The Burden of Secrets

Chapter 16

"Good morning."

The sunshine stung my eyes as it soared through the large, kitchen windows.

"Morning sweetie, fun night last night?" She didn't look at me as she busied herself with putting washing in the machine.

I thought of the band: of spending time with Zach.  I felt heat rise into my cheeks as I tried to avoid lying.

"Yeah, it was awesome."

"Awesome, huh?  Did you meet someone?"

I rolled my eyes as I went over to the fridge and pulled it open.  Mum was always fishing for information about girls I liked.  She couldn't help herself.  Of course, she always ended up with the same conclusion.

"I don't know why you and Mercy don't get together..."

There you go.

"Mum," I groaned.

"Come on, you must think she is pretty cute though?"

I didn't turn around to see the grin that I knew would be plastered across her face.  She liked to tease me.

Mercy's image flashed into my mind.  Her long legs and beautiful smile were not lost on me.

"I am not going to dignify that with a response," I replied as I sauntered over and sat next to her with my cereal.

She looked up from her newspaper with a wide smile across her face that quickly turned into a frown.

"Zeke Edward Beckford!  What on earth happened to your face?"

I unconsciously ran my hand over the bruises on my cheek and eye.  I had forgotten about them.

"Oh, nothing," I shoveled some cereal in my mouth to avoid having to speak.

I could hear Mum's heel tapping against the floor.

"Fighting again?"

"I was just protecting a friend."

"Great, so I will be having another phone call off the school, will I?  Suspension?  It wasn't Gary Cross again, was it?"

My skin crawled at his name.   It surprised me how well stoked my hatred for him still was.   I'd had a nasty asthma attack halfway through our school's championship game and got carted off to hospital. He seemed to blame me for us not winning despite the fact that he was on the pitch for the whole game. He had been taking the piss out of me in front of the whole school one lunchtime and I snapped. Got suspended for two days for fighting.

"No Mum, it was out of school, someone else..."

"For God's sake, don't you think we all have enough going on without this sort of behaviour!" I flinched as she shouted suddenly. "Your father doesn't need any stress from you in the time he has left."

I felt like I had been slapped. Mum's face was bright red and I couldn't remember the last time I had seen her so angry at me.

"S..sorry."

"What stress?" Dad's voice from the doorway made me jump.

He looked grey today. It seemed like new lines were etched into his ever thinning face. Mum went over to him and took his tiny arm.

"You are meant to be asleep." He waved her off as she came to help him and eased himself into a kitchen chair.

"Those new pills make me pee every half an hour." He grumbled. He sat back in the chair and stared me deep in the eye.