Chapter Three
“I swear, how in the world can one person mess up a car so much?” JC grumbled, making his third trip to the trashcan. “I thought she said if we bought her this car, she’d wash it and clean the inside every weekend. That lasted all of what, a month?”
Rolling her eyes playfully, Jen set the bucket of soap and water down at his feet.
“I don’t think it lasted even that long, if you want to know the truth,” she laughed.
He let out a disgusted grunt as he leaned into the back seat to start on that. It had taken him twenty five minutes just to clean the front!
“Why in the world are you on this little cleaning spree, anyway?” Jen questioned. It was eight thirty on a Saturday morning and JC had been up for almost an hour. After devouring a quick breakfast, he’d come right outside to start on the cars.
“I’ve been meaning to clean your car up for awhile now. I peeked inside of hers and saw how trashy it was and decided to clean hers too. Big mistake,” he laughed.
“Well I’ll tell you what. Since you’re such an awesome husband and dad, I’ll get started on my own car. It won’t take that long if we each do one. Otherwise, you’ll be out here all day,” she joked.
Though he thought about disagreeing, he knew she was right. His wife’s car wasn’t exactly spotless on the inside either and if he had to clean both cars, inside and out, he was definitely going to need some help.
~*~
It had taken another whole hour to finish the cars, but at least everything was done. Jen had done a marvelous job on hers, but when he saw her, he couldn’t help but laugh. The front of her shirt was wet from where her stomach rubbed against the car.
“Look at you!” He teased, grinned as he dropped the hose and walked over to her side. He threw his arms around her shoulder and laughed when she looked down and turned a delicate shade of red.
“It’s not funny!” She protested, her lips protruding in a distinct pout.
“You’re right. It’s hilarious,” he joked, dropping a kiss to the top of her head. He gave her a gentle squeeze and then released her from his grasp. “Let’s go wake the sleepyheads up, huh? You take Abbi; I’ve got the violent one.”
~*~
“Good morning, sunshine!” JC called, throwing the door to his oldest daughter’s room open. His eyes widened in surprise when he saw her curled up on her side, her arm wrapped around her middle. “Jules? Are you okay?”
She gave him a small smile. Truthfully, she was not okay. She’d gotten hardly any sleep the previous night, worrying about how her father would react if he ever found out that she’d been dishonest with him. He would never trust her again.
He walked over and took a seat on the edge of her bed, resting his hand against her back, waiting for her to answer. When she didn’t, he spoke again.
“Does your stomach still hurt?” He asked, leaning down to kiss her cheek gently. Seeing the concern in his eyes nearly caused the tears to form once more but she blinked them back. She couldn’t rat Brianna out. The girl would never forgive her!
“Yeah, it does,” she told him, rolling over onto her back so that she could look up at the ceiling. Every part of her wanted to come clean about the night before to get it off of her chest. She’d not had any fun at the party due to the immense amount of guilt that she’d felt. She’d not slept and she knew that she wouldn’t until she told him the truth.
“You don’t think you got food poisoning or anything, do you?” He asked, his heart pounding at the thought. He’d gotten it once a few years ago. It was NOT pretty.
“No, nothing like that,” she told him softly. She turned back to her side and propped herself up on her elbow. “I have something to tell you. It’s something that you’re not going to like and I need you to make me a promise first.”
“What is it?”
“Daddy, you have to promise. Please?”
“The only promise I’m going to make is that I’ll talk whatever this is out with you. I’m not going to promise anything else.”
Knowing that there was nothing she could do, she sat up and let her feet dangle over the edge of her bed. Her head was lowered and she felt tears stinging her eyes.
“It’s about the party last night…”
“Okay…”
“Brenda’s parents weren’t there?”
“What?”
“I swear to you, daddy! I thought that they were going to be there! Brianna promised and when we got to the party, no one was there and there was a whole bunch of kids and they were drinking and I’m really sorry! I didn’t know! You know that I wouldn’t lie to you intentionally!”
“Why didn’t you call me when you realized there were no chaperones, Julie? You know how I feel about you being at parties like that. Anything could have happened! Someone could have slipped something in your drink, you guys could have been arrested!” He ranted, standing up off of the bed. He paced in her front of her, cursing under his breath.
“Daddy, please! I just wanted to have some fun! Please don’t be upset with me,” she begged, the tears sliding down her cheeks. In all her years, she’d been a good kid. She was a little mouthy at times, but she’d never done anything to warrant her father’s disappointment in her. It was not a good feeling.
Looking over at her, he felt himself softening at the sight of her tears. He knew his daughter well, knew that she’d punished herself far worse than he ever could. It showed in her face. Bags had formed under her beautiful eyes from the lack of sleep. She’d made herself literally sick with worry. But he couldn’t let this pass.
He kneeled down in front of her, taking her hands.
“Listen to me, and listen good. I’m not mad at you for the whole chaperoning thing. I know you well enough to know that you could never look me in the face and lie straight out to me. What I’m so upset about is the fact that you didn’t call when you realized no one was there, Julie. I worry about you constantly and you know that I don’t mind you going out and having a good time, but you’re sixteen. You’re not nearly as grown as you’d like to think you are and setting rules is my way of keeping you safe.”
“That being said, we are going to come up with some sort of punishment. I really do appreciate you telling me the truth, honey. Really. But you should have called me. I want you to lay down here and get some rest. You look like you’ve not slept at all.”
“I haven’t,” she sniffled. Even though her dad was threatening punishment, it was worth it to get the whole incident off her chest. It felt like a weight had been lifted.
“I’m going to go call Joey and then talk a punishment over”“
“Daddy please! Don’t call Joey! He’ll punish Bri and she’ll know that I told!” She begged, her eyes filling with tears once more. “Please! I promised I wouldn’t tell and she’s going to be so mad at me if you call Joey!”
“You shouldn’t make promises you can’t keep, Julie. I can’t keep this from Joey. I would be mad as hell if he ever kept it from me,” he explained. He gave her a look that clearly stated he could not be swayed on the matter. Many times, she’d managed to convince him not to follow through with something, but it wouldn’t work now.
“I’m sorry daddy,” she sniffled, rubbing her eyes as she climbed back underneath of the covers.
“I’m sorry, too. Sorry that you felt you couldn’t tell me sooner.”
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