Chapter Ten
The Unwanted Visitor, Part 2
A/N: Thank you all for the reviews; they really meant a lot to me. I am sorry that I am just now updating, but I have been very busy with school. But now I'm out and will have more time to write. So with that said, here is the next chapter, I hope you enjoy it, and please review after you read. Your reviews mean a lot to me. ENJOY!!!!
Responses to my reviewers
Beauty78900102: thanks for reviewing, here is the next part.
C-Chan96: Yea you reviewed again and got me 40 reviews. Thank you so much. And we did have a lot of fun that night. We need to do it again and go swimming or something. Anyways glad you enjoyed the chapter, thanks for reviewing, and for editing the chapters. It means a lot to me. Talk to you soon, hope your having lots of fun with Alli, Enjoy!
Brnnttebabe12: here is the next chapter, sorry it took me so long to get it up but i have been really been busy with school. But now school is out so i should be able to update more often. Thanks for reviewing, talk to you soon, Enjoy!
Rebecca (missboormpaol.com): I'm sorry I left it like that but the chapter was really getting long. So i didn't have much of a choice. But here is the next chapter and I promise I will try to get the chapters up faster. Thanks for reviewing, hope you enjoy, talk to you soon and Enjoy!
Jo: Ok i'm glad that i cleared that up for you. Sorry if i confused you in anyways. Sorry about the cliff hanger but i had to do it because of the fact that the chapter was getting to long. Here is the next chapter, talk to you soon, thanks for reviewing Enjoy!
C-chan96 2: YOU REVIEWED TWICE!!!! How cool is that. Thank you so much!!! Thanks for reviewing again and editing. Sarcastically I would have never guessed that you loved oh wait excuse me love Charlie. Grins anyways thanks for reviewing twice, we need to get together soon. The only problem is on the fifth I'm in Odessa and on the tenth or eleventh were going to Galveston. But we can figure something out. Maybe we could like spend a day together or something. I don't know. Anyways talk to you soon, thanks once again for reviewing twice, Enjoy!
Banksiesbabe99: thanks for reviewing I'm glad you like it. I'm sorry about the spelling mistakes, but my beta wasn't home when i got in. But she was able to check this one so hopefully that isn't a problem. Thanks for reviewing, talk to you soon, Enjoy!
Okay, now that I have responded to y'all's reviews, I'll start the chapter. ENJOY!!!!
"Well, hello to you too, Julie," the woman said snottily.
"I repeat, what are you doing at my school?" Julie asked annoyed; probably because she was in pain and wanted to get checked out, and this woman was ruining her plans. Besides, she didn't even know why she came.
"Well, your father told me about you transferring here without my permission and that you were playing again. I just wanted to come and watch you play," the woman said, a sickeningly sweet smile on her face. It made Julie feel sick.
"Mother, I transferred here three months ago. I've been playing for two of those months. So why are you really here, and hurry because I'm supposed to be getting checked out," Julie spit out.
"Okay, Julie, you caught me. I came here for two reasons. The first one is to ask why you didn't come back for Christmas," she said.
"That's easy...I wanted to have a good Christmas for once, and I didn't want to have to deal with you trying to run my life. I wanted to be able to see and talk to my friends without you interrogating them first, so I went back to my REAL home. Here in Minnesota, there's a house that I feel loved and safe in," Julie said, looking straight at her mother.
"You are loved in our house, Julie. I only do those things to make sure you will be safe," her mother said, trying to sound secure. Her voice dripped with an authoritative tone as she stared her daughter down.
Julie felt herself begin to slip into old habits before shaking it off. She wouldn't give in.
Julie wasn't buying her act. "That's a load of crap, mom; you do it all the time. You do it to John when he doesn't want to talk to you, and instead wants to talk to dad or me. There's REASONS for that, mom. He's your son, and if he doesn't want to talk to you, you have to interrogate him and find out why he wants to talk to dad or me. You're not his only family member, mom! I'm his little sister. He likes to talk to me every once in a while, not to mention dad. He's not the only one either, mom. You do it to my friends, you do it to dad's friends, and when John lived with us you did it to his friends. Frankly, mom, we all think it's very annoying. THAT is why I didn't come home at Christmas. I know that I'll be happy and anything but miserable while here," she said, her voice raising a little bit.
"I am just being a good mother to you, Julie. As for when John calls, I think that a child should always want to talk to their mother first before anyone else! I'm his MOTHER! And you are being extremely unappreciative!" she said in a snobby voice.
"Unappreciative?! I won't even acknowledge that any further, because it's a load of bull. You are NOT a good mother. A good mother would let her child talk on the phone to friends they have known all their life, or see them. A good mother would let her child pick what position they want to play and support them. A good mother would let her child pick what college or colleges they want to go to, and if they want to maybe transfer later, support them and not be bitchy about it! A good mother would take care of her child when they were sick or hurt or scared. But you, mother, are not a good mother. You NEVER let me talk to my friends on the phone or see them with out you scaring the hell out of them first! Dad would say hi and then come get me. You picked the position for me to play without asking me first. Granted, I grew to like the position, but I still didn't enjoy it as much as left wing. Dad let me play left wing when you were out of town. Denise would coach me on both positions. That is the only way I learned to like goalie, because I knew I would be able to play other positions also. I did pick my colleges but not without you bitching to me about it. And then when you found out that I wasn't going to stay at Minnesota, you bitched at me some more. You have NEVER supported me. And finally, you never cared about when I was sick, or hurt, or scared. Dad always took care of me." When Julie was done, she hadn't realized that she was holding her ribs.
