lennon cursed under her breath when she saw her father's car in the drive way. she looked at her watch while walking her bike up to the garage, it was only five minutes after seven. if she just peddled a little faster...
once her bike was parked in the garage, lennon walked on the paved pathway to the back door hoping her father wouldn't see her. she twisted the knob and pulled the door open a little bit making the door creak loudly.
lennon looked through the little crack to see that the kitchen was empty so she opened the door all the way hoping it wouldn't creak as much. it didn't much to her delight. once inside lennon carefully shut the door trying to not make a noise that would tell her father she was late.
with the door shut she tip toed to across the marble floors and carefully started up the stairs. lennon was surprised she actually made it up the stairs with out her father realizing she was late. lennon walked down the long hallway to her room at the end of the hall. she opened the door and was so glad to be in her room.
the smell of vanilla and green apples greeted her as she closed the door behind her. she threw her backpack on the her bed that was placed in the corner of her room, pushed against the wall. she opened the doors french style glass doors to her balcony.
lennon loved her balcony, where it was a place she could relax and watch the sun set and rise. she also loved all her flowers and plants that were on her balcony so when she would sit and read in her favorite chair she could smell the flowers.
lennon leaned on the railing of the balcony the came up to her waist, she looked over to see if her father was on the patio. her thoughts of his whereabouts were confirmed when she saw her father sitting at the fancy patio furniture set reading the paper. her mother who looked tired sat in a chair next to him painting her nails when she glanced up at lennon giving her a small smile.
lennon retreated back inside her room to unpack her backpack. she unzipped it and grabbed the three books and walked over to the floor to ceiling book case on the other side of the room. finding a spot for the books would be difficult considering the fact that the bookcase was over flowing with books. after a couple minutes of looking for a spot and coming up empty she placed the three books on top of existing shelved books.
she then went back and grabbed her flannel and kimono to hang up in her large closet. her closet that hung up enough tops and dresses to last her four months without doing laundry, not including bottoms and pjs. the large dresser in there was for that purpose was to hold all her jeans, skirts, shorts, pjs, and undergarments.
closing her closet door lennon went back over to her bed where she just fell on it tired from today. she just wanted to lay there on her soft down feather white duvet and fall asleep, but she knew she couldn't and that she had to go downstairs to socialize with her father.
lennnon sat up and looked down to realize that she had left her scuffed up dirty high top converse on. that means she must of tracked dirt through the kitchen, the stairs, the hallway, and her room. she felt bad that the careless act made more work for sarah, the maid.
lennon quickly made up her mind that she would sweep up her mess. so she wouldn't track anymore dirt, she untied her shoes and kicked them off leaving them in the middle of the floor. lennon opened her bedroom door shutting it behind her as her feet hit the tile floor hallway.
the floor was cool beneath her feet, feeling good since it was so hot out. lennon just wanted to lay on the cool floor and just stay there instead of go downstairs and socialize with her father. lennons small hand opened the door to the cleaning closet where the broom and dust pan was kept.
she put the dust pan between her legs so she could use two hands to sweep, and started sweeping up the mess she made. lennnon shuffled down the hallway her dirt pile growing. she somehow made it down the stairs and started sweeping up the dirt in the kitchen.
"lennon! why is there a broom in your hand!" lennon's father asked in a voice laced with disgust. lennon cursed in her head that she was caught and slowly turned around to see her father standing in the door way to the patio.
he was dressed in a nike shirt and khaki shorts which were his casual clothes, so hes been home for awhile if he had enough time to change from his suit. lennon has a feeling he knew she was late.
"answer me!" he yelled making lennon flinch at how loud is voice is.
"i was- i was- i was-" lennon stuttered something she does when she gets nervous. her father shot her a disapproving look for her stuttering and spun towards the stairs, opening his mouth ready to yell. lennon prepared herself.
"sarah get the f.uck down here and do your job!" he yells so loud lennon was surprised that the glass window above the sink didn't break.
guilt start eating up lennon as she saw sarah a young woman in her late twenties, rush down the stairs. the one thing lennon loved about sarah, was she never let her father have the satisifaction of her being scared. she was scared but she wasn't going to let him know it. so when sarah made it to the bottom of the stairs looked up to her boss, lennon's father, with a brave face.
he glared at her with his dark brown eyes, a scowl on his face.
" i pay you to do a job, and you can't even fucking do it!" he yelled in her face. she stared up at him with her bright blue eyes not even flinching. He pointed his finger at me, "why is my daughter holding a broom not to mention the dustpan?"
sarah glanced at lennon and lennon hoped sarah could see how truly sorry she was. sarah's expression stayed the same though as she glanced at lennon and turned back to her boss.
"i have no idea sir, it won't happen again." sarah said in a even tone. lennon's father glared at her with his jaw clenched his hands curled into fists at his sides.
"one more slip up, i swear to god, i'll fire your a.ss!" he shouted before stalking over to me ripping the broom and dustpan from my hold and throwing them at sarah. lennon watched in horror as the dustpan made out of metal hit her head cutting it up open.
her father grabbed lennons arm with a tight grip and started walking her out the sliding glass doors to the patio where he was sitting a little bit ago. lennnon stared at the floor the whole time as she was walked/ dragged along. she felt so bad about what happened to sarah, she was the reason why she got hurt. if she would've took off her shoes.
outside she could see that her mother already had dinner laid out on the patio table. her mother let out a gasp as she saw her husbands grip on her daughter's arm. he glared at her and let go of lennnons arm that was beginning to throb, lennon looked down to see her fathers red hand print on her arm from his tight grip.
it hurt like hell. lennon took a seat at the table that could sit seven people but sat across her mother her father on the end. lennon looked down at her plate to see that she was just having salad again for dinner as was her mother. her father though on the other hand was having steak and mash potatoes.
lennon's mother thought that women should be thin to please men so she always made salad for the two of them. somethimes on special occasions she served salads with some meat in it, like chicken.
lennon hated it. for starters women she thinks women should be any size they want to. second, she believes that women should eat whatever they want and someday a man will love them for who they are. they should live up to their standards not to others. not to mention lennon hated salad.
she'll have to choke it down though to please her parents and after dinner call the pizza place that was on speed dial on her cell.
lennon picked up her fork and started eating the gross salad when her mom tried starting a conversation.
"how was work dear?" her mother asked her husband. lennon's father completely ignored her though and turned his attention to lennon. lennnon could feel his stare and refused to look up from her salad.
"i don't understand lennon, you are not poor! if i see you do it again, pick up any cleaning stuff, i swear to god i'll beat you with my belt. do i make myself clear?" her father spewed. lennon hated him. she hated him so much.
"yes sir." lennon answered. he has beat her with the belt before when she was little around six. her father was having a event at home and he told her to stay in her room. lennon though was thirsty and went downstairs to get a glass of water, a business man helping her reach the faucet.
when her father found out he was livid that she disobeyed him. he made her mother watch as he hit their six year old daughter for something as simple as getting a glass of water. lennon couldn't walk right for about a week due to the welts on her back.
they all turned back to eating after lennon said yes a silence falling over them. lennon grateful for it. she was trying to eat fast so she could go inside and call the pizza place, not to mention hide out in her room, but not too fast so her father would notice and call her a pig.
the silence though was interrupted when her father opened his mouth. lennon could careless to look up at her father and continued to eat her salad.
"so barabra, i was on my home and i saw this kid. i think he called himself harry."
lennon head snapped up.