Lilah
I quickly got out of my car, running to Finn's car window. I could hear my dad yelling my name but I Ignored him.
"You need to leave!" I yelled "I specifically told you not to come!"
"You're not the only stubborn one around here." Finn replied, getting out of his car.
"Finn. Please go." I was trying to push him back into his car, but I wasn't strong enough.
Tears were running down my cheeks now, but he wasn't paying any attention to me. His eyes were behind me at my father, who was now walking towards us. The anger was radiating of him in waves.
I felt his strong grip on my arm, pulling me away from Finn's car, back behind him. That was sure to leave another mark. Dang, he was strong.
"Who are you, and why are you here? Don't come near my daughter." He growled.
"Dad. Please, stop." He barely acknowledged me. "Dad. It's okay! He's my friend!" That's when he whipped around to look at me.
"He's your friend? Is this who you spent your day with?" His face was red with anger.
"Yeah. She spent her day with me, trying to get away from you!" Finn snapped back.
"Finn, stop. I'm serious. You need to go." I tried to get around my dad but he stepped in front of me.
I try to push him away, but he grabbed me and shoved me onto the pavement. I caught myself with my hands, bloody scrapes now covering them.
Before I understood what was happening, my dad was being tackled to the ground by Finn. I didn't think he would go down that easily, but I guess Finn suprised him.
"Finn! Please stop!" I screamed, trying to pull him off of my dad. He didn't listen and continued punching my dad.
My dad rolled over so he was on top of Finn. He surprised me by standing up and leaving him be.
"I don't want any trouble with you. All I want is for you to leave my property." My dad ordered, offering Finn a hand up.
Finn scoffed and slapped his hand away, standing up on his own.
"I'm not leaving her here with you." He said, keeping his ground, looking my father in the eye.
"This is my daughter. You are leaving her here with me. Now get off my property. I'm not going to harm her, if that's what you think." My dad explained.
It bothered me that they were talking about me, like I was not standing right behind them. Didn't I have a say in this?
"You're not gonna harm her?" Finn scoffed and gestured towards me. "You already did. Look at her."
My Dad turned around and his eyes widened, finally taking in the large bruise on my face. His eyes traveled to my bloody hands and the ripped fabric of my jeans.
"I think the right thing to do now, is to let Lilah decide wether she wants to go somewhere safe, or stay here with you." Finn says grabbing my hand, and pulling me to his side.
My dad sighed in defeat, his eyes held a look of guilt. He looked at me, as if he was asking me what I wanted.
Shocked that he would even consider asking me what I want, I responded by saying "Finn, I'm okay. He's my father, and I'm going to stay here. Thank you though."
I gave his hand a little squeeze before letting go, and walking to my dad's side. I looked at my dad's face. He had a smug look.
Finn glared at my dad for a second before nodding goodbye to me. Then he got into his car, and drove away.
"I'm taking you back out of school." Dad stated, walking ahead of me, into the house.
"You can't do that!" I yelled, running in front of him. He stopped and looked away from my face. I'm sure he didn't want to see the damage he had done to his own daughter.
"I'm you're father. I do what I please." He snapped back, and then walked into the house. I run after him.
"Dad! What about the play? and my friends? I was finally happy for once! Why can't you just accept that?"
"That's enough Delilah. I've made my decision." he says in a quiet but firm tone.
I ran upstairs, done with his crap. Tears were flowing down my cheeks. Once I was in my room, I flopped on my bed and called Kayla.
"Hey, Lilah. Did you get home okay?" She asked, as soon as she answered the phone.
"Yeah, I'm home, but something happened." You could tell by the sound of my voice that I was crying.
"Lilah? What happened?" She asked, her voice panicked.
"You know that mark, on my face? I lied. I didn't get burnt by a curling iron." I confessed.
"Of course, you didn't. Everyone knew you were lying. Most people were respectful enough, not to ask." Kayla said.
"My dad hit me." I told her, getting straight to the point. I heard a gasp on the other end.
"Lilah, that's terrible. Why didn't you tell me?" She asked, sadness in her voice.
"I didn't want everyone to worry." I told her, shrugging to myself.
"How'd you get home?" She changed the subject. I'm glad.
"Finn. That's what I meant by something happened. There was a fight between him and my dad." I explained.
"WHAT?!" She screeched and I pulled the phone away from my ear.
"Yep. Finn got it out of me during detention. He didn't want me to go home alone to my dad. We went for ice cream and he offered to drive me home. I told him to just bring me back to the school, so I could drive myself home. He did, but little did I know, he followed me home." I told the whole story.
When I was done, the other end of the line was completely silent. I almost thought she had hung up for a second.
"So, what now?" She finally spoke.
"Well. Now, I'm not going to school again." I complained and she groaned.
"That is not fair!" She yelled. "What kind of father doesn't want his child to have friends?"
"A very strict one." I responded.
"Is there any way you can convince him to let you come back?" She asked.
"I doubt it." I frowned but then heard footsteps coming up the stairs. I quickly said goodbye and hung up. I sat up waiting for him to barge into my room.