"Fine Julie, be that way. But I want you to know that I will not be coming to any more games as long as you are playing regular positions. You shouldn't be playing them in the first place, and if you continue to feel the way you do about my paranting skills, don't bother to come home. Your father and I don't want you there anyways," her mother said to her. She then made a snobbish sound turned around with her nose in the air and walked out.
"Suits me fine," Julie said softly.
She then turned to her locker and started taking her equipment off. When she was trying to get her shoulder pads off, she had trouble because it hurt to lift her arms. Charlie saw this and before he took off his pads he went over to her.
"Here Jules, let me help you, sweetie," he said softly.
He then reached over and undid the velcro on the sides of her pads. She didn't usually undo them because it took a few minutes to get them back fitting the right way when she put them on. But since she was hurt she didn't care. He then gently pulled the pad up a little and undid the other side and lifted it up.
"There you go, angel. Do you need help with your skates, or can you get them off?" he asked her softly.
"I think I can get them," she said softly.
"Okay, but if you start hurting again tell me, and I'll come back over and help you. Alright?" he asked her.
"Alright," she said.
"Okay, then. I'll be back in a minute," he said.
"Okay," she said, nodding slightly.
He then went over to his locker and sat down. He still couldn't believe that Julie's mom had treated her like that. If that had been anyone who wasn't related to Julie, he would have knocked the crap out of him or her. Because no one treated Julie like that infront of him and got by with it. That had irked him to no end seeing Julie's own MOTHER treat her like that. Julie had told him that her mother was a controlling bitch, and he believed her, but after what he had just seen, he believed it even more. He got out of his thoughts and looked back at Julie who was now out of her skates and leg pads and was sitting down with her head in one hand and her other hand wrapped around her ribs. He got up and walked over to her and kneeled down infront of her, taking in her appearance some more. He then reached up and lifted her head up so that he could see her face. What he saw broke his heart. Not only did she have tears running down her face, but the look on her face was a mixture of pain and hurt. When she saw him looking at him she started crying harder.
"She's doing it again, Charlie," she cried.
"Doing what?" he asked her, rubbing her face with his thumbs.
"She's trying to control my life again. When I was younger I didn't understand why she did this. I just thought she was being protective. But as I got older I realized that she is just a controlling bitch and wants everyone to give her all the attention. Now that I understand what she's doing, I can fight for my own life. I know that, and it's a good thing that I'm not letting her control me anymore, but I don't feel that way. I mean, sure, I beat her, but at the same time she won because she isn't going to let me see daddy anymore. The one true parent that I have and she is taking him away from me," she cried.
He reached up with his other arm and gently took her into his arms, pulling her to his chest. He just held her for a few minutes, and then pulled away and looked at her.
"Julie, it's going to be okay. I'm here for you anytime you need me. She just said those things to make you feel bad. To try and find a weak spot to exploit. So don't pay attention to it. But you know what I think you need to do?" he asked.
"Get checked out?" she asked.
He smiled, "Well, yeah, that too. But there is something else," he said, sporting a quirky half smile.
"What?" she asked confused.
"I think you need to blow some steam about how you mother treats you and how she has always treated you. Since I'm such a loving individual, this is what we're going to do. We're going to take you to the trainer, get you checked out and taken care of, and then go back to the dorms; depending on how you feel, we can talk about it. If you don't feel like it, that's fine. You can wait," he told her. "Okay?"
She nodded. "Okay"
He smiled and gave her a kiss. "That's my girl. Now come on; lets get you checked out," he said to her.
She nodded once again. "Alright."
He smiled and helped her up, starting to lead her towards the trainers room. However, when they were almost there, the rest of the team and Coach Bombay came in. When Coach Bombay saw that they were just now walking towards the trainers room, he got annoyed and walked over to Charlie.
"Charlie, you were supposed to take her in as soon as you got in here. It's been ten minutes. You better have a good excuse," he said in a rough tone.
"Coach, don't blame him; it's not his fault," Julie started.
"I believe I asked Charlie, Julie," Bombay said, his voice just as rough as he had been to Charlie.
"But Coach, he would have taken me. When we got in here my mom had some how gotten in here and was waiting for me. When she saw me, she immediately started yelling at me for no apparent reason other then she is trying to control my life again. She left about five minutes ago, maybe more; I don't know. And we took our equipment off and talked, and then headed to the trainer room," Julie said, her eyes pleading with Bombay to not be mad.
Bombay looked at her and then at Charlie, he saw honesty in both of ther faces and sighed.
"Okay, that's fine. I'm sorry I snapped at you without hearing the reason. I'll find out how she got in, why it wasn't run by me, and make sure that it doesn't happen again," he said in a softer voice and smiling to assure them that he wasn't mad anymore. "Now go on, Julie."
"Thanks Coach." She said softly.
"You're welcome," he said. "Now go on and get checked out; Charlie go with her."
"Yes sir," he said and then turned around, leading Julie into the room.
When they walked into the room, Jack the trainer looked up and smiled. "Hey there Charlie, Julie."
"Hi Jack," Charlie said.
"So whatcha do this time, Charlie?" Jack said.
