4 GONE AND RETURN Part 4

Morrisey made up her mind, she's going to see Elsa today before school starts on Monday. Just when she's about to change her clothes, someone bangs on her door.

"You piece of shit, you freeload here everyday and you can't even lift your fingers to make me breakfast!"

Morrisey sighs. She didn't hear her mom came in last night, she thought her mom is still outside. By the look of it, some man must had rejected her advanced and now she's in bad mood, ready to spills it all over Morrisey. She better leaves quick.

Morrisey open her bedroom door and rapidly walks away avoiding her mom.

"I bought some frozen food yesterday, you can pop it in the microwave." Morrisey said as she makes her way out.

And without warning her mom grabs her hair from behind, making her fall to the ground.

"You shitty kid, its all your fault!" She screams as she slapping Morrisey who lays on the ground. She wishes over and over that she finds an opening so she can stands up and leaves. But that opening never come, she covers her face with her hands, suddenly in her head she remembered something. She then recites a couple lines, blows it to her fingers and the next time her mom landed a slap to her face she grabs her hand and scratch it hard, enough to make her bleed.

Both Morrisey and her mom surprised by this action. Her mom is about to hit her again in rage but she suddenly stops mid air. And then she becomes frozen, almost paralyzed with a blank stares on her eyes.

Morrisey doesn't waste a moment, she rises and flee immediately. But then slowly she comes back again and examines her mom condition.

"Mom.." she called.

It looks like someone turns off her battery from inside. She's still standing in the same position with no response.

Morrisey opens the book in her hands, checking the spell she just recited. The spell to disarmed the enemy. She was reading it before, and luckily she remembered it.

She observes her mom once again, and then she left.

***

Morrisey waits at Elsa's house since noon, but nobody seems at home. She decided to look for lunch first when she saw Dylan's truck at the diner nearby. There, Dylan is hanging out with some kids from their school. If anybody know where Elsa is, it must be Dylan. She comes across the road to the diner.

"Where is she?" Morrisey said as she stands in front of a table full of Dylan's friends looking at her.

"Well, if it isn't Miss Trashy Trash." one of Dylan's friend open his mouth. The one who wears basketball shorts and shoes but never played any games.

"What happened to her eyes?" Alison McKay asked. She, if anybody ever make a suggestion, is the one who eyeing for Elsa's position as Dylan's girlfriend. Though she plays it quite subtle, not making any aggressive moves, that will gain her a homewrecker reputation.

After Allison remarks, Morrisey just realized the altercation with her mom must have ruined her make up. And she wasn't even finished putting on concealer when her mom interrupted before.

"I need to talk to you outside." Morrisey said as she leaves the table.

She waits outside, as Dylan finally make his way out.

"Where is she?" She repeated her question.

"What do you want with her?"

"Will you just answer the question." Morrisey said.

"She went with his dad, planning for her mom's funeral."

"Where is it?" Morrisey sternly asked.

"Geez, what the heck do you want, Morri? Why can't you wait till the funeral? She just needs some time.."

"I can fix this, Dylan." She said. ".. just let me talk to her."

"Go home, Morri. I'll text you when the funeral is going to be held." Dylan said as he walks away.

"Take me to her.. or else.. I'll tell her about what happened.." with that sentence, Dylan stop moving. She comes back to Morrisey and stand in front of her close enough, she can feels his breath on her.

"Are you blackmailing me, Morri? Is that what you want to do?" he whispered intensely.

Morrisey shakes her head. "I just need you to help me talks to her."

Dylan run his hand through his hair in frustration.

"Just this one time, okay." He said. "Put your bycyle on my truck."

Morrisey obeys his order. From a far she can see Dylan talks to his gank and they all let him go in confusion. Morrisey can feels Alison's eyes in her back as they drive away in Dylan's truck.

"Where are we going?" Morrisey asked again.

"To her aunt house, in the next town."

Dylan looks at her for a moment.

"What the heck happened to your eyes."

Shoot. She forgets again. She takes out her concealer from her bag, and begin to apply it with the help of Dylan's truck rear mirror.

"It's nothing. Something dropped when I open the cupboard."

"Does that something your mom's hand?" Dylan asked sarcasticly. "Does she still beats you up?"

Morrisey doesn't answers. The fact that Dylan knows is not the thing that bother her. It's the moment when she told him that she wants to avoid.

But now she remembered again. It was one of those night when Elsa asked Morrisey to accompany her in one of Dylan's hangout session with his friends. Secret fact, Elsa is highly insecure when it comes to Dylan's friend. She almost always dragged Morrisey when Dylan wants Elsa to hangout with his friends. And that night was one of those night when Dylan drank some beer with his friend and very horny. Elsa who is the perfect princess, didn't want to loose his virginity in a back of a truck on a parking lot. So like any other times, she rejected Dylan's advanced. But since they all juat drank some beers, they need to cool their head first before they came back home. And the perfect place was Morrisey's house, since her mom always out on Saturday night. Elsa was out from two glass of beer. Morrisey only drink a sip, knowing she's going to be the one who drove Dylan's truck because he drank quite a lot.

At her home, she tugged Elsa on her bed, and went to clean her face in the bathroom. She almost forgot that Dylan is still awake when he showed up at the bathroom door.

"Why you always wore that thick scary make up?" he asked suddenly. "You should try more brighter colour, it probably good on you."

At this moment Morrisey realized there's still a little mark from her mom under her chin. It must be visible since she just cleaned up her face.

"I don't know. To piss my mom, maybe." she said.

"What's the deal with you and her mom? Did she hit you?" Dylan asked casually.

"Nothing.. the usual."

"It's not usual for a mom to left her daughter on Saturday night doing whatever with an empty fridge."

"You going through my fridge?"

"I was hungry. And there was nothing there."

"Did you had a fight with her?" Dylan asked again.

"No, she just hate me."

"Why does she hate you?"

"If I answer it, will you let it go and stop asking me questions?" Morrisey became annoyed.

"It's because I know my dad was cheating on her and I didn't tell her."

Dylan laughed. "What?"

"It's not like I didn't want to tell her. I just didn't know it was the kind of relationship he had with her. I was 12, and there's this lady at my father's office who is so nice to me, giving me present and stuff. I didn't had that kind of radar back then, you know.. when you can saw that this man and woman had a romantic relationship.. and then when my mom found out, all hell let loose. She knew I was getting presents from her, talks to her about stuff, and she just.. didn't like it."

Morrisey put her towel back in her face, she didn't want Dylan to know she was tearing up.

Dylan looks at Morrisey. "Hey, its not your fault. Your dad is the jerk one, not you."

"Yeah, and then he died, leaving me all alone with the one woman who hate me. I know he's a jerk alright." Morrisey laughed.

What happened next it was so fast, maybe because she drank more than a sip. Or maybe because Dylan told her the one thing she wanted to hear from anyone. And it was mostly because Dylan still hadn't sobered up yet.

She remembered Dylan came inside the bathroom, he wiped the tears in her cheek. They look at each other for a moment before they kissed. And then they had sex in the bathroom, while Elsa is sleeping in the next door.

***