eight: here goes nothing
⠀⠀⠀⠀Rosaline looks at me as if I'm crazy when I tell her not to tell Conner or my dad. For one, I still haven't actually seen my dad in the two weeks that I've been here. And, two, I don't need to worry them.
"Why?" Her eyes widen.
"Because it might not actually be him." I send her a reassuring smile.
"You should've heard him, Ma-"
"No, Rosie." I stop her. "If things get worse, I'll tell. But it's nothing to worry about, okay?" I start to question whether or not I should've told her in the first place.
"Fine," she replies giving up. "But if I receive another call, I will tell. You can't sop me," the sternness in her voice tells me she's not going to negotiate this.
"Okay," I nod my head before retreating to my room.
As I enter my room, I find Connor sitting on my bed. His face laced with concern. "Where were you?"
"I was out," I shrug putting my bag on my dresser.
"Why didn't you tell me?" He questions.
"Why would I? You're not my babysitter," I reply nonchalantly. It's true, though.
"I, right. Never mind," he stops asking and thankfully doesn't think to ask if it has to do with Jackson.
"Right," I pause watching him as he stares at me. "Is that all you needed?"
"No. What are you not going to tell anybody about unless it gets worse?" His face hardens. Oh, crap. He overheard. Play it off, Marley.
"Nothing," I rack my mind for an excuse. Think, Marley! "It's just a rash I have."
His face twists in disgust. "Ew," he shivers in disgust. By the looks of it, he buys my lie. Man, Marley, you've done a lot of that while you've been living here.
"Yeah, it's disgusting. Trust me, you don't want to see it," I reply before pulling out shorts and a tee shirt from my drawers. I slide into my bathroom to change into my comfortable clothes.
I quickly wash my face after changing removing any trace of makeup. Some days I even question why I wear makeup. One, I don't wear much to begin with. Two, I take it off right when I get home. And, three, it takes up time I could be doing something else.
When I return to my room, Conner has left. I probably scared him off with the whole rash thing. I smile to myself at the thought of Conner running around like a little girl screaming in disgust. A laugh escapes my lips, as well.
I take a seat on my bed picking up the frame from my bedside. There are two faces in the frame, one looking at the camera and the other staring at the other one. My mom was smiling her beautiful smile at the camera while I smiled at her in admiration. That was only two months before...
I shut my eyes trying to rid my mind of the memory of what happened next. Every time I try to remove the memory, it always finds its way back to me. Unfortunately.
Knock. Knock.
I open my eyes at the sound of someone knocking on my door. I return the frame to its original place before answering the door. Behind the door I find Marcus standing with his hands behind his back.
"Good afternoon, Marcus," I greet the man with a smile.
"Good afternoon, Marley. I've come to inform you that Mr. Parker will be joining you and Conner for dinner. He'd like it if you both dress up tonight."
My mouth slightly parts in shock. Two weeks. It's nearly been two weeks and this is the first I will be seeing him. Not to mention its been ten years before that.
"Okay," I reply with a small voice. Marcus then leaves to inform Conner. I shut my door and rest my back against the door. I glance at my clock which reads four in the afternoon. Sighing, I slowly slide down until I'm sitting on the floor.
After a few minutes of silence, my phone's ringtone starts playing from my bag which is sitting on my dresser. I hop up off the floor and rummage through my bag eventually finding the loud thing.
"Hello?" I answer while laying down onto my bed.
"So," the familiar voice of a certain red head echoes through the phone. "How'd it go?"
"It went great," I smile at the memory of the 'date'. Seriously, I need a new word.
"Well, tell me then!" Ryland does nothing to disguise her excitement. I roll over onto my stomach trying to get comfortable.
"Well," I start from the very beginning leaving out the texts and the car, of course.
"After we played on the playground, we walked to the ice cream shop and had a little bit of ice cream," I shrug despite that she can't see me.
"Aw," she coos. "You two are just too cute," she giggles while I cringe a bit.
"We were just hanging out, Ry." I slide off my bed and walk over to the window. Realizing I had left it open, I slide it shut and stare out the window as the sun shines in on my face.
"Mhm. Sure," she teases. I laugh while rolling my eyes at the girl.
"Have you started the English assignment?" I change the subject not wanting to talk about me and Jackson anymore.
"Ugh, don't remind me," she groans. "I haven't started and I don't know where to start." Our English teacher, Mr. Richards, assigned us a paper and illustrative project that is due in two days.
"You do realize he assigned this last week?" I shake my head at her.
"Yes, but I'm not like you," she groans. "I'm a procrastinator."
"Which is your problem," I chuckle at my stressed friend. Evil, I know.
"Ugh, I better go and try to get some of this done." She sighs.
"Good luck," I call.
"Come to my funeral, please," she replies before hanging up on me. I toss my phone on my bed and continue to stare out the window.
I watch as Tucker, the family's golden retriever, lays out in the sun. I hadn't known they had a dog until yesterday when he barged into my room. Of course I've taken a liking to him. He's my new best friend.
A smile creeps onto my face as he takes notice of a butterfly. He instantly starts trying to bite it, but the little butterfly flys away in enough time. As Tucker chases the butterfly, he runs into the limo causing me to laugh. Only after I knew he was okay, though.
Deciding that I smell like a kid who just came in from recess from being outdoors for so long, I hop into the shower once more only cleaning my body, not my hair. I pinned my hair into a bun before showering and decide to leave it up before retreating back into my room.
I crawl into bed pulling out my laptop to watch Netflix for the next hour or so until dinner. Dinner is served at six thirty sharp in this house. And you better not be late.
I pull up Flashpoint and continue to watch where I left off. Unfortunately, I'm on the last two episodes of the last season ever. There may be a few tears as the show comes to an end.
Once I finish the very last episode, I realize it's five fifty which means I only have ten minutes to be ready for dinner. Ten minutes to find a 'nice' dress. Ten minutes till I see dad.
I spring out of bed and search through my clothes that are hanging in my closet. I don't really own 'nice' clothes except for one dress, which is old and worn out. Not doable for tonight.
I find my burgundy skirt and quickly slide it on. I grab my black top and pull it on along with a black and white tribal cardigan. I step in front of the mirror and decide my hair would look better down. Please don't look too bad. Oh, please don't.
I unpin my hair and, thankfully, it doesn't look half bad. In fact, it looks good. The waves are more defined considering it was up for a while. I slide on some black flats and decide against makeup.
I glance in the mirror one last time deciding I look 'dressed up' enough. Time to meet dad...
Well, here goes nothing.
author's note
Whoop. Nothing really exciting in this chapter. :p
Hehe.
Y'all had some good guesses on who him is. After all it could be a dog. (;
Haha. Let me know what you think.
With love,
.j