Charlie laughed. "It's not me this time. Surprisingly enough it isn't Banks either."
Jack gasped. "Not you or the Incredibly Accident Prone Adam Banks? Who might it be, then?" Jack asked with humor, his eyes dancing.
Charlie let out a light laugh before sobering up. "It's Julie; she got knocked down pretty hard by one of the players of the other team."
"Ah oh, that doesn't sound good. Come here Julie, lets check you out," he said gently.
She nodded and walked towards the table that Jack wanted her to get on. She looked at it and back at Jack, earning a nod from him. She then attempted to get on it but was unsuccessful. Charlie smiled and looked at Jack, asking him with his eyes if it was okay if he helped he; Jack nodded.
Charlie walked over to her and stood next to her. "Here Jules, let me help you," he said softly to her, and when she nodded, he bent down and lifted her up onto the table, being careful of her ribs and arm.
"There you go," he said, "You okay? Did that hurt?"
"Yeah, I'm okay," she said, "It hurts a little, but it has been for a while. You didn't make it hurt."
He smiled and nodded. "Okay."
He stepped back and let Jack take over. "So Julie, were do you hurt?" he asked her.
She laughed, "I think the better question would be were do I NOT hurt?" she said
Jack laughed, "Okay, how about this...where do you hurt the most?" he asked her.
"My ribs and my arm," she said, avoiding looking at Charlie.
"Julie Ann Gaffney, you said that your arm wasn't hurting anymore," Charlie said.
"It didn't hurt but for a couple of minutes after it happened the first time. But when he hit me the last time, it started hurting again," she said, upset. "I'm sorry."
"Oh Julie, I'm sorry. I didn't know it had started again after the last time. There is nothing for you to be sorry about. I'm the one that should be apologizing," he said, sitting down next to her and pulling her hair out of her face. "Do you forgive me?"
"Yes," she said.
Charlie smiled. "Good."
About thirty minutes later Jack was done checking her out. She had a couple cracked ribs and a severely bruised arm, but other than that she was fine. Jack told her that she would need to miss a couple games but that was probably all. He then told her that she could go and to come see him in a couple daysso he could see how her arm was doing. She and Charlie thanked him, and they left the room after Charlie helped her down from the table. When they got back into the locker room, they found the whole team showered and dressed, waiting for them.
"Hey guys," Julie said, smiling at them.
"How you doing, Julie?" Portman asked
"I'm okay," she said softly, looking down at her feet because she didn't want to tell them she was going to be out for a couple weeks.
"Julie," Charlie said.
"What?" she said looking at him.
"Are you going to tell them?" he asked her.
"Tell us what?" Portman said.
"Well, I hadn't planed on it tell you said that," she said sarcasticly. "Thanks a lot, genius."
"Anytime," Charlie said, shrugging and winking.
She rolled her eyes and gave him a sideways glance.
"What were you not going to tell us?" Portman said, drawing there attention back to him.
"I have several cracked ribs and a bruised arm. Jack told me not to play for a couple weeks," she said, not looking at them.
No one said anything because they didn't know what to say.
Suddenly Julie's head popped up and she looked at Bombay with wide eyes. "Coach?" she asked.
"Yes, Julie?" he answered.
"When I come back are you going to let me play left wing again?" she asked him, " I don't want to be stuck with just playing goalie."
"Yes, Julie, you can still play left wing when you get better; but the first game you play will probably be as the goalie. I promise, though, that you will not be stuck as goalie again," he told her sincerely.
She smiled, "Okay, good,"
Bombay smiled. "Good," he said to her and then turned to Charlie. "Why don't you get her back to the dorm and let her get to bed? She's had a hard night."
"Day," Charlie corrected him.
"What?" Bombay asked him confused.
"She's had a pretty hard day; one of her teachers yelled at her for no reason before lunch, and from then on her day just got worse," Charlie explained to him.
"Oh, okay. Well, all the more reason to get her home and to bed," Bombay said.
"Yeah okay," Charlie said and then turned to Julie. "Come on, sweetie. Let's go."
"Okay," Julie agreed, and Charlie smiled and wrapped his arm around her protectively.
"Wait Charlie!" Bombay said quickly, and Charlie turned around.
"What is it, Coach?" he asked.
"You do have your car here, right? She doesn't need to be walking all the way up to the dorms with her ribs," Bombay said.
"Yeah, I have it," Charlie said pulling his keys out of his bag to show him.
"Ok good." Bombay said and smiled. "Now then, get out of here and make sure she gets to bed."
"Okay, I will. Talk to you later Coach," Charlie said.
"Bye Charlie, Julie," Bombay said smiling.
"Bye Coach," Julie said as Charlie started guiding her out of the locker room.
Bombay smiled and then turned to the rest of the team to see them all still there. "What you all still doing here? Beat it, go back to the dorms and get some rest, or study, or hangout or something. Just get out of here," he said to them.
"Yes sir," they all said and started out the door.
"Wait!" He said once again. "One more thing." They all turned to him and waited for him to say what he was going to say.
When he saw that he had all of their attention, he went for it. " If you stay up and hang out together, make sure you don't make much noise and bother Julie. I know you are all on the same floor, so make sure you careful; she needs some peace and quiet. She has had a bad day, and tomorrow make sure you include her let her have some fun," he said.
"Okay, Coach...but why do we need to do that? She got yelled at by a teacher and some other things, and then got ruffed around in the game," Averman said.
