I hate you.
It was those three words that had been bothering Lucy Messer all morning long. It was those three words, and the look on his face when she had screamed it at him, that were swimming around in her mind and wouldn't go away.
Earlier that morning, she'd had another fight with her dad. Fighting with him seemed to have become a regular thing lately. It seemed to get worse everyday, and Lucy figured that the one that they had this morning was the worst one yet. Never had she told him that she hated him. She'd always sworn that she wouldn't, no matter what, but that morning, it had just slipped out. The hurt look on his face before leaving to go to work had nearly killed her. And to make matters worse, Lucy couldn't even remember what they had been fighting about in the first place.
She couldn't even remember how things had gotten so bad between her and her father. They had always been extremely close, but it seemed as she got older, they drifted apart. Her mother said it was because they were both so stubborn, but it would end before she knew it. Lucy prayed that she was right. She hated fighting with him, she really did. She loved him and she wanted things to go back to normal. It just seemed that the harder she tried to avoid fights, the more they happened. It was driving her crazy, and it was making her lose focus on everything around her, especially school.
"Ms. Messer."
Lucy glanced up from her notebook she had been staring at. Her English teacher, Mr. Williams, was looking at her, and she knew he had asked her a question. She quickly glanced back down at her notebook, trying to read the notes she had scribbled down. She looked back at Mr. Williams, who was waiting for an answer.
"Uh, a simile compares two things using like or as and a metaphor compares two things without using like or as," she answered, positive that was the last thing they had been talking about before she drifted off into space.
"Great. That would have been a perfect answer twenty minutes ago, but now we're talking about Romeo & Juliet," Mr. Williams said.
Lucy felt herself turning red as the rest of her classmates started to laugh. She glanced at Mr. Williams, who was giving her a concerned look. Lucy just shrugged, her way of apologizing for being distracted.
Once the class had stopped laughing and started talking Shakespeare again, Lucy went back to thinking. She had to end this fighting with her dad before she failed the tenth grade.
And it wasn't just her who had lost focus. Her mother would tell her about how distant her dad was at work, and it all had to due with the fighting. Lucy didn't know if her mother had told her this to make her feel guilty or not, but either way, it worked. She had to end this fighting or else her and her dad would end up in therapy, which was her mother's biggest fear. She had hurt her dad enough already. She wasn't about to do it to her mother, also.
Carefully, Lucy pulled her cell phone out of her pocket. She kept it at her side, making sure her teacher didn't see her and take the phone away.
She typed in her dad's number, then sent him a text. She asked him if he would be able to order pizza and watch a game on tv with her that night. He had the night off, so Lucy was just hoping he didn't get caught up at work.
Lucy put her phone back in her pocket and sighed softly. She had taken the first step in making her relationship with her dad better, and already she was feeling good again.
For the next five minutes, Lucy listened as Mr. Williams talked about the love between Romeo and Juliet. His talking was interrupted by a knock at the door and Lucy watched as he walked across the room to open it. Her interest of who was at the door went away when she realized it was only Ms. Nelson, the school's secretary. Lucy decided that while Mr. Williams was busy talking, she would start taking notes on what she had missed when she wasn't paying attention.
She hadn't even written an entire sentence before Mr. Williams had walked over to her desk. He kneeled down so that he could look her in the yees. Lucy swore she saw a look of sadness in his that weren't there before.
"Lucy, you need to go with Ms. Nelson," he said quietly so the others in clas wouldn't hear him. Lucy looked at him, confused, but she nodded and stood up, shoving her notebook into her backpack.
Ignoring the whispers from her classmates who were trying to figure out what she had done, Lucy walked out of the classroom. She let Ms. Nelson guide her to the principal's office. She felt nervous, and her hands started to shake. She didn't know why the hell she was going to the principal's office. She'd never been in trouble before, and she didn't know what she could have done that had caused her to get in trouble now. Unless Mr. Williams had called the principal because she hadn't been paying attention, but she figured that couldn't be it.
When Lucy walked into the principal's office, all of her worries about her being in trouble went away, and she felt her heart drop. Her mother was sitting on the couch in the tiny room, sobbing. Her uncle Flack was sitting next to her, obviously there to comfort her. However, Lucy could see that his eyes were red from crying.
Lucy quickly dropped her stuff and hurried over to the two.
"Mom, what's wrong?" she asked, placing a hand on her shoulder. Lucy watched as her mom lifted her head up from her hands. Her normally happy brown eyes were full of hurt and sadness. She tried to speak, but she just started crying harder. Lucy felt her heart sink even lower. She knew what was happening.
"Where's Daddy?" Lucy whispered. She knew her mom couldn't speak, so she looked at Flack.
"Luce, there was a shootout today," he began, but he couldn't control himself and he too started sobbing.
Lucy felt like she couldn't breathe. She wanted to ask if he was okay, but the look in Flack's eyes confirmed the worst.
He wasn't going to be alright. He wasn't going to be coming home.
She could feel her head spinning and the tears began falling down her face.
He was dead.
And because of all the damn fights that all seemed so stupid now, she'd never gotten that one last chance to tell him I love you.
He died thinking she hated him.
And she'd have to live with that for the rest of her life.
Please don't hate me for this.
Or at least don't hate me so much that you won't review!