A little under a week had past since Evan walked out the door. Every time I would call him, his phone went directly to voicemail. After several times of getting no answer, I stopped calling. It was clear that Evan no longer wanted any thing to do with me, and I didn't blame him. It was stupid of me to believe anything anything that Jasper said, and it was stupid of me to keep all of those notes in a box. I should have just thrown those away when I found them in my locker.
Jasper occasionally would knock on the door, but I wouldn't answer. He would call out to me, begging me to open the door. That was the last thing I was going to do though. He was even desperate enough to tap on the window at night since the light in my room proved I was on there.
I have not left the house once over the past few days. The only time I saw sunlight was when I cracked the front door open just enough to get the mail from the mailbox. It was a good thing that I went shopping before everything had happened. I wasn't in the mood to do anything pr go anywhere.
As I sat there on the couch shoving potato chips into me mouth, I couldn't help but think of all the things that had gone wrong in my life. Which seemed like almost everything. There was not one good thing about my life that I could think of, really. Sure I was happy when I was with Evan, but now those memories were tainted with him leaving.
My mother has not called, and I was glad about it. She was off lately, and I had no idea why. It was never this bad before. She wasn't a great mother, but there was nothing I could do. I was stuck in this house until I turned eighteen and I turned seventeen in just a few days. There was a whole year between me and my freedom.
My father didn't call as well, but that was to be expected. He was too busy with his new family to care about me. For all I knew, my father must have realized my mom was crazy and he decided to get the heck out of there before she dragged him down. If that was true, the fact that he left me behind kind of stung.
When I reached the bottom of that potato chip bag, my mouth was instantly dry from all the sodium I had just consumed. I glanced over to see that the bottle of water I had been drinking out of was empty, and I couldn't help but groan to myself. I didn't want to move much today, and the shower I had taken this morning really drained my energy.
With a sign, I reached over to grab my crutches. Since I had been careless with my movements over the last few days, large black and blue marks started to appear on my arms. They weren't exactly comfortable, but the pain was bearable.
The kitchen looked like an episode of hoarders. Dishes were piled up, and opened mail was scattered around the counters. Doing dishes was the last thing on my mind at the moment. She would get to it eventually, or maybe I'll just throw all of them away.
When I started to drink from a new bottle of water I had pulled out of the fridge, the sound of the front door opening caught my attention. No one should be entering my house at three in the afternoon, and my first thought was that Jasper might have swiped the spare key from his mom and used it to get in. My blood started to boil in anger, and I immediately threw the water bottle in the near by sink before I high tailed it to the front of the house. However, I stopped short when I saw someone else standing in my doorway.
It was a man that I had never seen before. He wore a neat black suit, and his curly black hair fell to his shoulders. He stood there with a suitcase in one hand, and a set of keys in another. His eyes widened in shock when he saw me standing there, but I was clearly more shocked than him.
"What the fuck are you doing in my house?" I said loudly in the hopes of spooking him off, but he remained silent as a confused look washed across his face.
The man turned to look over his shoulder as if there was somebody in the driveway behind him. "Honey?"
Suddenly, a woman walked in, and she looked like a complete stranger. Her hair was dyed a bright red, and her eyes were behind a large pair of sunglasses. She walked right past the man and stepped into the house. Her heels clicked loudly on the hardwood floor.
"Hattie, what have I told you about swearing?"
My eyes narrowed in confusion as I looked the woman up and down. Everything about her was different. "Mom?"
"Who else would you be expecting?" she questioned as she turned to the man. "You can take your bag upstairs. First room on the left."
The man nodded as he started to walk up the stairs, but not before he pecked a quick kiss on my mothers cheek. Everything that was happening right now was so confusing, but I just stood there in shock.
"Hattie, close your mouth or you'll catch flies," my mom said as she walked right past me and into the kitchen. "You would not believe the flight I had to endure."
"What?" I asked in confusion as I quickly turned around to follow her. "I don't want to know about your flight. Who the hell was that guy just now? He looks like he's my age."
"You mean Rico?" she asked as she immediately started to open up all the cabinets in a search for food. "He's only twenty."
"Yes, Rico, and that doesn't help his case. Why his he here?" I shouted at her from across the room.
"Because he's my husband," she casually said as she pulled out an open box of cracker. "Can you believe they ran out of food on a twenty hour flight?"
However, I didn't hear anything after the word husband. My eyes widened in shock as I tried to process what she had just said. Apparently, I had a stepfather now?
