Chapter 26, hope you enjoy! Blessing ya'll with 2 action packed chapters on this fone Thursday.
Tim put the truck in park outside of the Taylor house. He looked at himself in the mirror of his truck, he looked pretty rough. He had a large gash above his eye that was dripping blood down the side of his face from the collision with the rugged edge of the coffee table. Under the blood that stained his cheek, it was starting to puff up and turn purple. His lip stung where he had bitten when his father shoved him down. How am I going to explain this to the Taylors?
He gathered up the courage and walked to the front door and knocked. He looked at his feet, too embarrassed of what he looked like to the person who would open the door.
"Hey Tim!" Shelley greeted. He looked up, his hair parting and revealing the bloodied and bruised side of his face. "Oh my God!" Shelley gasped. Tami hurried to the door after hearing her sisters exclamation. Shelley invited him, and when Tami exited the kitchen she saw what her sister had gasped at.
"Tim! What happened?" Tami questioned, pulling out a chair at the bar for him to sit at.
"My dad," Tim answered emotionless.
"Eric hun, could you grab the first aid kit?" She asked her husband who had stood up and moved close to see what all the fuss was about. Eric headed to the bathroom to find the first aid kit. Julie, having hear Shelley greeting her boyfriend at the door, but missing the rest of the conversation, walked down the hallway.
"Did someone say Tim was here?" She asked. Before someone could answer, she entered the living room and saw him sitting at the bar with the two women tending to his wounds. Julie's jaw dropped when she saw the bloodied side of his face. Eric entered back into the living room with the first aid kit in hand.
"Jules grab me some frozen peas or he's going to have a black eye," Tami commanded. She grabbed some supplies from the first aid kit and began cleaning up his face.
"How did you do this?" Eric asked.
"He pushed me down and I hit my head on the coffee table," Tim answered taking the bag of peas from Julie.
"Does he need stitches?" Eric asked Tami.
"I'm afraid he will or it won't heal," Tami responded. "Let me finish cleaning up all this blood." Tami finished wiping the blood off the side of his face and placed a band-aid on the gash to help prevent the blood from continuing to run down the side of his face. Coach and Tim went and got in his SUV and began towards the hospital.
Eric pulled into the parking lot of the hospital and they both got out. Eric got Tim checked in, and before long his gash was stitched up. After receiving his stitches, they returned back to the house.
"You are welcome to stay," Tami told Tim when they were cleaning up the supper mess.
"Thanks, I've gotta get some clothes from my house," Tim replied. He grabbed his keys and drove to his house. Tim entered the house and beelined to his room. He quickly stuffed some clothes into a bag.
"Tim, you don't have to leave," Billy said peeking his head into Tim's room.
"I can't stay here," Tim replied exiting the room and pushing past his brother. "Not while he's here." Billy followed Tim out of the house.
"Tim, he was drunk he didn't mean it. I'm going to try and get him into a rehab center ."
"Good, let me know when he's gone and then I'll consider coming back," Tim responded starting the engine in his truck and backing out of the driveway. He drove back to the Taylors house and parked against the curb. He grabbed his duffel bag from the middle seat and walked towards the door. He knocked on the door and Eric let him in. When he walked into the house, he saw Shelley airing up an air mattress in the living room.
"I just changed the sheets in the guest bedroom, I will sleep on the air mattress," Shelley said.
"I can't kick you out of your room, I'll sleep in here," Tim replied. Shelley opened her mouth to protest, but then saw Tami mouth "leave it be" and decided it would be easier to let him have his way.
Later that evening, everyone headed off to their respective rooms for the night. Tim had made himself comfortable on the air mattress in the living room. Once she knew Shelley and her parents were in bed, Julie snuck into the living room and snuck under the blankets next to Tim. Tim instinctively wrapped his arm around her pulling her to his side, then realized what he was doing.
"What are you doing?" Tim asked in a whisper.
"I wanted to make sure you were ok," Julie responded.
"I'm ok," Tim responded sitting up and leaning up against the couch.
"Do you want to talk about what happened?" She asked, sitting up beside him.
"Billy told him about us, and the baby," Tim said. "He said he raised me better than that but he didn't raise me, Billy did." Julie didn't verbally responded, she could tell he was trying to will himself to say more.
"I learned a long time ago what kind of father I didn't want to be. My dad drank all the time, he basically abandoned me, and now he shows back up and acts like this. I don't even know why he's here," Tim continued. "I just hope I can actually be a good dad for our daughter, I didn't have a very good example," Tim added.
"you're gonna do great," Julie reassured.
"I don't know Jules..." Tim argued, finally opening up to Julie about what had been going through his head these past months.
"You will be a great dad," Julie responded, leaning her head on his shoulder. Tim wrapped his arm around her body. "And you have Billy and my dad to look to for examples." She took his hand that was wrapped around her and placed it on her growing stomach. Tim's eyes lit up and the tension he had released when he felt their daughter's kick under his hand.
"It's crazy how much you can love someone you haven't met yet," Tim whispered with a smile.
Internal struggles are such a big part of characterization and story lines, but gah I'm bad at writing that stuff.