Bombay sighed. "You don't pay attention, do you Averman? Her mother made an appearance today and started yelling at her for no reason. She made her day even worse; THAT is why I think she needs to have fun tomarrow after a day from hell. Don't you?"
"No, my mom and I fight all the time, and I don't complain about it," Averman said.
"Shut up, Averman. Her and her mom have never gotten along really well. The woman has tried to run Julie's life wince the beginning, and without confronting Julie first, may I add," Portman said roughly to Averman.
"Okay, whatever. I don't see why she needs any extra attention," Averman said.
"Fine, Averman, you don't have to," Bombay said angrilly.
"Okay," he said.
"Don't expect me to feel bad for you when you get hurt the next time," Bombay said, "Unless it is really bad."
Averman just shrugged and looked on, and Bombay sighed.
"Okay guys, get out of here and think about what we talked about," Bombay said, and they all nodded, turning back around and starting to leave, saying their good-byes to their coach as they went.
When they got out, they started walking or going to their cars to go to the dorms. When they got there, they all went to their own rooms except for Connie because she didn't want to disturb Julie and Charlie if they were talking. She went to Guy's room and hung out with him and a couple of the other guys for a little while.
Meanwhile in Connie and Julie's room, Julie did not want to listen to Charlie about going to bed. They had been arguing about it for the past thirty minutes.
"Julie, you need to go to bed and get some rest. You've had a hard day, sweetie; you're tired. If you don't get any sleep, you're going to make yourself sick. You don't want that to happen, do you?" he asked her.
"No, but I don't want to go to bed so soon." She whined. Charlie sighed and looked down at his feet for a minute in order to get his temper in check. "Okay, how about this...how about you go get your pj's on; then maybe we can watch TV or something," he said.
"Okay," she sighed and walked to her closet to get some of her pj's out; then they went to the bathroom. While she was in the bathroom changing, Charlie sat down put his head in his hands.
"I can't believe I just almost lost my temper with Julie. I almost never do that, especially when she has had a hard day," he muttered to himself.
Charlie sighed and looked up just as she came out of the bathroom. He got up and went over to her, gently wrapping his arms around her. "Julie, I'm sorry," he said sweetly.
"It's okay," she said softly. "Can we watch a movie?"
"Julie, it's to late for a movie; lets just watch some TV," he said.
She sighed. "Okay."
He smiled and her. "That's a girl; we'll watch a movie tomorrow, okay?"
"Okay," she said. He smiled and bent down, kissing her.
When he pulled away, he guided her over to the bed. "You get the bed, and I'll sit down next to you on the floor. Okay?" he said.
"Okay," she said.
They settled down, found a show to watch, and began watching it. When the show was over, Charlie looked over at Julie and smiled; she was out like a light. He slowly stood up and covered her with a blanket. He then turned the TV off and went to the phone, calling his and Guy's dorm room.
"Hey Guy, it's me," Charlie said when Guy answered. "Yeah, she's asleep....yeah okay... I'll be there when she gets here... okay, thanks... Bye."
When he finished, he put the phone down and walked back over to her bed, sitting down next to her on the bed and watching her for a little bit like he used to. A couple minutes later Connie walked in. Charlie turned around and smiled at her.
"Hey Connie," he greeted her.
"Hey Charlie. I see you convinced her to go to sleep," she said. Charlie rolled his eyes.
"No, I didn't convince her to do anything...especially go to sleep. She is to damn stubborn for me to convince her to do something she doesn't want to do...well, easily anyways. I finally told her to go put her pj's on, and we would watch some TV. She was happy with that and agreed. After the show that we were watching was over, I looked over at her, and she was out like a light. I learned a long time ago that I have to find something that she would want to do and tell her that we're going to do it. There is less arguing that way," he explained.
Connie laughed at Charlie's obvious frustration of his girlfriend's hardheadedness. "Charlie, answer me something, will you?" she asked.
"Okay," he said confused.
"How long have you and Julie been going out?" she asked.
"Um, does this include the few months that we were broken up?" he asked.
"Yes, because you had only broken up because of the distance," Connie said
"Okay...Four years and three months," he said.
"Okay, and you are surprised it took you so long to get her to go to sleep?" she said holding a straight face.
"No, just frustrated. It never really surprised me," he said.
Connie rolled her eyes. "Okay," she said and went to the bathroom. Charlie in return rolled his eyes once again and went back to Julie's bed, bending down and kissing her forehead.
"I love you, Julie. I'll see you tomorrow," he whispered to her softly. "Good night, kitty."
He then slowly got up and started for the door when he heard, "Charlie?"
He quickly turned around and bent back down next to her. "Shh, angel, it's okay; go back to sleep. I'm going back to my room. Connie is here with you," he said softly.
She just nodded and quickly went back to sleep. He smiled and kissed her forehead one more time. "That's my girl. I'll see you tomorrow," he said again and once again started for the door.
"Bye Charlie, see you tomorrow," Connie said as she came out of the bathroom.
"Bye Connie," he said to her with his hand over his shoulder and proceeded to continue out the door.
Okay, well that is it for now, and I think that is enough for one chapter. The next chapter well be up pretty soon because I'm working on it as we speak, or read or whatever. Anyways, please review; your reviews really inspire me to continue with my stories. Talk to you soon. Oh, and happy Memorial Day tomorrow!