"Husband?" I shouted loud enough to cause her to jump in place. "How can you be married? You were only gone for two weeks?"
"I don't have to explain myself to you," she shouted back as she placed both hands on her hips. "At your age, you can't tell what love is."
"Then neither can dear old dad upstairs then," I say as I stand my ground. Everything was happening to fast, and I could feel my body shaking from anger. She had no right to do this to me. For all I knew, this marriage was as fake as those press on nails that my mom was wearing, the only thing what was weird is that it was obvious that she was convinced she had found love.
"Well look at it this way, now you have a dad so you can do all of those daddy and daughter things you see on the TV," she gushed. "That you be so cute."
I looked at my mother in complete shock. "Yeah, you'll need a picture of the two of us when he ends up on to catch a predator, but at this point I think he should be more afraid of you."
"Rico told me he wanted to go out to eat tonight since the both of us are tired from our flight," she said as she spun the conversation around. "Since he's Italian, I thought we could got to Bello's tonight as a family."
The thought of running into Evan with this freak show following me did not sound appealing at all. "Well, you two have fun."
"Don't try to weasel yourself out of this one," she said as she set the box of crackers onto the table. "This would be a good way for you two to get to know each other."
"Yeah, right," I scuffed as I rolled my eyes. "By the expression on his face when he saw me, you clearly didn't tell his you have a daughter."
Her mom shrugged as she turned to face me. "The only thing that matters is that all of us are happy together."
I stared at her with a blank expression. "You think I'll be happy with some stranger in this house? At this point, I don't even know who you are anymore."
"Oh, stop being so dramatic," she waved me off. "Go make yourself useful and go get the bags out of the car. I'm too tired."
"No," I say to her as I stand up for myself.
"You can't say no to me," she said, but from the way her mouth pulled back, I could tell she was angry. Why? No clue. "I am your mother and you will do as I say."
"Some mother you are," I say as I straightened up. "A mother doesn't act like she doesn't have a child when it suddenly becomes an inconvenience. A mother sure as shit wouldn't bring a strange man into the house that could very well end up being a murderer. A mother, as you call yourself, couldn't even tell that her daughters leg is broken even though she is standing right in front of you, so it's fairly obvious that I will not be getting your bags."
I didn't realize it, but I was shouting at the top of my lungs. However, my mother didn't even flinch. She was too wrapped up in her own little world to notice. Before I could do anything else, my mother started walk over to me. I couldn't read her face, but I didn't have a chance to react to what was about to happen.
Before I could blink, my mother lifted up her arm and whipped her hand across my face. The sound of her hand against my face echoed throughout the house.
"You will not speak to me like that while you live in my house," she snapped at me as I held my hand up to my head.
Tears were streaming uncontrollably down my face. My cheek felt as if it were on fire, and I was pretty sure the slap left a hand mark. As I looked back up, rage started to build up inside of me. However, I was the bigger person in this situation and I would not stoop down to her level.
"Fine," I say through clenched teeth before I started to walk away. However, instead of walking out the door that was left open, I turned and walked up the stairs.
I shut my bedroom door behind me, and when I was on my bed I let my tears fall. Now, everything had officially fallen apart. My mother was the only one who I thought cared about me, but I guess not.
This whole house felt different now, as if I didn't belong here anymore. I was the stranger roaming these halls now. At this rate, it was only a matter of time until my mom decided to kick me out of here, but I wanted to leave on my own term.
With a sigh, I got up and walked over to my closet. On one of the hooks was a large duffel bag. I carefully took it off and set it down on my dresser that was nearby.
I really wasn't paying much attention to what I was putting in it. Heck, I didn't even know what I should take. I just kept shoving clothes into it until I couldn't fit anything else and zipped it up. When that was done, I quickly shoved my good foot into a slip on sneaker and swung my bag over my shoulder and made my way to the stairs. Just as I walked into the hallway, I was suddenly faced to faced with a very confused looking Rico.
"She didn't tell you about me right?" I asked, and he nodded. "Get a divorce with her, actually I don't care what you two do. But don't say I didn't warn you."
I stepped around him and started to walk down the stairs. At this point, I just wanted to get out of there as fast as I could, so the memory of my walking down the stairs was a blur. When I reached the bottom, I quickly walked into the living room, grabbed my phone, wallet, and what was left of the pills the doctor had given me and made my way to the door. Just before I stepped out, I grabbed my car keys off the hook and shoved them into the pocket of my hoodie along with everything else.
It was time for me to put this life behind me.