Chapter 6
Mama4dukes, you're the best Beta ever! (Not to mention writer) I love you girlie! Thank You
Song for this Chapter: Easy Going by Carly Pearce
We both sat in quiet contemplation for a while. I looked out the cabin window and saw no lights or anything moving below us. We must be over the ocean now.
The flight was going to take a little over 4 hours. We still had a good hour and a half to go, and I still had so much that my dad needed to hear. There were so many things that he didn't know. Things to help make his life decisions without outside influence.
While I waited for Charlie to come to terms with our talk so far. My thoughts went back to a simpler time with Jake. He taught me the C, G, and D chords on Charlie's old second-hand guitar. The sun was shining high on a cool spring day in early April. The way the waves crashed onto the rocky LaPush shoreline.
"Music?" Charlie asked, bringing me back to here and now. Opening my eyes, I saw my hands holding a D chord with no guitar in sight.
"Yeah, when I was younger, I'd always wanted to be a writer. Did you know that?" he shook his head as I rambled. "I thought I'd write some important novel when I got older. I still love how a book can take you places in your mind that your body has never been." I huffed, facing Charlie once again. "Now I just do it in three-minute segments. With three cords and the truth." We both gave a small laugh at my words.
"Are you ready for me to start again?" at the nod of his head, I started where I'd left off.
"So in walked three adult Elders. These were people who, in my mind, were supposed to help and guide the youth who seemed to deem them worthy of their trust. "Old Quil talked about how in his day, the women were to be seen, give the tribe their next generation, but otherwise be silent."
"Billy took a more fatherly approach but acted as Jacob's father, not mine. He talked about how he and Sarah had raised him better than how he was behaving. All the while knowing what his son had been up to the night before and what he was doing in his bedroom when I walked in."
"Sue just stared at the floor while the men talked. Then she started saying how she didn't need her children being pulled into this type of situation by the Pack. How she was trying to raise them up to do right. Blah, blah, blah…"
"None of them asked me what I thought or how I felt at that moment. None of them cared about me. That was plain for me to see," I looked up at dad then. His face was a picture, that's for sure.
"Then they decided to leave all at once. Like they'd come to Forks for a council meeting, they said what they wanted to say and then called the meeting to an end, and suddenly it was time to go home," I kept trying to shake that image out of my head.
"As soon as I followed them to the front door, I knew I'd made a huge mistake. Paul and Leah were out on your driveway. I don't know what they heard or if they'd known what was going on all along, but by the time everyone was leaving, they sure had a good guess as to why everyone had been there."
"It was Paul's gleaming eyes and laughter that sent me over the edge. He kept calling me a Hok'wat, which means white slave, by the way. But to the elders and wolves, it means something more. Indentured servants are people who are lower than the dirt under your shoes. That's when I snapped, Dad. In my mind, I had it all planned out in one split second. I'd leave Forks and never come back. I'd go to live with Mom and Phil. I'd go to college down there and be free of the supernatural bullshit that Forks seemed to be loaded down with. Everyone left, including Jacob, as Paul laughed."
There, I'd gotten most of what I wanted to say out. There were still some hard conversations to be had over the next few days, but for now, I was ready to move forward. I'd told my dad everything I could about being an imprint within the Pack.
I hoped my dad would be there by my side in less than 48 hours. We could do the following things together, but only if he accepted all I'd just told him.
After a few minutes of silence, "How did you leave so quickly?" Dad asked before finishing his last swig of beer from his can.
"Angela. She came straight over after work. She'd seen Jacob, Quil, and Embry enter the store alone but leave there with some random Rez girl that Jacob couldn't keep his hands off. She'd known Jacob and I were dating. She knew about our plans the night before," I cringed to bring up that bit again, but he wanted to know. So now he did.
"I told her I needed to get out of Forks quickly, and it couldn't wait till you got home from work. As I packed a bag, she went to Forks National Bank and pulled out her and my savings. Allowing me to leave without having to stop anywhere before I did. I didn't have it in me to see how hurt you'd be about me leaving…"
I watched my dad as I talked. He seemed to be handling this a lot better than I did.
