The week flew by. That week at Laurissa’s was worth every second. Spending time with her boys and Sammy, gossiping with Laurissa, and having fun; Luna was feeling like herself again. Her dad came back, but with all of her stuff, she left at his house to make her feel like she lives there. She was confused and afraid about what was going to happen next.
“What’s going on? Why do you have all of my things? Did I do something wrong? Am I in trouble?” Her dad didn’t say a word, he just hugged her tightly and kissed her on the top of her head.
“Something happened, and I am taking you back home. It’s not about you, it has nothing to do with you.”
“What happened, Blake?” That was Laurissa asking because Luna’s face was still shoved into her father’s chest, struggling to breathe or even hear what she had asked her dad.
“She kicked me out.” Luna knew that Raina truly was a vile witch from another dimension. Luna wanted to find her and murder her for ruining her dad’s life. Her dad paid for everything he gave to her, and this was how she repaid him, by kicking him out of the house that he had recently bought and the car that was partially his.
She felt her anger; she felt everything going wrong around her and all she could do was take a step back out of her dad’s arms and take the cruel punishment that was given to her for having a good time with Laurissa and her boys.
The car ride home was eerie.
She wasn’t ready to go back home; she wasn’t ready to deal with spending the New Year without her dad. It made her unhinged; she wanted to cry; she wanted to jump off a bridge and hope no one would find her. She just couldn’t handle it, and she didn’t want to. She was scared about what her mother was going to say to him about how he is bringing Luna back two weeks early because of Raina.
That woman ruined her vacation, ruined her relationship with her dad for good.
She finally got back to her mom’s house. She hugged her dad with all her strength because she didn’t know when the next time she was going to see him. That night, her mom went into her room to check on her. Luna was crying into her pillow.
“Why are you crying?”
“I didn’t want to leave. Why did I have to come back? I feel like it’s my fault for all of this.”
“Luna, it wasn’t your fault. Your father is a grown man. He isn’t your responsibility.” She was right, but Luna didn’t care. She cared about her dad more than she cared about herself. Was she upset with him? Yes, but she never wished for something like this to happen. What she didn’t expect was how it was going to affect her life for good. She knew her life wouldn’t be the same ever again.
“You’re right, mom, I shouldn’t worry about him. He did this to himself. I just feel like I was the main reason because they were ‘perfectly’ happy and then I came over and ruined that happy family’s life.” Which wasn’t wrong? She always felt like that when she was at her dad’s house because she wouldn’t understand anything going on, but worse, she’d have to deal with all the chores as if she was a maid.
She wasn’t getting paid an allowance for all the chores she was doing, but she was doing them for her father’s happiness. She never wanted to see her dad sad in any way; then again, she was like that for all her parents because she thought of all three of them being brave and strong. She was always scared about how normal parents would react when their kids were hurting, but in her family, they weren’t normal.
She was constantly dealing with issues that made her want to die daily, but the closest she came to dying was trying to catch an asthma attack. She could feel every emotion within her. She hated it; she hated constantly crying, the constant fear of men when they got too close to her; she was shocked that Oliver was so close to her; she wasn’t petrified by his existence.
“Try to get some sleep Luna, you need some sleep.” She wasn’t wrong, Luna hardly got any sleep the night before because she knew she was going back to her dad’s, but then that changed to her going back to her mom’s, then all the crying she was doing. She was emotionally, mentally, and physically exhausted.
“Okay, good night,”
“Night,”
She got out of her room; she walked into the hallway; peaked into Kennedy’s room. Kennedy was still asleep. She looked down the short hallway and walked toward the living room. It looked normal, but in the dream, it also looked normal - what made it different was time. She looked at the clock and it was 7:16 am. She was the first one up. She headed back to her room and get back to sleep just for an extra hour before her mom would wake her up to walk her dog Chewie. Luna didn’t mind walking with Chewie. It gave her a reason to wake up early, and a way to get out of the house, even for a couple of minutes. She loved being with Chewie; he cared about Luna more than she knew. He was always there for her when she was crying or having a bad day.
While she was laying in bed, she kept tossing and turning. All she thought about was the dream. That dream was more vivid than all the other dreams she had before. She wished she could tell someone about the dream and see if someone can help her understand what it means. All she wanted was the truth behind it, but more than anything, she wanted to know what her parents were talking about in the dream.
Next thing she knew, an hour had passed because her mom came in saying, “Hey, you got to wake up and walk Chewie.” She knew what she was going to wear since she was up an hour ago, so she put the outfit together in the closet so no one saw it yet. It was a casual outfit for Luna. She chose a regular graphic tee and jeans. Nothing too crazy, but not too comfortable.
When she got outside with Chewie, she started thinking out loud. She knew no one was awake yet, nor were they going to come out. She brought Chewie back upstairs. Her mom was in the kitchen making breakfast. It looked like she was making the usual eggs, sausage, and bacon. She set up the table for breakfast. She could feel herself being tense.
Luna kept thinking about how her dad left her before Christmas.
Luna’s dad dropped her off less than a week before Christmas Eve, so not only did she not get to see what her dad got her this Christmas, but now she will never see what those presents were because of Raina’s insecurities.
“Hey mom, should I be mad or sad about how my dad doesn’t want to be around because he is about to have a new baby girl?”
“No Luna, your dad is just trying to be there for Raina. I think Raina was wrong for the way she did it, but your dad loves you in his own way.”
“You’re right, but I hate how he had to push me out to make room for other people’s kids. It makes me question, what would happen if he wants to marry Raina?” Which was a serious question in her head. Her dad asked her before Raina was pregnant if she would give Raina a chance to prove that she could be a “great” stepmom. Luna always answered that question with a straight up NO. She would always say NO to that question, because she didn’t trust Raina as much as she could throw her (which wasn’t far).
“If your dad marries Raina, then if you want… you don’t have to see him again; because I know how much you hate Raina. You don’t have to deny it. I hate her too. She is rude and careless, she doesn’t care about you, and she makes you clean up the entire house when you aren’t there like they are 24/7. Plus, I see how tired you are when you come back from being with your dad because the minute you come home, you either eat something, down an entire bottle of water and then crash as if you were working the entire time you are with him.” Her mom wasn’t wrong, though. When she would come back from her dad’s house, she would either be starving or thirsty, but always extremely exhausted. Raina would have Luna doing all these chores that Lucas was too lazy to do. She was constantly busy, so she wouldn’t be able to get her homework done until later those nights when Raina and everyone were asleep.
“I wouldn’t know what to do if dad marries Raina, because part of me would say that I hate him for choosing her over me, but another part of me would be happy that he finally settled down. It would just be too hard for me to just say ‘dad, I can’t see you anymore’. It is a big decision, but let’s hope that decision doesn’t come soon.” Which wasn’t wrong, because how can she just kick her father out of her life because he finally was happy… then again, she knew that couldn’t deal with those people anymore.
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