Chapter 3

A small smile was somehow plastered against my lips as I pressed down the handle of the front door, sensing its immediate disappearance when the shouting interrupted my thoughts.

"Do you really think I am that stupid to believe you were thinking about me whilst you were fu—"

The door slamming from my sudden force had thankfully silenced my mother from expelling the continued argument my parents seemed to be having every day. She turned to my presence and positioned her shaking hands down on the kitchen counter.

"Hi honey," I could recognise the clear attempt at composure in her voice, striving to forget that her and my father were just ripping into each other's throats, "how was school?"

My father stood beside the sink; his expression not so easily masked. I could see the clear redness of his eyes with the stress and weight of what his deplorable activities had done to this family.

"It was fine," the bluntness in my voice was evident as Biscuit scurried towards my legs with a glint in his eyes, oblivious to the dispute he'd probably sat watching in the hopes that one of them would walk him at some point.

I stroked his head whilst kneeling down to meet his height. He was most likely the only family member left that I could be around comfortably, and he was a dog. With my father, I'd always attempt to hide the animosity behind my conversation yet ultimately failing. Whereas, I'd struggle with guilt for my mother, treading lightly with whatever I would say to her.

A lot had happened at school, but I wasn't prepared to tell my parents anything with the lack of transparency about their problems.

Without much more conversation to be had, I walked up towards my room to finish some homework, thankful that Biscuit had followed me up, most likely wanting to escape the thick atmosphere downstairs.

The screaming match was sparked back up again with my disengagement and escaping upstairs, only at a much lower pitch than it had been before. I changed into some plain black leggings and a sweater, comforting myself against the backboard of my bed.

My parents had been continuing their ceaseless arguing for a couple months now, tracing back to a few weeks after new year's when my mother had caught my father in a lie, resulting in the lousy explanation of what my father had done behind her back.

From what I had eavesdropped in on, my father had cheated with a woman from work after their Christmas party. My father used every excuse in the book, but I had yet to see if one of them had weaselled their way into my mother's forgiveness.

As heartless as it sounded, I'm sure myself and my parents would be happier if they were no longer together. In most normal marriages, being unfaithful was a reason for separation or divorce, yet my parents were adamant that they'd somehow reconcile by staying together, and by thinking that I was completely in the dark about everything.

They'd also assumed that I was unknowing to the fact that they had begun attending couples' therapy once a week, as of last month. However, the evidence of improvement had yet to be seen or heard, mostly because the same argument would still ensue every night.

The logistics of their separation would prove easy for me. I'd be able to spend as much time with each of them that I needed since at this very moment, I couldn't stand to be around either of them. Obviously, I knew my mother hadn't done anything wrong, she was just too headstrong to leave my father, rendering her the foolish one out of the two in my mind.

Valentina, April, Henry and my family friend, Tom, were the only people that knew about the trivial problems between my parents and that was the way I liked it to stay. They would comfort me when it became more heated at the beginning, but now they'd just become the people I could express my anger and resentment to.

Eventually, my parents quietened to a hushed whisper until there was no sound at all, followed by the harsh slamming of the front door. I was too selfish to ignore the fact that there was finally a peacefully silence throughout the house.

Pulling out my history book, I began to scribble down notes from the class I had earlier this morning. I had been too easily distracted by Valentina's continuous rambling about Finn, the newest guy to enter her life.

From what I had gathered, he attended a different high school to us in the next town across, but that was all I had learnt before dozing off, hearing the words "extremely hot" and "unbelievable in bed" whilst she proceeded to explain how they had met.

My laptop and books were spread across the bed in front of me, displaying various details about the civil war, an event that I had grown disinterested with reading about over and over again.

However, Valentina's skype username swiftly appeared across my screen, the loud ringing sounding out of the speakers I had been using for listening to music.

I accepted the call and waited for her blurry face to finally fill my screen. "Long time, no see girlfriend," she called as she preoccupied herself, sauntering back and forth from her closet.

"Shouldn't you be studying?" I questioned with an upturned eyebrow, to which she scoffed and continued reorganising her clothes. Valentina had an incurable habit of procrastination, sometimes going as far as 'cleaning her ceiling' when she had used up every excuse for avoiding school work.

"This is very important, Sav. My disorganised closet could one day be the reason why I'm late to pick you up in the morning. And then we both won't get to school on time, will we?"

I hated to admit that she'd made a valid point, one I couldn't argue about with her. "How are you feeling anyway?" she asked, leaning down onto her bed to listen.

"I'm fine. I just don't want to think about what will happen tomorrow."

"Nothing will happen. Josh won't get close enough to you for something to happen," it was at that moment that I wanted to hug her through the screen for her constant reassurance about the situation, "but if you want to take your mind off of it even more, Finn is having a party this Friday."

"Is that your attempt at asking me to go with you?" She nodded through the screen, grinning at me through the hood of her long eyelashes. "I'll come if we can get April to go," I smiled at the thought, knowing how impossible that would be.

"Savannah! You know April won't go."

"So, we'll convince her," I was surprised at how I had somehow shifted to wanting April to say yes. I hated to admit that the idea of a party could prove a perfect way to forget about this week and block it out of my memory.

