Riot Girl by Laura J Whiskens Read Free Book Online Page A

friends from the tennis club would say. My father stormed out of the room, slamming the office door behind him.
    I felt overwhelmed and abandoned by the only family I had left, and I burst into tears. I was embarrassed about crying in front of people I barely knew, but I couldn’t stop it. Tears streamed down my face as Daniel embraced me; it felt awkward and I found myself hoping that his parents and Miss Smith didn’t pick up on it. After all, we were supposedly in a relationship and expecting a baby together, a hug shouldn’t be awkward between two people who were meant to know each other intimately.
    Mostly I was overcome with emotion at the understanding and incredible generosity of Daniel’s father, but I also had an undeniable feeling of drowning in this web of lies. I felt trapped by it all and out of control of, not only my own life, but that of my baby’s.
    But if I confessed now, what would happen? Where would I go? My dad had made it clear that I couldn’t go back to live at the trailer if I wanted to keep my baby.
    And, in spite of the overwhelming fear, I did want to keep my baby.

 
     
     
    Daniel and his father positioned themselves outside my bedroom door at the trailer; they reminded me of the bouncers I’d seen outside bars in town. My father was sat on our tatty, threadbare couch with a can of beer in his hand and a glare in his eyes aimed firmly at the other two men.
    I sighed and clicked my bedroom door shut behind me. I looked around, taking it all in: the window through which Joel had climbed countless times since we were little kids; the bed where we had first made love; the cupboard I’d hidden in as a child when my father was in a rage.
    I sat at the end of my bed, still unmade from the last time I’d slept in it a few days earlier. I took a long deep breath, running my bed sheet through my hand and thinking of that first time with Joel, the look in his eyes.
    This messy little room contained my life. Not just the material possessions, but so many of my memories. I stood up and started to load my things into bags.
    From under my bed I pulled out a worn photo album. It contained the only pictures I had of my mother, hidden away from my father in case he threw them out, and photographs of Billy, Joel, Waz and I as we grew up. They were still precious to me, even if it was too painful to look at them now.
    When I’d finished packing everything up I took one final look around the room, my eyes lingering on the window- hoping against the odds that he might appear- and I blinked back the tears I refused to shed over him.
    “I’m ready,” I called out to Daniel and James.
    Daniel’s father, ever the old-fashioned gentleman, had been insistent that I was not to lift anything because in my ‘condition’ I needed to be careful. James and Daniel came into the room and took the bags; when the room was clear I motioned for them to wait for me outside so I could speak to my Dad alone.
    “It’s okay,” I nodded to Daniel, who looked less than impressed about leaving me alone with my father.
    “Yeah, it’s okay-run along you little shit,” Dad spat out venomously as I closed my eyes and shook my head. “Leave me alone with my daughter.”
    “Dad, don’t be such an asshole!” I scolded. “Daniel, please go, I’ll be out in a minute.”
    He turned to leave and joined his father right outside the front door, leaving me alone but not too alone. I sighed; it was hard to imagine not living here anymore. Yes, it wasn’t the perfect home and I didn’t have the greatest dad, but these things were mine and they were all I’d known. I was eighteen-years-old now but I had never imagined leaving home in these circumstances. I was afraid of the unknown path waiting for me outside the front porch of this trailer.
    “Don’t drink yourself to death, okay?” I spoke softly, sad to be leaving even if he was a drunk. “I’m only in town, if you need me.”
    “I don’t need you or anyone,” he