Pick-me-up
Authors: Cecilia La France
Tags: #drugs, #high school, #meth, #iowa, #meth addiction, #iowa small towns, #abuse first love, #abuse child teen and adult, #drugs recovery family, #abused teen, #dropout, #drugs abuse, #drugs and violence, #methampethamine, #methamphetamine addiction
Pick-Me-Up
Published by Cecilia La
France at Smashwords
Copyright 2014 Cecilia
La France
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Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Things Got All Messed Up
Chapter 3: 9 Months, 27 Days Earlier
Chapter 6: In School Suspension
Chapter 10: Waiting For A Call
Chapter 1: Things Got All
Messed Up
The
lawns on his street looked clean, no toys or tools spread out on
the yard. Tulips pushed up in his neighbor’s small gardens skirting
the fronts of the small ranch houses. From the outside, anyone
passing by might think these people lived the clean, simple lives
associated with small town Iowa.
These yards didn’t look like Katelyn’s, and,
more than ever, her life felt the farthest from clean and simple.
She stood at the corner on Tim’s street and looked at his house. No
clean and simple life lived behind his doors, either.
Before she took another step, Katelyn pulled
out her phone and reread Tim’s message from this morning: “I want
to see u. Things got all messed up. Let me explain. T.”
The text broke five days of silence since his
last one. It was the first to sound sober and kind. Katelyn didn’t
want to think about the other ones right now. Katelyn wanted to
know the truth about what happened last week. She wanted to hear
Tim apologize. She wanted to forgive him, again. But, mostly,
Katelyn wanted her boyfriend back.
She stuffed the phone back in her jacket
pocket and shivered. The sun came through new buds on the trees,
but spring was still fighting the winter chill. Katelyn looked at
the empty houses and wondered if people were away for their spring
break. Envy crept in. Vacations weren’t park of her life.
For the fourth time in the two-mile walk to
his house, Katelyn questioned if she should come. Her mom was going
to be livid if she found out. Katelyn’s would likely now be
grounded until the end of school rather than the month she already
had in store.
Katelyn stood on the corner and looked back.
She could turn back before her mom found out. But questions would
remain. She wouldn’t have the apology she deserved. And, Katelyn
wouldn’t have her boyfriend back.
Tim didn’t deserve to see any of her hopes.
For what he did, they were over. They should be over, unless.
Katelyn had texted Tim to say she’d come get
her stuff. Her cheap MP3 player and a few shirts she’d left in his
room weren’t that important, but they gave Katelyn a reason to come
over, not just because he asked to see her.
She was still mad. Tim couldn’t expect that
she would so easily be over what he did only a few days ago.
Katelyn wasn’t about to forget the threats from Mona, the girl who
called from Tim’s phone claiming to be his new girlfriend. She was
just the start of Tim’s betrayal. He had a lot of explaining to
do.
Katelyn went over her plan again. She would
not go into his house. Tim would want her to go down to his room,
but she didn’t want to be reminded of all the hours they spent
there together. No, she would stay outside and ask for her things,
outside--where she was safe. If he didn’t say what she needed to
hear, she’d turn around and get on with life, even if it would be
without him.
Katelyn’s eyebrows pinched together and her
head started to ache. She reached up and pushed her long bangs back
into her hair. She took a fresh breath of air and shook her head as
if it would make memories fall away.
Katelyn turned her head and forced her feet
to take the last steps to his house. Next week would be their
10-month anniversary. Katelyn had a “Top ten things I love about
you” poem drafted. She was not ready to let him go. Please, she
thought, please let this all be a big mistake.
Chapter 2: A Big
Mistake
Tim’s
mother answered the door and instantly looked disappointed when she
saw Katelyn. Tim’s mom crossed her arms in front of her chest and
leaned into the door frame, protecting entry into a house where
Katelyn had spent countless days and nights. His mom had never
cared for Katelyn, but then Katelyn wasn’t sure of anything the
woman did care for other than her own interests. From the first
time Tim introduced them, his mom eyed Katelyn sharply, even
blowing her cigarette’s smoke somewhat purposefully in her
direction from across the kitchen.
“What do you want, Katelyn?” His mom didn’t
move from the door frame. For a moment, Katelyn wondered what Tim
had told his mom to make her act this way.
Katelyn didn’t shift from her spot on the
small front porch. She wasn’t scared of this woman. In fact,
Katelyn didn’t care for her either. If Tim had a better mother,
maybe he wouldn’t have turned to drugs in the first place. And, it
was her ex-husband and, later, another one of her live-in
boyfriends that physically and mentally abused him. Maybe Tim
wouldn’t have been violent himself if she cared more about him.
“Tim called me,” Katelyn said with a sneer of
her own. “Don’t worry, I’m not coming in.”
Tim’s mom gave her a once-over look and
turned into the house. She yelled Tim’s name down the hall. Her
fake tan, low rise jeans, and strap tank top were too revealing for
both a woman her age and the early spring weather. His mom turned
back to Katelyn and shook her head. Then, she disappeared back into
the house.
