Chapter 4:
Phone incident.
Quinn

"Quinn! Hey!" Miguel wrapped his arms around me in a tight hug, and I hugged him back.

"You two know eachother?" Eli asked as we pulled away.

"Yeah, our moms are like best friends. We met a month ago. I had no idea you were coming here," Miguel admitted as I sat down next to him.

I took out my notepad and quickly wrote down my thoughts, as Miguel wasn't well versed in the area of Sign Language.

"I didn't know you were coming here either."

"So, Quinn, any luck on rekindling your bond with your beloved cousin?" Demetri glanced over to Moon, who was smiling and laughing the world away.

And I quirked my brow at him with a lazy turn of my head.

"One of the popular girls?" Miguel asked, and I nodded.

"Can you introduce me?"

Oh, no.

"Never in a million years."

"What? Oh come on Quinn-"

"She has a bad history with Moons side of the family," Eli jumped in, saving me from having to write down a summarized version of why I despised my fathers side of the family.

"It's better not to ask."

"Oh, sorry," Miguel apologized, his smile faltering before returning to his lunch.

"How's your day so far?" I signed to Eli, taking a bite out of my pb & j sandwich. No way in hell am I going to eat the food here.

"It's been decent. I have Kyler for homeroom, so not the best," He admitted.

"Sorry about that. But after lunch, we have the rest of our classes together. Want to come-?"

"Quinn, my mom wanted to know if you were available for dinner at my place after school today," Miguel asked before I could finish signing, and Eli silently interjected to that when the corner of his mouth twitched upward.

"Sure. Can I take the bus with you?"

"Yeah, we can catch up Supernatural! Oh man, Dean is so cool!"

"No way. Sam is the cooler brother."

"Not with hair like that," Miguel scoffed, "and Dean knows the life on the road. Sam went to college."

"You'll see in the next season, Sam is hot AND a smarty!"

Miguel smirked, "Oh, so it's totally not about his hair?"

"Obviously not."

________________

I got home later than expected that night. We binged another season and although Carmen was fine with it, I knew I'd regret it in the morning. It's already hard to get me up, but staying out till ten?

I won't make it past nine-thirty when the Halloween dance comes around.

As I set my bag down, I heard my moms voice. But, she sounded so. . .angry. So furious.

I hadn't heard her this mad since that night.

"No, no! No! I have had enough! I was terrified of my own father, so terrified that I couldn't even come out! So fucking terrified that I married a fucking rapist! A fucking rapist who made me believe that I was in the wrong, that I was a filthy bitch who needed to be raped almost every night. . .every week I was so scared. . ." She sobbed into the phone.

She's talking about. . .

"So fuck you! You can die starving on the streets for all I care, or better yet. . .get hit by a fucking bus," And she hung up before collapsing onto the floor and sobbing her eyes out. Holding herself.

I slowly approached her, sitting on the ground next to her and she leaned her head on my shoulder. My dad was not the best person in the world, and I'll always despise him for hurting mom and I. It's why Moon and I aren't as close as we were when we were kids, and that's because she only knows half the story.

And it makes me feel awful, as Eli defends me and yet knows nothing about why I hate my dad and why I don't speak.

One day, Eli.

I promise.