FicWad

Chapter 38-

I felt my heart rate increase as I answered my call.

“Matt?” I asked quietly.

There was a silence on both ends of the phone. But I could [i]just[/i] make out faint yelling in the back ground. And I knew why my brother was calling.

“They’re fighting again.” Matt whispered.

“How bad is it?” I said softly.

“Nothing too bad… Yet.”

“What are they fighting about?” I sighed.

Again, silence washed over the both of us.

“You.” Came Matt’s quiet reply.

“Me?” I asked, shocked.

“They always do. Dad thinks you’re out of control and that you need discipline and Mum thinks the complete opposite.”

“It’s got to do with Gerard hasn’t it?” I asked in a bored tone.

Once again, Matt fell silent, and even though I couldn’t see him, I could tell that he nodded his reply.

“What are they saying?” I asked in a soft voice.

“Things like how you spend too much time with him, and not enough with the family, and how you’re too young to be having sex and getting drunk…”

“What?” I asked in an annoyed tone.

“Dad’s taking it too far tonight. He’s way passed drunk… Something’s going to happen.”

“Something like what?” I asked, afraid of what the answer would be.

“Divorce.” Matt said simply.

“Maybe it’s better if they do spilt up… I’m not really sure how long those two can go on like this… How long we ALL can go on like this.” I sighed.

“Yeah… But still… Divorce Rachel. Divorce.”

I opened my mouth to say something, just as Matt interrupted me.

“If they get a divorce, then we’ll know for sure that it’ll never be the same again… We won’t have those Christmas mornings where you and I wake up four hours earlier then needed and we wait until Mum and Dad are up and we all open our Christmas presents together as a family. A happy family. A true happy family.”

“Matt, you and I both know it’s never going to be like that ever again. Those days are over. Long gone… Back in the day where we were an actual family and not just fake and pretend one.” I explained slowly.

“Still doesn’t take the pain away.” Matt chocked.

“Do you want me to come home?” I asked kindly.

“No. Stay out. Have fun… I just wanted to warn you to what you’re coming home to…

“It might not happen Matt.” I said simply.

“But you never know… Anything’s possible with this family.”

“If something happens, call me.” I said.

“I will. I love you Rachel.”

“I love you too Matt… And don’t worry, whatever happens, we have each other, and I promise that I’ll make things work.” I assured.

I sighed as I closed my phone. Knowing now that I couldn’t enjoy the rest of the night, I would be too worried about what’s going on at home.

But, to make it enjoyable for the others, I had to pretend. Pretend that everything was okay, just like I usually do.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath in as I felt two arms slide across my waist.

“Everything okay?” Gerard asked quietly, kissing the top of my head.

I exhaled loudly and leant against him.

“Hopefully.” I answered simply.

“You need anything, and I’m here for you…” Gerard whispered, kissing my neck softly.

“Thank you.” I whispered, a small smile playing on my lips.

I turned around and gently pecked Gerard’s lips before walking to the door.

“HEY!! IT’S RACHEL! RACHEL’S BACK!” Bob screamed happily.

Bob came towards me quickly and hugged me to him.

“You’re still wet.” Bob pointed out, letting go of me.

“Thank you for pointing that out Robert. I had no idea.” I said sarcastically.

I made my way towards the others, but looked back at Bob briefly. He had a look of annoyance on his face. He hated being called Robert.

I giggled slightly as I sat down next to Mikey.

“Everything okay?” I heard Ray ask across from me.

“Yeah. I guess so.” I shrugged.

“You guess so?” Ray said suspiciously, eyebrow raised.

“Just a little family trouble, that’s all.” I shrugged, looking down.

I felt every single person around me tense up.

“Hey Mikey, why don’t you tell Rachel about what happened just before?” Scarlet said teasingly, knowing I didn’t want to talk about it.

“What about just before?” Mikey asked, confused.

“Oh…” Mikey whispered, staring straight ahead.

“Nah uh! I’m not saying anything!” Mikey defended loudly.

“If you don’t tell her Mikey, then I will.” Tegan smiled.

As Tegan and Mikey fought, I looked up at Scarlet.

I gave her a thankful smile, only to be returned with a small nod.

“FINE!” Mikey screamed.

“Before when you were on the phone Rachel, I saw Melanie and freaked out. She started talking to me, and when I walked away I acted all tough and tripped over a log and slammed into the wall.” Mikey explained quickly.

“HAPPY?!” Mikey shouted at Tegan as we all burst into hysterical laughter.

Melanie was Mikey’s hardcore crush. He’d liked her since kindergarten.

We all knew about how much he liked her, but that was it.

I had to hand it to the boy; he’s good at hiding things.

If you were to see him as another kid in the class, you wouldn’t think that he was head over heels in love with the ‘weird’, ‘unpopular’, ‘nerd’ of the class. That’s were he is a genius, he can practically switch his emotions on and off whenever he wants. I guess this time he failed.

