Chapter Three: Beverly Jones

Hey lovely readers, so it's me again with another chapter of PIAB and as you have noticed, the book cover has changed (might change it again though), well that's because I thought of the previous one as "insipid" but it's changed now but I'm not yet satisfied, so in case you see another change of cover, don't panic okay, zombies ain't eating on my brain, okay?

Well, other than that I haven't got much to say, so enjoy...

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Beverly's POV

"How was school?" My dad asked after the long, aching silence and I rolled my eyes over him.

"Still don't wanna talk about it." I muttered, not removing my gaze from my lunch of cornbread and sauce, which had always been a disgusting combo for me and of course my parents knew it, but yet they keep feeding me with that crap every time they get the chance.

"C'mon baby, tell us, we really want to hear." And that was my mother whose picture of her features had already started to elude my brain for I see her once in every blue moon, when she doesn't have work or dumb conferences.

I lifted my face from the silverware and finally let my gaze catch theirs as I wore a small smile to hide my irritation.

"I'm fine, that's all." I said, pushing my food away, finally losing every ounce of appetite in me.

"Any new friends?" My dad asked, tickling my sides and that was followed by an awful scowl from me to him, but immediately faked a smile and nodded slowly towards him, as he withdrew his hands and his cheeks flushing hot

"Guys, really, school should be the least of y'all's worries for now, I'm cool with school and school is cool with me." I spat, my mind traveling back earlier today at the memory of Will in the hallway, of course that was the opposite of everything I just said and honestly I didn't care, I didn't care if they hated me or whatever, just like them, I've earned my place in Redwood so nobody, not Xavier, not Aaron, not Will or even the staff for crying out loud would make me feel inferior.

"I'd be in my room." I dismissed their gibberish chatter as I pushed away from the table, walking towards the steps, but stopped frozen in my tracks when my mother called me back,

"Stephanie," she called back, my neck tightening as she pronounced my middle name, "we love you," she announced, making me flush angrily,

"Bev, we are your parents and we deserve—"

"Spare me the rest of it,"I barked at her immediately the word, "parents" crossed my ears,

"Parents you call yourselves right? Yes you are my parents," I walked towards them, stopping at the edge of the dinning table as I looked at them with eyes covered with unshed tears,

"You love me mom, you say it yourself, mom when was the last time we had an intimate conversation, hell, when was the last time we spoke mom, I don't even know what you look like anymore, but it's understandable right, your work over your child, that's the perfect virtue, Beth!" I quaked, holding back tears with all my might as I let stacked emotions fall.

"It's not what you—" my mother was saying with a small voice untill I cut her short,

"Uh-uh, let me finish," I smiled wickedly at her as I watched her, eyes down cast in evident guilt.

"You are wicked mother." I spat, not caring about the effect it had on her, I was speaking my mind and no implicity there.

"Baby, you shouldn't say that." My father said, waving his hand at me like he was any righteous.

"Oh you pot thinking he's any different from a kettle," I smirked but dismissed it as immediately as it had come, feeling the urge to cry.

"How old am I father?

Tell me my age Sam and then, only then would I assume you are any better." I said, looking directly into his eyes as they fell onto his shoes in submission.

"That's exactly what I thought." I said weakly, now letting the tears crammed in my eyes roll freely down my cheeks as I sobbed.

"Ba-babe, ba-baby, come o—" my father gibbered shakily and I shut him up with a swing of my hand.

"I. Hate. You. Both." I declared, emphasising every syllable after the other, before running to my room.

I didn't believe that I really hated them if I think about it, but I just couldn't stand the neglect any longer, it was eating me up slowly, gradually and meticulously, so I did the only thing that came to mind, I called Andrew.

The phone rang and rang out, forwarding me to voicemail.

"Argh!" I screamed under my voice in frustration before slumping on my bed, my hair scattering all over my face and I blew a few strands away, tears still rolling down from my eyes as I remembered Xavier's expression in the hallway with me and I let out a small chuckle, but soon enough it grew to a stifled laughter and now a full-fledged chortle.

The memory was the one thing that made me laugh hardly recently, as his meek, innocent, harmless face hovered in my head making me jump up and down in hysteria.

"He's so stupid." I mouthed, grabbing my phone from the bed and bringing it to my face, and it was at that exact moment that it began to ring aloud.

Andrew was calling back...

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"I'd come I promise," I assured Camella, who had been coaxing me to join her to camp and for someone who freely took me in on my first day at school when everyone was ogling and just staring at me, I had to do it for her.

"Thanks, gotta go, see you at Noah's, texting you the address right away, bye, see you soooon." She rattled and ended the call which I laughed softly at.

"I hate short notices, for God's sake." I grunted and jumped out from bed, doing a little outfit calculation in my head as I stared at my closet before resulting to my brown evening gown and white purse with white stilettos.

So I grabbed it and hurried off to shower after which I came out and packed my clothes and other needed properties in my backpack.

