“She’s too young to be getting this involved with these boys. Next thing you know, she’ll be coming in here with a baby. Maybe two!” Daddy shouted. I rolled my eyes.
“Now you know Samantha isn’t out there messing around. She’s young and she’s in love and nothing you say is going to stop that. So, you can either accept that and give her a little freedom, or you can accept that she’s just going to do it anyway behind your back,” she said sternly. My father was silent. He couldn’t argue with her logic, so he stormed off to their room in a huff and slammed the door.
“Thanks mom,” I whispered.
“I’d had about all I could take.”
My head was pounding. All I wanted was to lie down. Mom kissed my forehead and left to grab me a couple Aspirin out of the medicine cabinet. She returned with two pills and a glass of water. It wasn’t too much longer and I began to drift off.
I was awakened by my phone ringing. I couldn’t focus clearly on the caller ID, so I just answered.
“Hello?” I asked sleepily.
“Are you feeling ok?” AJ asked.
“Yeah. My dad said it looks like it’s only a surface injury. “
AJ sighed angrily. “I can’t believe I let this happen. I wanted to kill that guy!”
“I’ll be fine, really. He wasn’t trying to hurt me and it wasn’t your fault anyway.”
He sighed again. “Let’s just stop talking about him. What’d your parents say?”
“A whole lot. My mom was really understanding. But my dad? That’s another story. I hadn’t told him about you yet because I didn’t feel like dealing with all the questions he’d have, so I was planning to wait until things died down. Anyway, he knows now and he demanded that I tell you that I can’t see you anymore, but my mom spoke up for me and he gave up. So, that’s that I guess.”
“Hmm. Well, I guess it could’ve been worse. Right?”
“If you say so,” I replied.
AJ laughed a little. “I miss you already.”
“Me too.” Feeling another bout of boldness coming on I made a suggestion. “Why don’t you come by tomorrow and keep me company while my parents are at work? I’m sure I can convince them that I’m not feeling well enough to go back to school yet.”
Despite the trouble we’d already had today, he asked, “What time should I be there?” without even a hint of hesitation.
“They both leave around 7:00?”
“So what, at like ten or something?” He asked.
“No, I was thinking more like 7:30.”
He laughed. “Whatever makes you happy.”
“Well, I think I’m about to fall back asleep, so I’ll see you in the morning.”
“7:30?” He asked.
“7:30.”
Chapter Eight
My alarm sounded at 5:30am as usual. I didn’t mind much because I’d slept most of the afternoon and evening the day before. The pain from the fall had dulled slightly, so I got a pretty decent night’s sleep. Knowing that it wouldn’t be long before AJ arrived, I decided to get my shower out of the way. My parents would be up within the next 10 minutes or so, which meant that I had to make it a quick one. I climbed out and found a pair of pajama pants and a tank top to throw on and then ripped the ponytail holder from my hair and decided to leave it down today. I heard my mom heading downstairs for her morning coffee so I rushed to my door and called out to her. “Mom?”
“Yes?” She answered.
It would have to be convincing for her to agree to this, so I put on my best ‘I don’t feel good’ voice and started again. “Can I just stay home today? My head still hurts pretty bad.”
“I guess if you aren’t feeling up to it, there’s no point in pushing yourself.”
‘Yesssssss!’ I screamed in my head……but then she continued.
“But your father will probably want to come home and check on you while he’s on his lunch break.
‘Nooooo!’ I protested silently. “Ok, at what, like twelve?” I asked innocently.
“Probably more like one.” This presented a bit of a problem, but I’d just have to make sure that AJ was gone before Daddy got home. “K. Going back to bed,” I replied.