Seafoam //Completed//

Chapter 42

"Luciana." Lulu's dad's voice was ice and his grip was colder. He walked down the hall and grabbed her arm, pulling her away from Zac. "You think you can run away and I wouldn't find out?" He wasn't yelling and that scared her more.

"Dad. What are you doing here? Why aren't you at the clinic?" She wasn't sure if her voice had even made a sound with the rush of blood racing through her head.

"Wouldn't you like that? Is that what you thought? That I'd be at the clinic and you could just run away with this boy?" He gestured to Zac who the whole while had stood stock still, not saying a word, completely perplexed by what he couldn't see but must have sounded crazy to him.

"It isn't like that." She tried to explain.

"Come on, let's go," he said dragging her down the hall, away from the elevators.

"Let go of me!" She fought against his vice grip but he wouldn't let up. "Dad I didn't run away! Dad!"

He was muttering furiously under his breath, mixing Portuguese and English in an almost incoherent grumble.

"Dad, stop!"

"What now?" He growled, whirling around to face her.
"I didn't run away! I've been living with him!"

"WHAT?" Now he yelled. Not his voice rose so high she felt the hinges on the doors rattle like the teeth in her gums. But she gathered courage from the bottle she'd hidden away in her chest where she'd kept everything ugly she didn't want to feel.

"You left me no choice!"

"You had a home!"

"Which was destroyed! Don't you remember? Or were you too fucking drunk to realize a hurricane passed through town?" She pulled on her arm again, but he never budged. The skin beneath his fingers was already bruising.

He blinked at her, as if she'd slapped him. "But you had Matty to go to."
"I had no one. Except for Zac." Her heart was beating so hard in her chest, she knew it was going to stop, and she hoped it would. Just to get away from her father's fury, and the humiliation she felt at Zac hearing her fighting with him.

"You're coming back with me."

"Like hell I am."

"I think you should go with your father, Lulu," Zac spoke for the first time.

"Zac—"

"Listen to your boyfriend, Lulu."

Betrayal sunk deep into her bones as she looked from her father to Zac.

"Fine." She yanked her arm out of her father's grasp. "I need to get my things." Without looking at Zac, she marched into her room to pack her things. Her bag was ready in five minutes. Outside, Zac was nowhere to be seen. Only her father stood there, arms crossed and a scowl still on his face.

The plane ride home was nothing short of terrifying. At first, her dad didn't try to speak to her for anything other than to tell her to move, and Lulu wondered if he was going to hit her again. Her arm still smarted from his grip and she could see the lines where his fingers had dug into her soft skin.

When they were a few hours in the air, her dad turned to her and looked at her sternly. His brows drew together and she could see words form on his lips. Words she didn't want to hear. When he spoke, though, his voice was soft.

"What were you thinking?"

She just stared.

"Hmm?"

Her head shook slightly back and forth. "I had nowhere else to go."

"But you just left with him. This boy, and you didn't tell anybody."
She'd told Ava. It dawned on her that it hadn't totally been Matty's fault that her dad had found her. Ava was the only one who knew aside from Liam that she was leaving. "Someone knew."