Katelyn shuddered with nervousness, but took
a couple deep breaths to calm herself. She went to one edge of the
porch and leaned against a railing. She bit at her nails. Tim
stepped into the door frame timidly and stopped. Right away,
Katelyn was thrown off from what she expected. She thought Tim
would have been worrying all day about her visit, but he looked
like he had just dragged himself out of bed. His black T-shirt was
wrinkled, his black shaggy hair tousled, and he wore his flip-flops
he used as slippers when he woke up in the morning. His face looked
pale and his eyes were puffy and red. A red flag went off in her
head, but she ignored it. Katelyn wanted to believe he was
sorry.
Tim’s eyes gave his only greeting as he
stuffed his hands into his baggy jeans. He just looked at her,
acknowledging her presence, but nothing more.
“Hi,” she offered softly.
His face turned into more of a question.
“Wussup?” he answered almost rudely. They’d known each other too
long for her to not recognize his approach. She’d seen him like
this with others he didn’t trust. He’d stay silent to set the other
person on edge. Why was he acting this way? How could he turn so
quickly against her?
“You said you wanted to talk, remember?”
Katelyn said, growing impatient.
He leaned back on the door, and his eyes
narrowed on her. His head twitched back to the house occasionally
like he was trying to remember something he’d been doing inside. He
brought his hand to his neck and rubbed. More silence. His head
jerked again. Something wasn’t right. Tim still didn’t say
anything.
Katelyn didn’t want to leave, but he
obviously wasn’t going to explain. Katelyn regretted coming over.
Tim was still trying to hurt her. “Fine.” Katelyn pushed herself
off the railing and crossed her own arms. “Just give me my stuff
and this will all be over.”
He didn’t change except to step down off the
door jam onto the porch, one step closer toward Katelyn. He leaned
in and his words came out in a snarl. “You’d like that, wouldn’t
you, you slut.”
The last word sliced through the air as if to
cut off Katelyn’s air. She felt hot tears making their way through
her veins. Her throat burned and her lungs refused to take a
breath. She was so foolish to think the past week could be wiped
away; here she was back again being insulted by the person she
trusted most. Katelyn wasn’t about to go through this again.
Embarrassed and hurt, Katelyn turned quickly
to the steps, her long hair whipping behind her. She began to run
down, but her foot only reached the second step. Her head snapped
back. She had only a moment to comprehend that she’d been grabbed
by the hair and pulled sharply. Tim had grabbed her hair to stop
her, to hurt her. The force of his pull brought her backward and
she lost her one-foot hold on the stair. As she fell, her butt hit
the concrete step and she felt the crack of her rib cage as it hit
against the edge of the wooden porch. Her head was the last to hit,
smacking back against the porch platform.
Her vision faded like a movie ending. Ringing
filled in her ears. She gasped for air, coughing as her lungs
expanded in pain.
It was an accident, she thought. It had to
be. He wouldn’t. He wouldn’t. Within seconds she felt his hands on
her. He grabbed her shoulder, cupped her face.
“Katelyn, Katelyn! Oh my God, I’m sorry. I’m
sorry,” he cried, the tone of real concern now in his voice. “I
love you. You know that. I love you. I didn’t mean it. You can’t
leave.”
Katelyn’s vision started to clear and she saw
him over her, saw his own eyes wide in fright at what just
happened. She also saw the Tim she loved, the boy who trusted
her.
She tried to lift her head but a sharp pain
shot through her back. She moaned.
“You have to get up,” Tim said in a panicked
voice now. “Come on, Katelyn. You have to be okay. Get up.”
She felt her arm being pulled and opened her
eyes again to see Tim standing to get a better hold of her. His
eyes scanned the neighbor’s yards anxiously in worry.
“Wait,” Katelyn said, feeling like she was
going to get sick. “Don’t.”
Tim let go of her arm and jumped back inside
the door. He seemed to hide back in the door frame like he was
scared to come out. He grabbed his arms as if holding himself back
from coming out the door again. The next moment he scratched at his
neck and then his arm. She heard him muttering to himself, but
couldn’t understand. His voice grew in volume.
“Get up!” he hissed from his perch. “Get up,
you fat bitch.”
His words were too much to handle at the
moment. Katelyn felt a danger she hadn’t before. Tim did this. Tim
did this to her.
She tried again to lift herself and managed
to get turned onto her knees, but she couldn’t push herself up yet.
She looked to the neighbor’s yard, looked for help, but saw nothing
but colorful tulips she’d taken joy in only minutes ago.
“Help,” she cried. “Help me,” she aimed in
the other neighbor’s direction.
“Shut up! Shut up, you whore,” Tim threw his
words at her and suddenly she felt the sharp pain of her hair being
grabbed once again. She screamed as she felt hair rip out of her
head. Tim held his grip and yanked her up the last step. Now, in a
fury, he flung her over the door jam into the house. Katelyn’s
sweatshirt caught and tore on the edge.
Panic filled her now and she tried to get up,
but Tim began to kick her. His foot landed in her stomach and she
instantly vomited on her hands in front of her. Katelyn’s head
pounded, the blood heating her whole face and filling her ears.
Katelyn heard new yelling and looked up to
see Tim’s mom alarmed and trying to confront Tim. “What the hell is
going on?!” Tim moved back a step from Katelyn, like a child in
trouble. His mom stopped halfway down the hall.