The Unwanted Visitor, Part 2
A/N: Thank you all for the reviews; they really meant a lot to me. I am sorry that I am just now updating, but I have been very busy with school. But now I'm out and will have more time to write. So with that said, here is the next chapter, I hope you enjoy it, and please review after you read. Your reviews mean a lot to me. ENJOY!!!!
Responses to my reviewers
Beauty78900102: thanks for reviewing, here is the next part.
C-Chan96: Yea you reviewed again and got me 40 reviews. Thank you so much. And we did have a lot of fun that night. We need to do it again and go swimming or something. Anyways glad you enjoyed the chapter, thanks for reviewing, and for editing the chapters. It means a lot to me. Talk to you soon, hope your having lots of fun with Alli, Enjoy!
Brnnttebabe12: here is the next chapter, sorry it took me so long to get it up but i have been really been busy with school. But now school is out so i should be able to update more often. Thanks for reviewing, talk to you soon, Enjoy!
Rebecca (missboormpaol.com): I'm sorry I left it like that but the chapter was really getting long. So i didn't have much of a choice. But here is the next chapter and I promise I will try to get the chapters up faster. Thanks for reviewing, hope you enjoy, talk to you soon and Enjoy!
Jo: Ok i'm glad that i cleared that up for you. Sorry if i confused you in anyways. Sorry about the cliff hanger but i had to do it because of the fact that the chapter was getting to long. Here is the next chapter, talk to you soon, thanks for reviewing Enjoy!
C-chan96 2: YOU REVIEWED TWICE!!!! How cool is that. Thank you so much!!! Thanks for reviewing again and editing. Sarcastically I would have never guessed that you loved oh wait excuse me love Charlie. Grins anyways thanks for reviewing twice, we need to get together soon. The only problem is on the fifth I'm in Odessa and on the tenth or eleventh were going to Galveston. But we can figure something out. Maybe we could like spend a day together or something. I don't know. Anyways talk to you soon, thanks once again for reviewing twice, Enjoy!
Banksiesbabe99: thanks for reviewing I'm glad you like it. I'm sorry about the spelling mistakes, but my beta wasn't home when i got in. But she was able to check this one so hopefully that isn't a problem. Thanks for reviewing, talk to you soon, Enjoy!
Okay, now that I have responded to y'all's reviews, I'll start the chapter. ENJOY!!!!
"Well, hello to you too, Julie," the woman said snottily.
"I repeat, what are you doing at my school?" Julie asked annoyed; probably because she was in pain and wanted to get checked out, and this woman was ruining her plans. Besides, she didn't even know why she came.
"Well, your father told me about you transferring here without my permission and that you were playing again. I just wanted to come and watch you play," the woman said, a sickeningly sweet smile on her face. It made Julie feel sick.
"Mother, I transferred here three months ago. I've been playing for two of those months. So why are you really here, and hurry because I'm supposed to be getting checked out," Julie spit out.
"Okay, Julie, you caught me. I came here for two reasons. The first one is to ask why you didn't come back for Christmas," she said.
"That's easy...I wanted to have a good Christmas for once, and I didn't want to have to deal with you trying to run my life. I wanted to be able to see and talk to my friends without you interrogating them first, so I went back to my REAL home. Here in Minnesota, there's a house that I feel loved and safe in," Julie said, looking straight at her mother.
"You are loved in our house, Julie. I only do those things to make sure you will be safe," her mother said, trying to sound secure. Her voice dripped with an authoritative tone as she stared her daughter down.
Julie felt herself begin to slip into old habits before shaking it off. She wouldn't give in.
Julie wasn't buying her act. "That's a load of crap, mom; you do it all the time. You do it to John when he doesn't want to talk to you, and instead wants to talk to dad or me. There's REASONS for that, mom. He's your son, and if he doesn't want to talk to you, you have to interrogate him and find out why he wants to talk to dad or me. You're not his only family member, mom! I'm his little sister. He likes to talk to me every once in a while, not to mention dad. He's not the only one either, mom. You do it to my friends, you do it to dad's friends, and when John lived with us you did it to his friends. Frankly, mom, we all think it's very annoying. THAT is why I didn't come home at Christmas. I know that I'll be happy and anything but miserable while here," she said, her voice raising a little bit.
"I am just being a good mother to you, Julie. As for when John calls, I think that a child should always want to talk to their mother first before anyone else! I'm his MOTHER! And you are being extremely unappreciative!" she said in a snobby voice.
"Unappreciative?! I won't even acknowledge that any further, because it's a load of bull. You are NOT a good mother. A good mother would let her child talk on the phone to friends they have known all their life, or see them. A good mother would let her child pick what position they want to play and support them. A good mother would let her child pick what college or colleges they want to go to, and if they want to maybe transfer later, support them and not be bitchy about it! A good mother would take care of her child when they were sick or hurt or scared. But you, mother, are not a good mother. You NEVER let me talk to my friends on the phone or see them with out you scaring the hell out of them first! Dad would say hi and then come get me. You picked the position for me to play without asking me first. Granted, I grew to like the position, but I still didn't enjoy it as much as left wing. Dad let me play left wing when you were out of town. Denise would coach me on both positions. That is the only way I learned to like goalie, because I knew I would be able to play other positions also. I did pick my colleges but not without you bitching to me about it. And then when you found out that I wasn't going to stay at Minnesota, you bitched at me some more. You have NEVER supported me. And finally, you never cared about when I was sick, or hurt, or scared. Dad always took care of me." When Julie was done, she hadn't realized that she was holding her ribs.
