"Dead Girl"~Niki Belle

“Dead Girl”


I got up the next morning with a sore back which I blamed on staying up for hours in Tod’s room waiting for him. I looked at my cell phone beside my bed. It was nine thirty-four on Tuesday morning. I pulled myself out of the bed and tiptoed to Tod’s room. I peeked in the door and Tod was laying in bed with his comforter piled on top of his legs and torso. I shut the door quietly. If he was still in bed, then he hadn’t talked to dad. I wanted to know what was so important that he was sneaking out at night to do it. He’d been gone for the last three nights as well, but I had decided against telling Dad about it. I didn’t want to get him into any more trouble than he got himself into.
When I got downstairs, Dad was sitting on the couch, flipping through the channels on the TV. He looked up at me when I came down the stairs.
“Good morning, Niki.” He said, returning his attention to the TV. “Did you sleep well?” He asked. He didn’t seem mad at all. He was actually unusually cheery. Almost to the point where it was creepy.
“Umm…fine…I guess.” I said. He reacted as though my reply had contained no ‘ums’ or awkward pauses.
“That’s good.” He said. “I’m glad you slept well. Do you want any breakfast? I went to the store last night and got some Cheerios. I know they’re your favorite. Or I could make you some pancakes, if you want me to.” He said. Something was definitely up. He never acted this…I searched for a word…agreeable. And he was most certainly not this agreeable the morning after learning one of kids had decided to sneak out.
“Um, I guess I’ll just have cereal.” I said. I walked toward the kitchen, pondering the situation in my head. Why would he be this happy? Especially after what happened last night? Did he even remember what had happened last night?
I poured milk on my cereal and took it to the living room to eat it. He was still flipping channels when I sat down, but he didn’t seem to be focusing on it. I looked up at the TV screen. He was flipping through the nine thousands. Every channel was blank. I wondered how long he had been sitting on the couch in order to go through all nine thousand of our channels. When he hit channel 9999, it flipped back to channel 03 and a tennis match started playing on the screen. My dad looked startled and stopped flipping channels long enough to look up at the screen. When he realized what had happened, he continued to scroll through the channels displaying everything from infomercials to cooking shows, to sports, to cartoons.
About fifteen minutes later, Tod came down the stairs. His hair was hanging down in front of his face, and he was rubbing his eyes. My dad looked up and immediately stopped flipping channels. I figured the sight of Tod coming down made him remember the incident last night.
“I hope you slept well.” He said mockingly, as if daring Tod to complain. Tod caught on quickly.
“I did.” He said in a very monotonous tone.
“We have to talk about last night.” Dad said, shutting of the television completely and turning his attention to Tod. “Where were you last night?” Tod looked as though he’d planned an entire speech to answer this question.
“Well, I was going to get something that I left in the woods last night, and I wanted to get it before I went to sleep so I wouldn’t forget. I just slipped out for a second.” He was a good liar, but I could see through him easily. He had gone to carve the tree, just like he’d done every night since Saturday.
“Don’t lie to me. I sat here from one’ o clock until the time you came home. You did not just slip out for a second. Now tell me, where were you?” He was starting to get angry. Tod was white as a sheet. I guess he hadn’t planned on the fact that Dad had waited up for him.
“I was getting my pocket knife…b-but I got lost.” He said.
“If you got lost, why did you say that you only slipped out for a second? You’re lying now too. Tell me the truth.” He said loudly. I was afraid he would wake up the rest of the house, until I realized that Mom and my sisters had gone to a horse exposition today. Tod sighed.
“I was carving something in a tree. I wanted to get it finished as soon as possible, so I snuck out to do it.” Dad’s face turned red.
“You snuck out to carve a tree at four o’ clock in the morning?” He said through gritted teeth. “And then you lied about it?”
“I didn’t want anyone to know about it.” He said. He looked like he was about to cry.
“And why is that? What exactly were you carving on the tree that you didn’t want anyone to know about?” He was calming down a little bit, but he was still angry.
“I was carving a heart,” He paused. “And I didn’t want anyone to know because…because it was for…” He stopped and took a deep breath. “…It was for Milly.” He said.
“This whole thing…all of this…was for Milly?” He spat out the name as though it was something vile.
“I knew you wouldn’t understan-” Dad cut him off.
“I understand perfectly. You’re giving up everything for a girl. You think you love her. You don’t even know what love is, Tod. SHE’S DEAD! YOU HAVE TO MOVE ON! YOU CAN’T SPEND YOUR WHOLE LIFE ON A DEAD GIRL!!!” He yelled. I was shocked. I had never heard him talk to Tod so contemptuously. He had taken the topic of lecturing Tod and turned it into a scream fest about Milly’s death. Tod ran up the stairs, his face tightened with a flood of uncontrollable tears. Dad turned back to the television as though nothing had happened.
I stood up off the couch and took my bowl into the kitchen. When I walked back through the living room, Dad was flipping channels again. I went up the stairs and knocked on Tod’s door. He didn’t answer...and I didn't blame him.