Okay, I don't have a car any longer for I had angrily thrown it back to my parents after my argument with them and I needed it right about now as I gazed at the map that Camella had earlier sent to me, rubbing my chin as I wondered on what to do.

Then an idea rushed to my head,

I grunted at the thought, thinking of chickening out when Camella's reverbrated in my head, her tone seeming so desperate and eager, and with the way she intoned "please" just made me believe that she needed me there.

I sighed in surrender to the instinct that was inclining towards retrieving my car, heck they wouldn't even care if I did.

"It's now or never," I whispered to myself as I jetted towards my parents room, turning their door knob slowly and luckily the door creaked open, opening slightly and my heart began to thump hurriedly as I walked into the chilly room, biting my teeth at the cold and rubbing up my sleeves gingerly while I walked towards the nightstand beside my parents' bed, still gritting my teeth.

Heaven knows I don't know why their room is always cold and freezing, well there's a lot I don't know about them if we think about it.

I pulled the top drawer, guessing it was where the keys would be, but it wasn't, books and notes were crammed in that drawer, a lot with warning signs embedded on their pages, so I wondered the obvious- what the freaking hell were those notes!

The top book had "DIARY" inscribed on the cover, therefore increasing my curiosity as I withdrew it, flipping the pages eagerly as I read the writings of my mother, her handwriting clean and arty but still disgusting to me.

I was going to drop the book, knowing how ungodly it was to read someone's diary, when my eyes fell on a title that caught my drifting attention.

THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF MY LIFE, BETHANY JONES

"Haha," I mocked a laugh, "let me guess, when you struck a deal with Bill Gates and became the CEO of Microsoft," I said, laughing, but inwardly I was feeling hurt, something in my gut deterred me from reading and I closed the book, quickly, but just when I was bringing the pages of the book together, I caught my full name written in bold, "BEVERLY STEPHANIE JONES"

I quickly ropeed the book, flipping vigorously through its pages as I searched for the note and I found it, almost immediately.

THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF MY LIFE, BETHANY JONES,

It's not work or money that courses me with this extreme happiness today but the reason that my daughter and only child lives, BEVERLY STEPHANIE JONES, it breaks my heart that I might not watch her grow, transform into the woman that she would most definitely become, the beautiful damsel that I'd be proud of, it hurts me beyond words to know that she wouldn't have any moments with me, of course I get it, it's all my fault, I'm to blame, but I did what I had to do to make her happy and comfortable, but is she? Is she really happy? That I can't tell because we barely see and as much as irresponsible as that sounds, I don't think there's anything I can do about that.

I wouldn't blame her if she grows to hate me, to know me for who I'm not, I blame myself, but I can't just sit with crossed arms and watch my only child live the live my parents gave to me, she'd grow to be a better person, with a better life and all the privileges of life and wealth.

She's it, she's Beverly, she's beautiful, she's my daughter and she's everything I live for, nothing would change that, till death takes me apart.

Happy Birthday baby.

June 30th, 2016

Now, tears were freefalling from my eyes and the droplets fell onto the book, as I read the last part, June 30th, 2016, my tenth birthday,

"She always knew," I sobbed stiffly as I processed.

"I'm sorry for those words, mom." I whispered amidst tears and just then, two arms engulfed me in a gentle embrace and the rosy cologne hit against my nose and I sighed satisfactorily, doing a 180 and looking directly at my mother, who's eyes were clouded with unshed tears and her face dark red.

"It's fine," she whispered, pulling me in another hug and now I held her as tightly as ever, resting my chin against her shoulder as I cried heavily on her silk gown,

"It's okay, babe." She whispered again into my ears and I shivered at her words before withdrawing from the embrace.

"I love you mom." I muttered, my cheeks flushing hot as I spat.

"I love you too." She whispered, wiping the tears from my cheeks with her thumbs.

I looked deeply into her eyes in fondness as her eyes twinkled slightly, making me blush harder.

"I've got to go, mom," I announced, pulling her hands from my cheeks as I raked aimlessly over the room.

"And, have you by any means seen my car key?" I asked, feeling defeated as I looked at her glistening eyes, which told me starkly that she had seen it.

"Came to hand it to you." She announced, reaching for her purse and forwarding the key to me, "your principal called, saying you had camping, I don't know, but take it." She pushed it further to me and I received it, my lips stretching into a wide smile after I kissed her forehead.

"Bye," I said, stepping away from the room and running back to mine.

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A/N: I'm personally not feeling this chapter for real, I think it's just tedious to read, but if you read till this chapter then congratulations to you for you are the bestest person in the world 🙈

Anyway, the next chapter is loading and I bet you would love it because it's damn crazy, can you believe that Xavier actually...

No spoilers, yeah no spoilers I understand, so see you tomorrow I guess.

And don't forget to fan and comment and vote and follow for there's nothing more encouraging!!