"As I was loading up the truck, she said she'd come by and check on you while she was home. Did you know she was the one who told me about you and Sue getting married?" I chuckled. "You know the preacher's kid gets the best gossip in town, right? If there is something to know, she's the one that knows it."
"She did come to the house several times over the years. I just always thought she was looking for you. I had no idea you and her were still so close."
"Yeah, she's a good friend-one of only 4 people I trust with my life." And I did; she is the best person I know.
"That first night, I drove from Forks to Tillamack. I got a room at a shabby motel and cried myself to sleep. I wanted to call you, but I thought better when I knew eyes and ears were watching your house."
I could see the hurt growing in his eyes, but I needed to tell him the rest of the trip before the plane landed in an hour or so.
"After that first night, I kept driving from sunup till sundown. I used all the liquid cash I had when I reached Missouri. So, I started using the emergency credit card Phil had given me before I first moved to Forks. I couldn't risk the Pack finding me before I got to Mom's. So I didn't use your card at all."
I was quiet for a minute. I needed him to understand that I knew he wanted and needed me to use his help, but I'd had my reasons for not using it.
"I called Ange every night to let her know where I was at and where I'd be heading to the next day. I couldn't call you or mom. I needed to be separate from you both till I got to Jacksonville. You understand that now, don't you, Dad?" When I first left Forks, Charlie was upset that I hadn't told him I was going.
He was hurt when I finally reached Mom's and told her I'd left Forks for good.
Of course, I called my dad (and Angela) when I made it to town. After talking to my dad, my mom told Charlie I'd used Phil's card to get home.
Charlie asked me several times why I didn't use his card for my stops, but I didn't feel like I could tell him the truth at the time, so I lied. Like I have a lot since then.
"Do you see why I felt I couldn't use things that belonged to you? I knew that Pack was going to be pissed that I'd taken off. I knew that they could trace some things even back then. I knew every phone call, hell, even your mail, would be heard or looked through before you even had a chance to answer or open it."
I watched as Charlie shook his head in response. Though I knew that hearing it from me must have hurt like hell.
"You said in the car that you knew Jacob was looking for me, and you're right he was. Not a week after getting to Mom's, I was at the mall buying myself some much cooler clothing," Dad's head popped up. "Not cooler style, Dad. Lighter weight items." I started rolling my eyes at his delusions of wanting to go shopping. "Anyway, sitting there in the food court were Jacob, Quil, and Embry. I knew in my heart then and there that they weren't all over me and trying to get me to come back to Washington because Mom was with me." I went quiet for a minute, and Charlie seemed to find his voice.
"I never knew he went to Jacksonville. He came by daily right after you left, but I don't remember him being gone for any length of time." I could see Charlie racking his brain, trying to put slot A into slot B mentally.
"Oh, he didn't stay long. Mom ran him and his boys off that night when she saw them staking out her house, "I couldn't help but smile at the thought of my 5 foot-something mom chasing after three guys over 6 and half feet tall.
"When I called you the next night, you mentioned how Jacob had been over to see you just a while before I'd rang. So I knew it was safe to go about my life again."
Charlie has always told me there was safety in numbers, even when I was too little to understand what he meant. That was one of the days I learned my dad was almost always right.
With the Pack or any supernatural, really, you just need to go places with other human people constantly. Other humans were going to be my best safety weapon.
"I did enroll in Jacksonville Community College. Did you know that?" Charlie's head popped up again as I talked.
"You told me that you didn't want to go to college after you graduated high school."
"Yes, Dad, I did say those words, but Jacob didn't want me to go to school. So I said I didn't want to go so you'd drop the subject completely."
"So you went to school? In Jacksonville?" He seemed almost giddy that I'd easily given up another fact about my new life. The following answer was going to be tough.
"Yeah, I went to college for about 3 weeks before I dropped out."
"Why? I know you've always loved reading. I thought you might end up like your mom and become a school teacher or something along those lines."
I had to do this. I had to tell him all about what happened next, but God, I didn't want to. I wanted him to go on believing my life was all sunshine and rainbows. I wanted him to believe the lies I'd been telling him for years, and I knew I was about to break his heart with my following line.
"I quit because Mom was killed in a car accident about 3 weeks after school had started, Dad."
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