Thanks for reviewing. I enjoy reading what you guys think.

RIVER'S POV

I hate him.

He ruined everything. He and Mom had been getting closer and then he goes and knocks up that 20-year-old waitress. It's embarrassing. And then the other day when I was at Misty's, Misty overheard Leah tell my dad that her cousin, Julian Clearwater, saw Mom doing the walk of shame from Uncle Embry's place. Dad's been miserable and angry ever since. He's a short fuse, snapping occasionally at the smallest annoyances.

Dad and I are sitting together in his truck outside the new house. He's muttering something about how the eavestrough has almost completely fallen off and how he'll have to fix that among other things. Brielle and her mother, Berta, are inside.

"You have to go to Seattle tomorrow?" I ask with dread.

"I do," he whispers, "I'll be late coming home."

"You're just going to leave me here with those two strangers?" I ask. The sound of disappointment is evident in my voice.

"River, I'm sorry, okay," he sighs, "I'm trying to make the best out of the situation."

"Maybe the best thing you could have done in this situation was to wear a condom," I grumble, disrespectfully, "I mean... After all those safe sex speeches… a little practise what you preach, you know."

"You know what, River," he replies angrily, "even if you do use protection, be prepared for anything to happen and don't even think of taking a woman to bed unless you're man enough to step up when shit does happen," he says sternly, getting out of the truck and slams the door, leaving me behind.

I see the shadowy outline of his figure walk in front of the truck briefly. I didn't tell him or Mom about the small development in my vision. I didn't even know what to make of it. When I was a kid I used to be able to see a very small amount of light and shadow out of one eye. It eventually all faded to black. Then I got into that accident at the beginning of summer. I am still unclear about what exactly happened but I had scratched my eye somehow. When it healed and I was finally able to take the gauze off, the light and shadow were back. Though, oddly enough, in the opposite eye, I had experienced it as a kid. I expected it to eventually fade away once more. Perhaps just a fluke. Maybe having had that eye covered for so long perhaps it rested enough for me to notice some light and shadow. It seems to be getting stronger every day.

Misty is the only one who knows. I made her promise not to tell. I don't know what this means for me. I told my parents that Misty, myself and a group of friends were going on a camping trip. That was a lie. Misty drove me to an eye doctor in Portland that specializes in vision restoration. It was a bust. The doctor had no explanation and said that everything looked typical in my case and that he doesn't expect I'll ever see. So I really don't know what will happen.

On the plus side, I got to go on an overnight trip with Misty. She's everything to me. She held my hand the entire time the doctor was inspecting my eyes. It was the highlight of the trip. It made my day. Fuck, it made my life. I smile to myself remembering the feeling of her soft hand within mine'.

She mentioned maybe going to college next year in Portland. This will be our last year together before she moves away for school. My heart breaks even thinking about her leaving for college. I imagine she'll probably meet someone there and fall in love. Someone who has enough guts to go for it. I'm the idiot who spent a night alone in a motel room with the girl of my dreams and didn't even try to kiss her… moron.

I flip flop often on whether or not to tell Misty that I'm in love with her. I'm afraid that if I do I will lose our friendship. I don't want that.

I look down at my hands, attempting to see more than just a blurry shadow. I wish I knew what was going on. I know that the possibility of having some vision someday would make my father happy to know. But... I don't feel like making him happy right now. So I'll keep this to myself.

I push on the passenger side door of the truck but it sticks. Stupid door. I scoot over to the driver's side and push it open and then make my way to the house. I feel around for the front door. I am unable to rely on the little bit of vision that has been restored. It's too blurry and distorted to be of any use. I walk in through the entrance.

I step on an object at an awkward angle and find myself falling to the ground with a hard thud. I reach out my hands instinctively to catch my fall and feel a shock of pain shoot through the arm I had fractured at the beginning of the summer.

"Fuck," I curse, under my breath.

"Brielle, are those your shoes? You can't just leave things lying around for him to trip on," my Dad says from across the room.

"I'm so sorry!" Brielle says, coming to help me up. I feel her hand loop around my upper arm.

"Get away from me!" I snap at her in a frustrated tone and swat her away from me. My face feels hot with humiliation.

"Uh, Brielle. Unless he asks, don't help him… it's kind of an independence thing," my father explains.

"I just wanted to help," Brielle says, her voice is small.

"Yeah? I didn't ask for your fucking help," I curse, collecting myself from off the floor and cradle my arm against my body. I twist my wrist around. It hurts but not broken.

"River, come on, she didn't know," Dad says, trying to ease the tension.

"Whatever," I mumble and carefully feel around as I exit the room and make my way to the end of the hall and through the door on the left. I've been told that is my room. I locate my bed and find the folded blankets and sheets on top of the mattress. I pick up the pile, place it on the floor and begin to tuck the fitted sheets onto the corners of the mattress.

"Kinda sensitive, isn't he," Berta, Brielle's mother, mutters from the other room. The walls must be paper-thin because I can hear everything they're saying out there.

Kinda sensitive? I frown. Screw her. My whole life is being flipped upside down because of her daughter and her. I finish making the bed and lay down on top of the covers. I can see something flickering above me. I stare at it for a long time until I realize it must be the ceiling fan.

I hear my dad say that he's going outside to fix the eavestrough he had mentioned was coming down earlier. While he's out there I hear Brielle and Berta talking about him.

"Sure can pick them, Bri," Berta says, I can hear the clicking sounds of a lighter being flicked over and over.

"Mother, please don't smoke in the house... I'm sorry you're upset. But, look, he's a good guy. He actually wants to be here for the baby."