"Fine Julie, be that way. But I want you to know that I will not be coming to any more games as long as you are playing regular positions. You shouldn't be playing them in the first place, and if you continue to feel the way you do about my paranting skills, don't bother to come home. Your father and I don't want you there anyways," her mother said to her. She then made a snobbish sound turned around with her nose in the air and walked out.
"Suits me fine," Julie said softly.
She then turned to her locker and started taking her equipment off. When she was trying to get her shoulder pads off, she had trouble because it hurt to lift her arms. Charlie saw this and before he took off his pads he went over to her.
"Here Jules, let me help you, sweetie," he said softly.
He then reached over and undid the velcro on the sides of her pads. She didn't usually undo them because it took a few minutes to get them back fitting the right way when she put them on. But since she was hurt she didn't care. He then gently pulled the pad up a little and undid the other side and lifted it up.
"There you go, angel. Do you need help with your skates, or can you get them off?" he asked her softly.
"I think I can get them," she said softly.
"Okay, but if you start hurting again tell me, and I'll come back over and help you. Alright?" he asked her.
"Alright," she said.
"Okay, then. I'll be back in a minute," he said.
"Okay," she said, nodding slightly.
He then went over to his locker and sat down. He still couldn't believe that Julie's mom had treated her like that. If that had been anyone who wasn't related to Julie, he would have knocked the crap out of him or her. Because no one treated Julie like that infront of him and got by with it. That had irked him to no end seeing Julie's own MOTHER treat her like that. Julie had told him that her mother was a controlling bitch, and he believed her, but after what he had just seen, he believed it even more. He got out of his thoughts and looked back at Julie who was now out of her skates and leg pads and was sitting down with her head in one hand and her other hand wrapped around her ribs. He got up and walked over to her and kneeled down infront of her, taking in her appearance some more. He then reached up and lifted her head up so that he could see her face. What he saw broke his heart. Not only did she have tears running down her face, but the look on her face was a mixture of pain and hurt. When she saw him looking at him she started crying harder.
"She's doing it again, Charlie," she cried.
"Doing what?" he asked her, rubbing her face with his thumbs.
"She's trying to control my life again. When I was younger I didn't understand why she did this. I just thought she was being protective. But as I got older I realized that she is just a controlling bitch and wants everyone to give her all the attention. Now that I understand what she's doing, I can fight for my own life. I know that, and it's a good thing that I'm not letting her control me anymore, but I don't feel that way. I mean, sure, I beat her, but at the same time she won because she isn't going to let me see daddy anymore. The one true parent that I have and she is taking him away from me," she cried.
He reached up with his other arm and gently took her into his arms, pulling her to his chest. He just held her for a few minutes, and then pulled away and looked at her.
"Julie, it's going to be okay. I'm here for you anytime you need me. She just said those things to make you feel bad. To try and find a weak spot to exploit. So don't pay attention to it. But you know what I think you need to do?" he asked.
"Get checked out?" she asked.
He smiled, "Well, yeah, that too. But there is something else," he said, sporting a quirky half smile.
"What?" she asked confused.
"I think you need to blow some steam about how you mother treats you and how she has always treated you. Since I'm such a loving individual, this is what we're going to do. We're going to take you to the trainer, get you checked out and taken care of, and then go back to the dorms; depending on how you feel, we can talk about it. If you don't feel like it, that's fine. You can wait," he told her. "Okay?"
She nodded. "Okay"
He smiled and gave her a kiss. "That's my girl. Now come on; lets get you checked out," he said to her.
She nodded once again. "Alright."
He smiled and helped her up, starting to lead her towards the trainers room. However, when they were almost there, the rest of the team and Coach Bombay came in. When Coach Bombay saw that they were just now walking towards the trainers room, he got annoyed and walked over to Charlie.
"Charlie, you were supposed to take her in as soon as you got in here. It's been ten minutes. You better have a good excuse," he said in a rough tone.
"Coach, don't blame him; it's not his fault," Julie started.
"I believe I asked Charlie, Julie," Bombay said, his voice just as rough as he had been to Charlie.
"But Coach, he would have taken me. When we got in here my mom had some how gotten in here and was waiting for me. When she saw me, she immediately started yelling at me for no apparent reason other then she is trying to control my life again. She left about five minutes ago, maybe more; I don't know. And we took our equipment off and talked, and then headed to the trainer room," Julie said, her eyes pleading with Bombay to not be mad.
Bombay looked at her and then at Charlie, he saw honesty in both of ther faces and sighed.
"Okay, that's fine. I'm sorry I snapped at you without hearing the reason. I'll find out how she got in, why it wasn't run by me, and make sure that it doesn't happen again," he said in a softer voice and smiling to assure them that he wasn't mad anymore. "Now go on, Julie."
"Thanks Coach." She said softly.
"You're welcome," he said. "Now go on and get checked out; Charlie go with her."
"Yes sir," he said and then turned around, leading Julie into the room.
When they walked into the room, Jack the trainer looked up and smiled. "Hey there Charlie, Julie."
"Hi Jack," Charlie said.
"So whatcha do this time, Charlie?" Jack said.
