The Silent Fighter

Chapter 21

Chapter Twenty-One

Sara's POV

Terrance stopped the car in the middle of nowhere with forest and brush surrounding us. He had gotten a little far from Chicago of course.

"Are you about to kill me, Terrance?" I joke, but on the slight side half heartedly, since- you know- I've been through some sketchy crap.

"Nope," he responds, popping the 'p'. "We're eating in the car."

I look at him, confused. "Then, why did you bring me all the way out here? I'm sorry, Terrance, but you're not convincing me that this will be the 'best date ever'."

"Well, if you think a date just consists of eating, then this will definitely be an awesome date," Terrance laughs. He gets out of the car to go back to the trunk. When he comes back, he has a mini cooler in one hand and a package of plastic cups in the other. "Well, Sara, we have PB&J, Tuna, and Meatball sandwiches," Terrance says as he pulls out the different types of sandwiches. "Or, we have chicken salad, Caesar salad, or my favorite, Tuna salad."

"I'm guessing all the Tuna is for you," I mutter. I told him on our last date that Tuna was the one thing I despised, which was the very thing he was addicted to. "I'll take the meatball sandwich."

"Alrighty, spritey," Terrance says, handing me the sandwich. I open up the foil it was in and took a bite. To say it was amazing was almost the understatement of my life.

"Did you make this?" I ask. It comes out really muffled of course since I kind of stuffed my face with a sandwich.

"Well, Monte and I did together. She insisted that I should try making that since she has a weird addiction to meatballs."

"Really?" I chuckled. "When did that occur to you?"

"Well, before my parents started getting the 'no-time-at-home' jobs- as Monte and I call them- my mother would make spaghetti and meatballs. Only that Monte hated the spaghetti, but loved the meatballs. Of course, we thought it was a phase since kids always have those, but we've found out, obviously, that it wasn't a phase."

"Interesting story," I say. "Well I get her. This is flipping delicious!"

"Glad you think so," Terrance says with a grin. "So tell me, Sara- why aren't your parents around?"

I sighed, staring at my sandwich as I continued to chew, before I gulped it down and set it on my lap.

"Well, I'll start from when things started to get bad, I guess," I huffed. "When my father's grandparents and parents died, he basically broke down.

"He started abusing my mother, sleeping around. Then about two years before freshman year, which was probably about five years ago, Madeline was born. She looked just like my mother, and I remember my dad calling her the second worst mistake of his life. Thank God Madeline doesn't remember that, but I do.

"When she asks where our parents are, I want to say that they're burning in hell and she shouldn't love someone who never loved her," I felt tears running down my face. I chuckled sadly. "I was the worst first mistake. He beat me, insulted me, told me constantly that I was worthless, and yet still thought that I needed to respect him, just because he was my father. He didn't understand that you aren't entitled to respect, you earn it.

"Anyways, I hated him, but did respect and love my mother, but she ran away. She said she was going to get help, and I haven't seen her since. My father disappeared afterwards, and I haven't seen him either. Hopefully they won't come back. I've taken care of my sister since, because I wasn't going to be like my parents, wasn't going to abandon her.