A few weeks later
Saturday morning we went out for brunch with the Flynns. My dad and mr and mrs Flynn all got mimosas. It was a pretty normal brunch.
Brad had to grab his backpacking go work on a science project after brunch, so I dropped dad at the house while brad grabbed his stuff. When I got home from dropping brad off I found my dad on the couch drinking a beer. There was already an empty bottle by the kitchen sink.
I went upstairs to my room and started my English essay. I was two paragraphs into an essay on Puritan Axiology as illustrated through the rhetoric and diction of Nathaniel Hawthorn's The Scarlet Letter when I heard the garage door open and the car start down stairs. I ran down to the garage, slid into the passenger seat, and turned the car off with it still in reverse.
"Dad! What are you doing? You just had like two beers!"
"I'm fine! What'd you stop the car for!?" He asked, his words slurring slightly.
"You can't drive like this! You'll get yourself killed!"
"I'm fine!" He said, getting out of the car.
I got out too, slamming the door, "you're NOT fine dad! You're DRUNK!"
I don't know what it was about that statement that bothered him more than the others, but at that he got angry, "WHAT? YOU THINK I CANT DRIVE? I CAN DRIVE BETTER WITH MY EYES SHUT THAN YOU CAN DRIVE AT ALL!"
"IM SORRY I DONT WANT YOU TO DIE ON US LIKE MOM DID!"
He punched me in the face, and I fell down, clutching my left eye.
"DONT TALK ABOUT YOUR MOTHER THAT WAY! YOU THINK SHE WANTED TO DIE? SHE LOVED YOU—you both!" He stormed up to his room, tears streaming silently down his face.
I got up, sat down in the drivers seat, turned the car on, put in in park, put the parking break on, turned off the car and took the keys out of the ignition. I kept the car keys with me, grabbed an ice pack and a kitchen towel and headed up to my room. I locked the door and sobbed into my pillow. I cried until I could summon the energy to sob anymore. When I calmed down a bit, I got out my computer and pulled up The Office on Netflix. I was just starting another episode when the phone started ringing. I let it ring out. Five minutes later my phone started ringing, I paused The Office and answered the phone.
"Elle, has dad left yet? He's not answering his phone! Teddy has to go out to dinner with his grandparents in 20 minutes, someone needs to pick me up!"
"I'm leaving right now Brad I'll be there in 15 minutes"
I grabbed my sunglasses and a baseball cap and headed out the door.
When I picked up Brad he was still upset.
"Dad was supposed to pick me up an hour ago! What happened?" He asked angrily
"Nothing happened happened Brad! He just forgot!" Elle said exasperatedly
"Was he drunk again?" Brad asked, arms crossed
"Drunk? Brad, what are you talking about?"
"I'm ten, I'm not stupid. I know dad drinks more than he should."
I sighed,
"I took the keys, I didn't want him driving like that. I didn't realize he was going to pick you up otherwise I would have left an hour ago."
"It's not your fault Elle"
"Thanks Brad"
After a minute or two of silence I asked him, "so how'd your science project go?"
At that he jumped into an excited explanation of the detailed town they had built for their banking osada and vinegar volcano to destroy. They built it out of sugar cubes so that it would melt when the "lava" hit.
The next morning we were all meeting at Lee's house to go swimming. Well the guys would all go swimming, but the girls would probably sun bathe for a good portion of the time.
I had iced my eye all night, but the black eye was still pretty bad. My sun glasses covered some of it, but I would need some serious concealer if I wanted it to go unnoticed. I spent almost an hour perfecting my contour and making sure my hair was parted in a way that covered most of the swelling. In the end I still wore sunglasses and my sun hat.
When I got there Lee and Cam and Warren were already in the pool and Rachel and Karen were sunbathing on the pool chairs.
"You coming in Shelley?" Lee asked
"No, I think I'm just going to sunbath"
"Aww you're no fuuun!"
Lee and Cam splashed me as I walked past.
I set up my towel and joined Rachel and Karen.
"So Elle, what's this thing going on with you and Flynn?" Rachel asked
"What thing?" I deflect.
"You two have been hanging out a lot lately." Karen adds"Everyone's talking"
"It's nothing, we're just sort of friends now" I say blushing
"JuSt friends?"
"Yeah, like, after Warren's party and that thing with Patrick, Noah drove me home and we kinda just talked for like 2 hours. He's actually a pretty great guy"
"when he's not being a total jerk and scaring off any guy who tries to ask you out" Rachel nudges my shoulder
"Well yeah, except then" I roll my eyes
After that the gossip turns away from me and I flip over onto my back and just listen. I put my hat over my face to shade it from the sun while I tan my front side.
I'm just drifting off to sleep in the hot sun when I feel something wet grab my ankles. Then two more somethings grab my wrists.
"Aaaahhhh!" I screech "put me down!"
My had falls off of my face as Lee and Warren start swinging me back and forth.
"ONE"they swing me once
I'm screaming for them to put me down.
"TWO" that's twice and I'm still screaming
"THREE" they throw me into the pull and jump in after me.
Cam pulls Karen in and Rachel jumps in on her own before Lee can get back out and pull her in too.
We're all splashing each other and roughing around. I got water in my eyes so I wipe them off. I realize my mistake when my left eye starts to throb with just the little pressure my hand applied.
"Woah, woah, guys stop!" lee shouts and I know I'm screwed.
"Oh my gosh Elle what happened?"
"What happened Elle? Are you okay?"
"What happened to your face!?"
"'What happened to your face' the words every girl wants to hear" I tease, stalling for time
"Seriously Elle, What happened? That looks bad!" Lee asks, his voice full of concern.
"It's nothing, honestly! It was really stupid!" I say, trying to think up an excuse
"What, Elle? What was it?"
"My dad..." I start, not sure where I'm going. Should I tell them? No, they won't understand. They'll blow it way out of proportion. "...he left a kitchen cabinet open last night and I ran straight into it in the dark" there. That was believable.
"So it was just Elle being a klutz again then" Lee teased
"Haha yeah" it kind of hurt how easily he believed that. But I guess it was better than him finding out the truth.
That evening my dad apologized. It was a good apology. It had everything an apology should: he was drunk—he never would hurt me if he knew what he was doing; an admission of guilt—still being drunk was no excuse; an expression of how sorry he felt—he was ashamed of his actions and he was ashamed of what mom would think of him if she had seen him then; an assurance of it's finality—he would do better, he was trying to do better, it would never happen again; and a gift. He meant to give it to me on my sixteenth birthday, but he forgot. It was my mom's watch. It was really nice; it had emerald adornments surrounding the watch face, and most importantly, it was still ticking away steadily