"Oh, dear. My sweet, sweet gullible babydoll," Berta replies condescendingly, "you really think he's going to stick around? They're all the fucking same. He'll be gone soon enough. That pretty little ring he put on your finger doesn't mean anything. You'll be all alone. You and your baby. And when this all falls apart, it'll be me picking up the pieces. I'm the only one you got."

"He said he wants the baby," Brielle replies, her voice shrinking as her mother plants seeds of doubt in her mind, "he promised that he'll take care of us."

"No one will ever take care of you like I do, don't you forget that," Berta shoots back at her.

Shit. That doesn't sound healthy. I wonder if they know I can hear everything.

"Mom, come on," Brielle says with an exhausted sigh.

"You don't exactly have a great track record with men. They always seem to move on rather quickly," she says in a cruel tone, "I wonder why that is," her voice indicates that she knows exactly why that is.

Brielle doesn't respond. That was cruel. I wonder what that's supposed to mean.

"Oh, dry up!" Berta scolds, "crying won't get you anywhere."

Fuck. I'm tempted to go out there but then I hear heavy footsteps. It must be Dad.

"Are you hungry?" Brielle asks.

"No, just order a pizza if you want food," Dad mumbles, "what's wrong? What happened?" he asks.

"It's nothing… hormones," Brielle lies.

Hormones or your bitch mother? Kind of wish Dad was just like the rest of them as Berta had described while berating Brielle. Wouldn't have to be here with them.

"I'm off to bed," Berta says. Her footsteps wander down the hallway.

"Yeah… thanks for all your help unpacking," my dad shouts sarcastically down the hallway.

"Don't worry about it. I'm off from work tomorrow. I'll finish up. You don't have to do anything else tonight," Brielle says.

"Brielle, I told you to plug the phone in," my dad says.

"What?" Brielle asks.

"The phone. Why is it still sitting here?" he asks, "I said to plug it in."

"No you didn't," she replies.

"Yes, I did," he replies in an argumentative tone, "I told you that River's mom is going to call at 9:30. She can't do that. If the phone is unplugged."

I hold my watch to my ear and press the autovoice button. 9:38 PM it reads in a robotic voice.

"And I would have plugged it in if you would have asked me but you didn't. Why are you making a big deal out of this? Just plug it in. River can call his mom. What's the problem?" Brielle asks calmly.

"Long-distance charges is the problem!" Dad shouts at her. "I'm not working my ass off to spend money on phone calls. His mother always calls him. That's how it is."

This is bothering him way more than it should. He's probably still all worked up over the Embry thing.

"Okay, I'm sorry. I guess I didn't hear you," she replies timidly.

"Next time I'll just have you repeat shit back to me when I ask you to do something so I know you're paying attention," he replies harshly.

Alight, that's it. I'm going out there before this gets out of hand. I sigh, wandering down the hallway, hoping that my presence will defuse the situation. I really hope I don't have to play referee to a bunch of grown-ass adults until I go away to college.

"What's going on?" I ask, walking into the kitchen.

"It's nothing… Excuse me," Brielle says meekly. She moves past me so quickly that I can feel a breeze roll up my face as she leaves the room.

"That was a little aggressive," I mutter to my father.

"I know," he says softly, "I'll apologize… I'm just on edge," he says and exhales, "I just can't do anything right, lately. Everything seems to be going wrong."

"I'm sorry about what I said before… The jab about safe sex… it was disrespectful," I apologize.

"It's fine. We're all tired and stressed out," he admits.

"It wasn't cool," I reply.

"River, I want you to know that you're allowed to feel whatever you're feeling about this situation. I know I've disappointed you," he says. I can hear the sadness in his voice.

"Do you mind if I keep the phone in my room?" I ask, feeling around on the counter for it. I catch a glimpse of a small rectangular light on the corner of an object. I touch it. It's the phone.

"That's fine," he whispers, "if she calls can you tell her uh… you know what... nevermind," he says after a pause. I wonder what he was going to say.

I nod and make my way back to the hallway. I hear my dad open the kitchen drawer and start to sort out cutlery "Dad?" I turn around before I leave the room.

"What's up?" he asks.

"I love you," I say. I feel like I haven't said it enough lately... or at all. But despite my anger, I realize that he is doing with this new baby what he has done for me his entire life. Put me first.

"I love you too," I can hear a thickness in his throat as though my words have moved him emotionally.

"Oh god," I laugh and leave the room, making fun of him.

"Shut up!" he yells after me with a chuckle.

When I get back to my room I run my hand along the bottom of the walls until I locate a phone jack. I plug it in. I know I should wait for Mom to call but I want to hear Misty's voice. I dial her cell number. I have it memorized.

"Hey," Misty answers, her voice doesn't sound right.

"What's wrong?" I ask. Fucking everyone is out of sorts today.

"Nothing that I want to talk about," she replies. Something is wrong.

"Misty, what is it? You can tell me anything," I'm concerned.

"Not this," she says sniffling.

"You're scaring me," I reply, standing. There is a long pause. I try to consider what is going on, "did you um… did you relapse?" I ask. It's the only thing I can think of. Misty is behind one academic year because she had to be sent away for cutting and an eating disorder a few years ago. But that is all behind her. Has been for years.

"God, no… Nothing like that," she whispers.

I sigh, sitting down on the edge of my bed again, relieved that she isn't going through that again. I listen to her breath through the phone. I want to go to her and hold her.

"I'll see you at school tomorrow?" I ask.

"I dunno… Kind of no point anymore," her voice breaks.

"Why? What does that mean? ….. Misty?"

"I have to go," she says quickly. The phone crackles as she ends the call. The fuck?

More chapters on the way
Please review