dee. And although I didn't talk to Tessa that day, whenever I saw her, she looked down and close to tears, and my heart was literally breaking for her.