Charlie laughed. "It's not me this time. Surprisingly enough it isn't Banks either."
Jack gasped. "Not you or the Incredibly Accident Prone Adam Banks? Who might it be, then?" Jack asked with humor, his eyes dancing.
Charlie let out a light laugh before sobering up. "It's Julie; she got knocked down pretty hard by one of the players of the other team."
"Ah oh, that doesn't sound good. Come here Julie, lets check you out," he said gently.
She nodded and walked towards the table that Jack wanted her to get on. She looked at it and back at Jack, earning a nod from him. She then attempted to get on it but was unsuccessful. Charlie smiled and looked at Jack, asking him with his eyes if it was okay if he helped he; Jack nodded.
Charlie walked over to her and stood next to her. "Here Jules, let me help you," he said softly to her, and when she nodded, he bent down and lifted her up onto the table, being careful of her ribs and arm.
"There you go," he said, "You okay? Did that hurt?"
"Yeah, I'm okay," she said, "It hurts a little, but it has been for a while. You didn't make it hurt."
He smiled and nodded. "Okay."
He stepped back and let Jack take over. "So Julie, were do you hurt?" he asked her.
She laughed, "I think the better question would be were do I NOT hurt?" she said
Jack laughed, "Okay, how about this...where do you hurt the most?" he asked her.
"My ribs and my arm," she said, avoiding looking at Charlie.
"Julie Ann Gaffney, you said that your arm wasn't hurting anymore," Charlie said.
"It didn't hurt but for a couple of minutes after it happened the first time. But when he hit me the last time, it started hurting again," she said, upset. "I'm sorry."
"Oh Julie, I'm sorry. I didn't know it had started again after the last time. There is nothing for you to be sorry about. I'm the one that should be apologizing," he said, sitting down next to her and pulling her hair out of her face. "Do you forgive me?"
"Yes," she said.
Charlie smiled. "Good."
About thirty minutes later Jack was done checking her out. She had a couple cracked ribs and a severely bruised arm, but other than that she was fine. Jack told her that she would need to miss a couple games but that was probably all. He then told her that she could go and to come see him in a couple daysso he could see how her arm was doing. She and Charlie thanked him, and they left the room after Charlie helped her down from the table. When they got back into the locker room, they found the whole team showered and dressed, waiting for them.
"Hey guys," Julie said, smiling at them.
"How you doing, Julie?" Portman asked
"I'm okay," she said softly, looking down at her feet because she didn't want to tell them she was going to be out for a couple weeks.
"Julie," Charlie said.
"What?" she said looking at him.
"Are you going to tell them?" he asked her.
"Tell us what?" Portman said.
"Well, I hadn't planed on it tell you said that," she said sarcasticly. "Thanks a lot, genius."
"Anytime," Charlie said, shrugging and winking.
She rolled her eyes and gave him a sideways glance.
"What were you not going to tell us?" Portman said, drawing there attention back to him.
"I have several cracked ribs and a bruised arm. Jack told me not to play for a couple weeks," she said, not looking at them.
No one said anything because they didn't know what to say.
Suddenly Julie's head popped up and she looked at Bombay with wide eyes. "Coach?" she asked.
"Yes, Julie?" he answered.
"When I come back are you going to let me play left wing again?" she asked him, " I don't want to be stuck with just playing goalie."
"Yes, Julie, you can still play left wing when you get better; but the first game you play will probably be as the goalie. I promise, though, that you will not be stuck as goalie again," he told her sincerely.
She smiled, "Okay, good,"
Bombay smiled. "Good," he said to her and then turned to Charlie. "Why don't you get her back to the dorm and let her get to bed? She's had a hard night."
"Day," Charlie corrected him.
"What?" Bombay asked him confused.
"She's had a pretty hard day; one of her teachers yelled at her for no reason before lunch, and from then on her day just got worse," Charlie explained to him.
"Oh, okay. Well, all the more reason to get her home and to bed," Bombay said.
"Yeah okay," Charlie said and then turned to Julie. "Come on, sweetie. Let's go."
"Okay," Julie agreed, and Charlie smiled and wrapped his arm around her protectively.
"Wait Charlie!" Bombay said quickly, and Charlie turned around.
"What is it, Coach?" he asked.
"You do have your car here, right? She doesn't need to be walking all the way up to the dorms with her ribs," Bombay said.
"Yeah, I have it," Charlie said pulling his keys out of his bag to show him.
"Ok good." Bombay said and smiled. "Now then, get out of here and make sure she gets to bed."
"Okay, I will. Talk to you later Coach," Charlie said.
"Bye Charlie, Julie," Bombay said smiling.
"Bye Coach," Julie said as Charlie started guiding her out of the locker room.
Bombay smiled and then turned to the rest of the team to see them all still there. "What you all still doing here? Beat it, go back to the dorms and get some rest, or study, or hangout or something. Just get out of here," he said to them.
"Yes sir," they all said and started out the door.
"Wait!" He said once again. "One more thing." They all turned to him and waited for him to say what he was going to say.
When he saw that he had all of their attention, he went for it. " If you stay up and hang out together, make sure you don't make much noise and bother Julie. I know you are all on the same floor, so make sure you careful; she needs some peace and quiet. She has had a bad day, and tomorrow make sure you include her let her have some fun," he said.
"Okay, Coach...but why do we need to do that? She got yelled at by a teacher and some other things, and then got ruffed around in the game," Averman said.