I looked over at Mikey and saw that he had his head hung down and that he was going red.

“Aww Mikey.” I cooed, rubbing my hand on his back.

“It’s not THAT bad. Think of all the pathetic things we’ve all done.” I said comfortably.

“But you didn’t do it in front of the person you’re practically in LOVE with!” Mikey whined.

I laughed.

“You’d be surprised.” I said.

“She probably thinks I’m some kind of clumsy kid!” Mikey moaned.

“It couldn’t of been that bad.” I giggled.

Mikey pulled his head up and lifted the chunk of hair out of his eyes.

I held back my laughter to the best of my ability when I saw a massive lump and bruise on Mikey’s forehead.

I turned my head away, still trying not to laugh.

“Yeah, it’s not THAT bad. It just looks like I’m growing a fucking coloured egg on my forehead!” Mikey said sarcastically.

I couldn’t hold it anymore. I burst out into laughter.

“It’ll go down by Monday, trust me.” I laughed.

“That’s not my point! I’ll never be able to face her again!” Mikey said loudly.

I contained my laugher and looked at him seriously.

“It’d not the end of the world. You just remember that time a particular someone showed off in front of a really hot guy she liked on a motorbike and went through someone’s front fence and broke her leg.” I said seriously.

Mikey giggled.

“Yeah, there’s worse.” I said jokingly as I patted Mikey’s back and walked away.

*

Monday morning. Great, cause I just LOVE Mondays.

Matt and I walked to school together in silence.

We were going to be late, but I couldn’t care less.

As we walked into the school gates, we went our separate ways.

I slammed my bag down and unlocked my locker, quickly grabbing my books and walking off to my first class. Seeing as I had already missed roll call.

I took a deep breath in and opened the door.

As usual, everybody’s head in the room turned towards me to see who was walking in.

I glanced up at the teacher.

Shit, we had Ms Coburn. Our science teacher must be sick today.

“Nice of you to join us Rachel.” Ms Coburn said sarcastically in that annoying nasally voice she has.

“But class started ten minutes ago.” The teacher said in an evil tone.

“Is there a reason why you are late Miss Cummings?” Ms Coburn asked as I sat down.

“I just got to school.” I replied quietly.

“You just got to school, there’s an excuse for ya.” The teacher said smartly.

“And what is the reason that you had just arrived at school?” She asked.

I remained silent.

“There’s no real reason is there Rachel? You just didn’t feel like going to science.” Ns Coburn said in a ‘matter-of-fact’ tone.

“I have my reasons, I just don’t want to tell you.” I said simply.

“Well back luck, you have to tell me. Either that or you’ll be telling the principal.” Ms Coburn said.

“I don’t have to tell you if I don’t want to.” I said smartly.

You know how you get that feeling where a thousand eyes are staring at you? Yeah, well, that’s what I’m feeling right now.

“No, you’re wrong. You have to tell me why you are late, it’s school policy.” Ms Coburn defended.

“I don’t exactly feel comfortable telling you while the whole class is staring.” I said smartly.

I looked around the room and saw that I wasn’t exaggerating. Literally the WHOLE class was staring at me.

Probably because they all knew how Ms Coburn and I hated each other, and how they would love to see a student and a teacher going at it.

“Fine, you don’t want to tell me. You’ll just have to stay in a recess and tell me.” Ms Coburn said, turning to face the board.

“What?” I asked loudly.

“Make your decision Rachel, you either tell me now, or you tell me at recess. The choice is yours.” The teacher said, not turning to look at me but still facing the board.

I was sick of it now, I’d had a bad enough morning as it is, and I don’t need that bitch of a Coburn making it worse.

“I’m not telling you anything! You have no fucking right to know!” I said loudly, standing up from my seat.

I heard people gasp softly.

Rule number one: NEVER swear within three foot of Ms Coburn.

“What did you just say to me?” Ms Coburn asked, clearly shocked and now, officially pissed.

“You heard me!” I said.

I looked across and saw Gerard looking at me worriedly.

“REPORT TO THE PRINCIPAL’S OFFICE NOW!” Ms Coburn’s voice boomed across the classroom.

“Gladly.” I said smartly, grabbing my books from the table and walking towards the door.

“Better than being in this shitty class.” I mumbled as I walked past the teacher.

“I’ll be seeing you after for your real reason for you lateness.” Ms Coburn said with a hint of smile on her face.

I snapped.

“You want to know?! Fine! My Mum has just left my Dad, so this morning, I had to keep an angered and drunken Dad out of the house as he threatened to kill us all and bury our ashes, as I tried to comfort a crying mother and a freaking brother! That excuse fucking good enough for ya?!” I screamed walking towards the door angrily.

I heard complete silence as I opened the classroom door, and slammed it shut again.