However, before I could plan on telling her that I needed to get back to work, April's name had joined the conversation from a prompt click by Valentina's mouse. "Please come with us to a party on Friday?"

"Hello to you too, Val," April's screen was a little clearer, helping me to make out that she was in the same position as I was, doing work that had been interrupted by Valentina.

"Is that a yes?"

"Only if Henry goes."

"You know he won't go," Valentina had given up on her closet all together, throwing clothes onto the floor to get a better position on her bed, "he's like the scrooge of house parties, come on April."

"I need to finish some work; I'll see you both tomorrow," I pressed the hang up button as quickly as I could, knowing that once April and Valentina begin debating about something as trivial as Henry, it'll last hours.

Mom called me down for dinner shortly after I had gotten into a rhythm of finishing homework and I was somewhat thankful to know that as soon as I was finished eating, I could return to N*****x and get my mind off of the civil war for once.

Dinner was usually the most excruciating task of my evenings, except once I'd reached the bottom of the stairs, mom had set out only one other place at the table for me to sit with her.

"Where's Dad?" I questioned with uncertainty, hesitant as to whether it would bring up something she didn't want to think about. The door slamming earlier on had signalled to me that one of my parents had left, but it had been a while since only my mother, and I had eaten together, alone.

"He's gone out to meet some friends," She placed a shaky hand against her fork and began cutting up her food with the knife she was holding in the other, "he'll be back later."

With my father walking out, it had just confirmed that he was a coward. For one, he couldn't manage to stay faithful for one evening before another woman presumably enticed him more than my mother did. One night should never equate to a marriage having lasted over twenty years.

We ate our food at an alarmingly slow pace, retaining the silence that we had started with. "Your father and I will be home late tomorrow night," I looked closely into her eyes as she spoke, attempting to catch her in the lie I knew she was telling.

They both supposedly worked late every Wednesday night, the same night they were due to meet their therapist. How unusual.

It was comical how she still seemed to think I was none the wiser. She assumed I was still the clueless eight-year-old that believed in superficial concepts like the tooth fairy, and the idea that my parents would stay together forever.

With regards to their couples' therapy, my parents were essentially placing duct tape over a large crack in our house that would continue to grow. They could fake all the performances they needed to in order to believe that they were getting somewhere, yet for every step forward, they were always taking another five steps back.

"Thanks for dinner," Mom smiled over as I tipped the remains of the food into the trash can and placed our cutlery and plates into the sink in order to start washing up.

"You're welcome sweetie," She walked over timidly and took the wet cloth from my hand, "you go and do your homework; I can finish up here." I hesitated to leave with the heartache hidden behind her eyes, but I knew she wanted to be alone. She always deserted herself from everyone when she was feeling like this.

"You'll be ok," I muttered underneath my breath before I began to walk up the stairs. I knew she hadn't heard me, but I knew she would be. What she sometimes lacked in honesty; she had a determination to fix what was irreparable. And I couldn't help but commend her for it.

I spent the rest of my night swapping between N*****x shows and scanning through my phone at the useless information I would never read whilst texting Valentina about the party that April had somehow agreed to as long as Henry was on board.

However, I hadn't realised how difficult that task would be until he was standing in front of me at school.

"If April's willing to go, then why aren't you?"

I had been following Henry around like a lost puppy whilst he attempted almost every corridor to escape my relentless questioning. "I don't want to go, Savannah. You know I don't like going to them."

"What if something happens to April?" I'd hope to hit a cord, but I knew that even if I had, Henry was one of the best people I knew at masking his emotions.

April and Valentina had yet to meet us for lunch and I had somehow crept through the morning without seeing Josh or any one of his friends, although I'm sure they'd probably skipped instead before my luck most likely ran out. I'd caught Henry whilst walking to the cafeteria, barley giving him a chance to speak before I had probed him to go to the party.

He drove a hard bargain when he slipped into the bathroom, but the stubbornness inside me, passed on from my mother, didn't stop me from following in behind him.

The sudden trace of urine and boy-stench crept into my nasal cavity, causing my fingers to squeeze around my nose, hoping to keep the smell from entering. "Why did you follow me?"

"Why won't you go?" I threw back, unbothered somehow by the curious stares from a couple people in there, heading straight for the cubicles instead of opting for the urinals.

"I know Finn. I know the guys he hangs round with. He's not a good person, Savannah. And I don't want to go, and you shouldn't either," his stern expression was something we'd only see when something truly got to Henry, and although it interested me, I didn't want him to win.

"I'm going whether you're going or not," I decided, throwing my arms against my chest in the hopes of looking more intimidating than I usually did.

"Don't come running to me if something goes wrong."

"Whatever, Henry," I made it a plan to storm out of the bathroom, mostly to prove a point to him that had he failed in his deterrence of me going to the party. Of course, I wasn't crazy about going to it, but my determination had shifted to proving a point rather than anything else.

Without regard to anything in front of me, I pushed the door open to the bathroom, only for a hard wall to present itself in front of me, knocking me down to the floor.

"Really?" I shouted out before looking up and capturing the eyes of someone I had been avoiding as best I could.

Until this very moment.