"Delilah." He opened my door. He looked like he had cooled down a bit, but was still angry. "Where have you been all day?"
"I was just at the ice cream shop. Don't worry about it." I told him
"Don't worry about it? You didn't come home from school with no explanation, and your telling me not to worry about it?"
"Dad. You hit me." I scolded. "I was scared to go home. Can you blame me? Look at my face." I wanted him to feel guilty. He deserved to.
He sighed and refused to look at me. "Listen. I'm sorry-"
"No. You aren't." I argued. "You would have called me. You wouldn't have taken me out of school."
"You were calling attention to yourself!"
"Woah woah woah. First of all, do you think I wanted this to happen? This is your fault!" I pointed at my face. "Second of all, why does it matter if I call attention to myself?"
He looked away, refusing to meet my eyes.
"Are you hiding something?" I accused.
"No, I'm not." He said. "I just want you to be safe." He tried to reach out for me and I backed away.
"Safe from what? You?" I snapped. "The only danger I've gotten into, was from you."
He opened his mouth like he was about to say something to me, but then he quickly shut it like he had changed his mind.
"Just leave me alone." I ordered, lying back down on my bed, facing the other direction.
I could still feel his presence in the room, but finally I heard my door open and shut. I turn around and my room was empty again. At that moment, I had never felt more alone.
~~~~~~~
I'd barely been out of my room for two days. The only times were to use the bathroom. Dad was at least nice enough to bring me meals, but other than that, I didn't speak to him.
I spent most of my time writing songs. All of them with lyrics reflecting my sad feelings about everything that had happened.
Besides the rare visits from my dad throughout the day, the only human interaction that I got was calls and texts from Kayla.
We would talk for hours like we used to, talking about what was happening at school. Apparently Finn has been very worried that I haven't been at school.
I don't understand why he randomly started caring about me. He has a girlfriend and I'm just some girl he rear ended.
Kayla also mentioned that Isaac had asked about me multiple times, along with Caitlin once. Just hearing about it hurt my heart, knowing that I couldn't see them again.
It also warmed my heart, because it let me know that people do care about me.
Kayla told me that Mrs. Linn recasted my part to another student, but promised that I would still have a part in the play if I ever came back.
Me not leaving my room is my way of trying to get my dad to let me go back to school. If I ignore him, maybe it'll show him that it hurts me, and he'll feel bad and change his mind. So I guess this is the way it's going to be now.
My dad doesn't seem to care though, and just continues his daily life, like nothing is wrong. I was also purposely failing all my online classes and he doesn't even seem angry.
My phone rang from beside me. Thinking it's Kayla, I answered without looking at the caller ID.
"Hey Kayla." I greeted. "I can't tell if the plan is working or not. He hasn't cracked yet."
"Whatever this plan is, I want in." It surprised me to hear that it wasn't Kayla's voice but a familiar male's.
"Finn. How did you get my number?" I asked.
"Kayla gave it to me." He told me like it's the most obvious thing in the world.
"Of course she did." I mumbled.
"So, what's the plan?" I could hear him switching positions in the background.
"Nothing you should be concerned about." I shot at him and he sighed.
"You're always so secretive about everything." He complained.
"There's nothing wrong with wanting to keep things to myself." I retorted.
"I guess not. How are you doing?" He asked.
"Not very good. I really am starting to feel like Rapunzel now. I've had barely any human interaction for two days." I complained.
"Why aren't you at school?" He asked.
"Apparently, I'm calling too much attention to myself." I rolled my eyes. "I'm back to online school."
"That doesn't make any sense. Why would it matter how much attention you call to yourself?" I could hear the confusion in his tone.
"Exactly! That's what I asked!" I exclaimed "I think he might be hiding something but I don't know what."
"Hmm. Hey, I gotta go. I'll talk to you later." He said, before hanging up the phone.
I let out a happy sigh, knowing that I have more than one person to talk to. The clock on my nightstand told me that it was now 3:00pm.
To pass the time, I decided that I would write a new song. So, I pulled out my guitar and a note book, and started writing.
I worked on it for about an hour, when I heard a strange tapping noise, coming from my window. I Ignored it for a minute, thinking it was just a tree branch, but the tapping turned to knocking.
What if someone was trying murder me, or kidnap me? Oh no. What do I do?
While I was thinking of an escape plan, I heard someone yell from outside. "For heaven's sake, Lilah! Just open your window!"
I let out a sigh of relief, as realized it was just Finn, and I was not going to die today.
Wait a second. What was Finn doing here? More importantly, how did he get up here?
I walked to my window and open it, as he had asked. He had climbed the tree just outside of my window.
"Finn? What are you doing here?" I let him into my room. Dinner wasn't for another two hours, so I was sure my dad wouldn't walk into Finn being in my room.
He just gave me his famous wink and responded with "I'm here to let Rapunzel out of her tower."
That's the end of chapter 7, I'm really hoping your enjoying this story so far. I apologise if the writing isn't the best. I'm still young and just a beginner.
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~haylie♥