Bombay sighed. "You don't pay attention, do you Averman? Her mother made an appearance today and started yelling at her for no reason. She made her day even worse; THAT is why I think she needs to have fun tomarrow after a day from hell. Don't you?"
"No, my mom and I fight all the time, and I don't complain about it," Averman said.
"Shut up, Averman. Her and her mom have never gotten along really well. The woman has tried to run Julie's life wince the beginning, and without confronting Julie first, may I add," Portman said roughly to Averman.
"Okay, whatever. I don't see why she needs any extra attention," Averman said.
"Fine, Averman, you don't have to," Bombay said angrilly.
"Okay," he said.
"Don't expect me to feel bad for you when you get hurt the next time," Bombay said, "Unless it is really bad."
Averman just shrugged and looked on, and Bombay sighed.
"Okay guys, get out of here and think about what we talked about," Bombay said, and they all nodded, turning back around and starting to leave, saying their good-byes to their coach as they went.
When they got out, they started walking or going to their cars to go to the dorms. When they got there, they all went to their own rooms except for Connie because she didn't want to disturb Julie and Charlie if they were talking. She went to Guy's room and hung out with him and a couple of the other guys for a little while.
Meanwhile in Connie and Julie's room, Julie did not want to listen to Charlie about going to bed. They had been arguing about it for the past thirty minutes.
"Julie, you need to go to bed and get some rest. You've had a hard day, sweetie; you're tired. If you don't get any sleep, you're going to make yourself sick. You don't want that to happen, do you?" he asked her.
"No, but I don't want to go to bed so soon." She whined. Charlie sighed and looked down at his feet for a minute in order to get his temper in check. "Okay, how about this...how about you go get your pj's on; then maybe we can watch TV or something," he said.
"Okay," she sighed and walked to her closet to get some of her pj's out; then they went to the bathroom. While she was in the bathroom changing, Charlie sat down put his head in his hands.
"I can't believe I just almost lost my temper with Julie. I almost never do that, especially when she has had a hard day," he muttered to himself.
Charlie sighed and looked up just as she came out of the bathroom. He got up and went over to her, gently wrapping his arms around her. "Julie, I'm sorry," he said sweetly.
"It's okay," she said softly. "Can we watch a movie?"
"Julie, it's to late for a movie; lets just watch some TV," he said.
She sighed. "Okay."
He smiled and her. "That's a girl; we'll watch a movie tomorrow, okay?"
"Okay," she said. He smiled and bent down, kissing her.
When he pulled away, he guided her over to the bed. "You get the bed, and I'll sit down next to you on the floor. Okay?" he said.
"Okay," she said.
They settled down, found a show to watch, and began watching it. When the show was over, Charlie looked over at Julie and smiled; she was out like a light. He slowly stood up and covered her with a blanket. He then turned the TV off and went to the phone, calling his and Guy's dorm room.
"Hey Guy, it's me," Charlie said when Guy answered. "Yeah, she's asleep....yeah okay... I'll be there when she gets here... okay, thanks... Bye."
When he finished, he put the phone down and walked back over to her bed, sitting down next to her on the bed and watching her for a little bit like he used to. A couple minutes later Connie walked in. Charlie turned around and smiled at her.
"Hey Connie," he greeted her.
"Hey Charlie. I see you convinced her to go to sleep," she said. Charlie rolled his eyes.
"No, I didn't convince her to do anything...especially go to sleep. She is to damn stubborn for me to convince her to do something she doesn't want to do...well, easily anyways. I finally told her to go put her pj's on, and we would watch some TV. She was happy with that and agreed. After the show that we were watching was over, I looked over at her, and she was out like a light. I learned a long time ago that I have to find something that she would want to do and tell her that we're going to do it. There is less arguing that way," he explained.
Connie laughed at Charlie's obvious frustration of his girlfriend's hardheadedness. "Charlie, answer me something, will you?" she asked.
"Okay," he said confused.
"How long have you and Julie been going out?" she asked.
"Um, does this include the few months that we were broken up?" he asked.
"Yes, because you had only broken up because of the distance," Connie said
"Okay...Four years and three months," he said.
"Okay, and you are surprised it took you so long to get her to go to sleep?" she said holding a straight face.
"No, just frustrated. It never really surprised me," he said.
Connie rolled her eyes. "Okay," she said and went to the bathroom. Charlie in return rolled his eyes once again and went back to Julie's bed, bending down and kissing her forehead.
"I love you, Julie. I'll see you tomorrow," he whispered to her softly. "Good night, kitty."
He then slowly got up and started for the door when he heard, "Charlie?"
He quickly turned around and bent back down next to her. "Shh, angel, it's okay; go back to sleep. I'm going back to my room. Connie is here with you," he said softly.
She just nodded and quickly went back to sleep. He smiled and kissed her forehead one more time. "That's my girl. I'll see you tomorrow," he said again and once again started for the door.
"Bye Charlie, see you tomorrow," Connie said as she came out of the bathroom.
"Bye Connie," he said to her with his hand over his shoulder and proceeded to continue out the door.
Okay, well that is it for now, and I think that is enough for one chapter. The next chapter well be up pretty soon because I'm working on it as we speak, or read or whatever. Anyways, please review; your reviews really inspire me to continue with my stories. Talk to you soon. Oh, and happy Memorial Day tomorrow!