Leah's P.O.V
"What?" I asked my mom, mouth wide open in shock.
"I said, I want you to join the school cheer squad, Billy Black suggested it. I think it will help."
"Help with what exactly? I don't want to be a cheer leader!" I growled, standing up from the dinner table, my hands trembling with the anger coursing through my body.
"Leah, calm down. Please just listen too me; it's just that, well, you've been so low since Sam...well you know. You've been so upset that your pain was unbearable, it was like I could feel all the hurt you could and I don't want that anymore, for you, for me, for Seth, for your dad. Honey, do you remember when your dad passed? We all came together as a family? I want us to be like that again, I want you to be happy and cheer leading, well, it's mood lifting and I'm sort of hoping you'll meet a guy through it; someone that won't hurt you like Sam did."
So that was what this was about, setting me up with some basket ball player from the reservation's high school. My mom was just going to dump me off on some fitness fanatic who shot hoops as a hobby and I would be his 'zany' girlfriend who couldn't stop smiling. I didn't want this, I didn't want people being sympathetic toward me, I was harsh, I had no care for others around me, not since I was cruelly treated by the so-called 'love of life', dropped for my own cousin, a new and improved version of myself. A deep growl rumbled through my chest as memories of that horrific day played back in my mind and I wanted to scream, I wanted to throw the table in front of me across the room, I wanted to crush the Earth between my thumb and fore finger but I knew it would only upset my mom. Mom, I looked at her, her face was gaunt and she had deep circles beneath her eyes from restless nights and her usually smiling eyes were drooped at the edges, and lacked any trace of hope. Her whole appearance was washed out and exhausted and it was all because of me. This once so happy woman had become a skeleton because of my selfish behaviour. I'd had her waiting on me, hand and foot and now I deeply regretted it; I'd taken advantage of her, allowed her to be run ragged, I'd dragged her into my issues and I'd ruined her life. I chewed all this up inside my head, maybe I owed her something in return.
I sighed, "Fine, but once I turn eighteen, I'm out."
Her lips curved up slightly at the edges, triumphantly; she'd won and she knew it. I resumed to eating my dinner and I knew this was yet another thing I was going to regret. I looked across to Seth who had been shovelling his dinner down throughout the argument, his eyes were apologetic, as though it had been him who had suggested the idea. I quite deliberately stuck my tongue out at him and fought back a smile. It was a game we used to play when we were kids; I would pretend to be angry at him then do something silly and it would burst into a fit of hysterics. Now that I looked at him properly, I realised just how mature he looked, he was beginning to fill out and his facial feature were losing their baby qualities. I could not deny that no matter how much Seth annoyed me, I loved him and I always would.