Hey everyone! I finally got myself to write again, so here's another chapter. Hmm... I don't even remember the last time I updated, which definitely means it's been too long. My apologies for keeping you waiting.

Chapter 8:

Soundtrack: Lost Without You by Delta Goodrem

I was sitting in detention. I glanced quickly at the clock on the wall – 10 minutes left. I looked at the pile of extra math exercises that I'd done so far during my detention. I continued my work as the teacher looked at me. I surely didn't want to give the impression that I was slacking off. Besides, the soft sound my pencil made, when it touched the paper, was rather soothing. I got absorbed into my thoughts as I focused on the equation I was solving.

Soon I heard the teacher announce that the detention was over. I stuffed my things into my bag quickly and left the classroom. Running along the corridors, I thought how my foster mother would react, when I came home late – especially because of detention. I felt shivers go down my spine.

/This wasn't going to be pleasant/ I thought.

I approached the front door cautiously, as if it was going to attack me.

/Ridiculous/ the little voice said to me.

/Shut up/ I snapped at it. /This is serious./

I opened the door. The first sound I heard was a young girl whining in a loud voice.

"I don't understand how they can give us so much homework!" I heard Melanie yell.

The spoiled little brat was always whining about something.

Taking advantage of the situation, I sneaked quietly into my room, since it seemed neither Melanie or my foster mother had heard me come into the house. Biting my lip, I thought about if I should close the door to my room and block it with something, since there was no lock on it. I sighed as I came to the conclusion that it was better for me to face, what was coming to me, right away. It would probably only get worse by time.

So I grabbed one of my school books and sat down on my bed to read it. A person could be heard walking towards my room. I could hear my foster mother cursing under her breath, muttering something about me and wondering where I was.

I took a deep breath before speaking. "I'm right here."

The person stopped and soon appeared into my room.

"Dammit! Tamara, what is the matter with you!" she raged at me. "You're supposed to come home straight after school."

"I did. I just had to stay overtime today, because of detention."

I could see her eyes narrow as she heard the word detention. I bit my lip nervously.

"Detention for what?" she questioned.

"Well, I fell asleep during my lunchbreak and missed the class after it," I explained. "I didn't mean to."

"Tamara, you should know better than to sleep at school," she snapped.

"I know, but I was just so tired," I tried to explain again.

"You should sleep at night and not at school," she scolded me.

I sighed.

"Melanie needs help with her homework," she stated. "We'll talk about this later, after I talk with your father."

"He's not my father," I muttered as my foster mother left. "And you're not my mother."

After that day, my foster parents made sure I was in bed at a 'decent' time every day, which meant lying awake for hours at worst, with only one thing to think about – Kai. So I would squirm and toss around in my bed, night after night. I started dozing off even more at school, but no one seemed to want to understand. Weeks passed and I started being at the end of my limit – breakdown wasn't far.

Sometimes when I walked in the school hallways and saw Kai or when I had a class together with him, I would see him look at me, with a look of pity in his eyes. Of course I was just imagining it, right? Kai doesn't feel anything towards me – except maybe annoyence, since I was such a lousy partner with our project.

Thoughts drifted through my head, as I walked down the street, towards my house. It was a Saturday night. My foster mother and Melanie had gone to visit some of their relatives and wouldn't be back until Sunday – which meant I was alone with my foster father. I opened the door and entered a dark house. This wasn't a good sign and I knew it. If my foster father wasn't home on a Saturday night, there was only one place where he could be.

I turned on the lights and looked at the clock. It was quite late, which meant he would be coming back soon and I had to get out of here before it if I cared about my health at all. I rushed up the stairs and into my room, grabbing my bag and starting to stuff things in it. Soon I rushed downstairs and to the door, only to almost crash into my foster father, as the door slammed open suddenly and he stepped in. I skidded to a stop, losing my balance and falling to the floor. I could feel my head hit something and things becoming slightly dizzy.

I tried to get up, but failed to keep my balance because of the dizziness, so I started crawling away as fast as I could. The strong smell of alcohol engulfed me, making me want to throw up. The smell became stronger as he started coming closer to me. My crawling was stopped as my hair was grabbed harshly and I was pulled back. Panic hit me as I tried to free myself, pulling and kicking. Tears burst out as I felt a hard impact on my stomach, making me collapse. I was pulled up again from my hair, only to receive another hit.

My hands were desperately reaching through the air to grab something. Soon my grip tightened around a solid object, which I smashed at my foster father as hard as I could. The breaking of glass was heard as the vase I grabbed broke, shattering into pieces. The man stumbled back, hitting the wall, as I rushed away as fast as I could with my dizzy head and hurting body. I slammed the door shut behind me as I ran into the rain.

I didn't know how long I had been running, I ended up finding myself in the park and its playground that had become so familiar to me during the years. I sat on my usual swing, not caring about the rain soaking me. My mind was fuzzy, without a single clear thought in it – except to go somewhere, anywhere. I got up from the swing and started wandering along the streets. It seemed like my legs had a will of their own and I just had to go along with it. I ended up finding myself in front of a familiar looking door – Kai's door.

/Why did I come here anyway? It's not like he cares about me./ I thought to myself.

Still I couldn't help getting a small feeling, telling me that I was just lying to myself and before I knew what I was doing, my hand knocked on the door. There was silence again before I heard footsteps approaching the door. My mind was screaming at me to run away, but my legs wouldn't move. Soon the door opened and I found myself staring at Kai's face and bare chest, before I quickly managed to look away.

Silence fell between us until he broke it, asking what I was doing there. I fiddled my fingers as I said that my drunk foster father had come home, so I had to leave. His gaze scanned me from head to toe, making me more nervous. The silence was broken again as a girl's voice could be heard and soon she appeared behind Kai. Even though his form covered most of her body, I noticed she was wearing only lingerie, which made me realize I had probably interrupted something. I could feel my face start turning warm and I knew I was blushing.

The girl asked Kai what I was doing here and said it wasn't her business to know, before shutting the door. My legs gave away under me and I fell down, leaning against the wall. Tears started pouring out as I sobbed without control, my tears mixing with the rainwater on my skin. It seemed like forever until a sound made me snap out of my sobbing. The girl stepped out of the door and glared at me, before disappering from sight.

Kai appeared a while after her. "Get up," he ordered, offering me his hand, which I took.

I shivered at his look – he didn't seem too pleased.

He helped me up and I followed him inside, shutting the door behind me.