Chapter 18

As the arguments continued, all I could think about was how much trouble I had started. None of the fighting would have happened if I had just kept my mouth shut. I felt like it was all my fault.

After awhile, the arguments had finally died down. My Dad had come outside. He still seemed pretty heated, which of course, I thought he was mad at me. "We need to get stuff packed up. We are not staying here." He says angrily. So we all worked together to take the tent down and packed up all our stuff. When we got our stuff in the car, we headed out.

It took us about four hours to get to Bakersfield. When we arrived, We ended up meeting my Mom and our friend Tracey at a restaurant so we could talk about what had happened. They tried so hard her to assure me that it wasn't my fault that all this had happened and tried to tell me that Harold was nothing but a sick bastard, but no matter what they said, it still didn't make me feel any better. My Dad wouldn't have gotten into it with his parents like they did if I had just kept my mouth shut.

"What are we going to do until our house gets finished?" I asked.

"Well for tonight, Kim is going to let us stay at her house." Kim was an old friend of my Dads. They grew up together and ended up going to the same schools. Then " But don't worry, we will figure everything else out from there." My mom said.

After we were done eating, we headed to my Dad's friend Kim's house.

When it was time for bed, I couldn't sleep. I couldn't get the arguments or the bad stuff my so called grandfather did. As I laid there, wide awake, all I could think about was how I wanted to take everything all back and not have said a word. I don't know why, but I felt so guilty telling my Dad at all, but he just wouldn't let it go this time. After a while, my mind was finally tired to where I was able to fall asleep. The next morning, we went and had breakfast. My parents decided to look for a rental house until our new house was ready. Luckily, They were able to find something right away. We ended up sharing the house with Tracey and her daughter, Dani. It wasn't really bad, kind of small for 7 kids and 4 adults, but we managed. There wasn't enough bedrooms for us all to have our own rooms, so we slept where we could.

There wasn't much we could do while living in a rental house. It was too hot out to go outside, so we did what we could to keep cool. We spent most of our time out in the hot tub we had on the deck.

Other times, Russ and I would play the playstation after we got our chores done.

One day, while we were playing, our Dad came over to us with some interesting news.

"Hey Russ, guess what Buddy?"

"What's up?" Russ asked him.

"They have a football camp in San Diego that the Chargers are hosting. Mom and I agreed on letting you go. It starts Sunday, so you and I will he leaving for a week to go do the camp."

"No way! Are you serious?"

With a smile on his face, Dad nodded his head. "The girls are going to stay with Mom, so we should probably get packed up ahead of time." He says, then walks away.

"Hey while you're gone, can I play your playstation?" I asked him.

"Yeah. I don't mind. But you're the only one who can." He tells me.

So while Russ and my Dad were gone, I mostly played on the playstation that way I had something to do.

"Let me play." Danielle says to me.

"No. Russ said only I could play on it."

I tell her.

"That's not fair." she says angrily. She stormed off into the other room.

I knew I shouldn't have told her that, because no sooner after, Mom walks in.

"Did you tell Danielle that she couldn't play the playstation after I told her she could?"

I just shook my head.

"Well, if she or anyone else can't play it, neither can you. Get your ass off of it and find something else to do."

I climbed off the chair and turned it off.

It was finally our first 4th of July in California. My brother and Dad made it home in time for fire works that night. As time passed, it was getting closer and closer to go see the fireworks. Until then, Russ and I played the playstation together. Up until Mom came into the room.

"I thought I told you that you weren't allowed to play on it for awhile." That caught Dads attention.

"Why was it taken away from you?" he asks me.

"Because Danielle wanted to play while you and Russ were gone, and I told her that Russ said only I could play on it."

He turned to Russ, "Did you tell her that?"

"That's not what I said." He lied.

Dad turns back to me. "Well in that case, you are not going tonight. You are staying here with Granny. Got it?"

I didnt say anything. I just nodded my headed.

"Wipe that fucking look off your face." He says snacking me across the face. "Get your ass in that bedroom now." I climbed off the chair and headed toward Granny's room.

While I was in there, I heard him telling Granny that I'm only allowed out to eat and to go to the bathroom. He even told her that I'm not allowed to watch t.v. After that, everyone left for the fireworks.

"I can't take this anymore.I hate it here and I hate being in this family." I said as tears started to fall. So, I grabbed a few things, and snuck into Tracey's room where the back door was and slipped out. As I got to the gate that leads out to the front of the house, I stopped. I started crying some more. I couldn't take the way I was being treated by that awful man. I was ready to run away from it all. But I knew, if I did, I would be in more trouble if I got caught. So I snuck back into the house and forgot the whole Idea.