Mountain River Girl

Chapter 7: Confusing Truths

A/N: sorry if this upload is full of mistakes, I didn't get a chance to check for mistakes but will do so as soon as possible. Feel free to point out any mistakes you find :)

CONFUSING TRUTHS

Now you have my number too.
Seda

I read the message again and before I gave myself the chance to change my mind once again, I hit ‘send’.Sending those seven words to Kieran had taken me over half an hour. I had no idea what to send him. At first, I only typed my name, but then decided it was stupid to do that. Then I wrote a long text but decided against that as well. In the end, and several more attempts later, I settled for something simple.

Mom and Dad hadn’t said much on the drive home, then again, neither had I. The moment he stepped through the front door, Dad disappeared from view and went straight to his office. Mom on the other hand, gave some weak excuse about suffering a migraine, telling me to order in pizza when I got hungry and then she disappeared upstairs to their room. Stranded in the hallway, I kicked off my shoes and hobbled to the kitchen to fetch something to drink. A can of soda in hand, I heard my dad’s voice talking to the phone in his office as I hopped by the door. In the hope of finding out why my parents were acting so weird lately, I strained my ears to catch the gist of the conversation. I had no luck. I could only hear the hum of my dad’s voice. He seemed smart enough to keep his voice down. Then again, I wondered, since when was my dad concerned of anyone overhearing his conversations? He even used to leave his door open in a not-so-distant past. Nonetheless, I didn’t want to get caught and risk an outburst of my father. I decided not to linger around much longer and quickly sought refuge in my bedroom.Half an hour later, I finally found the courage to send that text to Kieran. Clearly, it didn’t take him nearly as long to find the correct reply because almost straight away, my phone vibrated.

“Uhm…thanks. But, who are you again?”

“Oh crap!” I scolded myself for sending the text to the wrong number.

“Sorry, wrong number.” I replied quickly and reached for the napkin on my nightstand. However, before I could double check Kieran’s phone number, my phone vibrated again.

“Sorry. Just kidding. Thanks for the number.

Kieran”

I sighed, both in relief and mock annoyance. I should’ve known I hadn’t sent that text to the wrong number. After all, I triple checked the number, twice!

“Moron! Thanks for the small heart attack.”

“You’re welcome. Have to go. Talk soon. K.” Not even two seconds later, another text arrived. “ps: keep your phone close!”

I wasn’t entirely sure why he’d want me to keep my phone close, but I trusted he had his reasons to tell me to do so. After all, he knew things I didn’t know.

“Will do. Have fun. Seda.”

By lack of anything better to do, I picked up my study books from school and tried to catch up with the subject material I’d be missing while staying at home. I had no idea how much more days of school Mom would let me miss and I did not want to arrive in class without a clue of what the teacher was talking about. I had no interest in mouth-feeding the kids at school more reason to make fun of me. If they wanted to make fun of me, I’d rather have them laugh at me for being a smartass than having the same intelligence level as a smashed insect.

The next morning, Mom woke me from the doorway of my bedroom.

“Seda,” she whispered but even though I heard it, I decided to ignore her. “Seda, wake up,” she tried again. This time, I rolled onto my other side and opened my eyes. I stifled a big yawn while looking up at her.