A World Of Lies

Chapter 29

Lauren's POV

The memory of my dad beating me came flooding back to me when Camz asked me what was wrong. Of course, I had tried to shrug it off, yet it hadn't worked at all.

"Dad isn't the same as he was when we were little. He has some sort of a secret. I'm not exactly sure yet what it is, but I'm getting there," I told my sister. She had tears in her eyes as she kissed my stomach lightly. I then kissed her head, yet Camz was still distraught.

"Just don't worry about it, okay? Now come on, lets go eat," I said. I took her hand and began to walk to the kitchen.

We had a nice meal together, however as I expected our dad was missing. Our mom said he had gone out to go take care of a few things. I wondered if she knew what this secret was, or if she was just as clueless as the rest of us.

After dinner, our mother suggested that the four of us watched a movie together. We all sat on the couch as our mom put in the Toy Story movie to watch.

I sat on the corner of the couch and didn't pay much attention to the movie. Instead I couldn't help but think about my dad. I was definitely going to have to figure out what he was up to. After a while I figured that I could just find out the next day, and I had a plan to do so.

Ally's POV

My entire day was spent at the hospital. The night before, a little while after I had left, my grandfather had coughed up a significant amount of blood, then passed out. He was still alive, yet he was also still unconscious.

Normani, the great friend that she was, stayed with me throughout the entire day. She even called Dinah to come, too. She was also going to call Troy, but I had told her not to. I didn't want to deal with my feeling for him and Lauren at the moment, but I hadn't told that to Normani. I had only told her that I didn't want to worry him, so she respected that.

Dinah and Normani comforted me for the whole day. I told them more in depth about my grandfather's case. "Why didn't you tell us before, dawg?" Dinah asked. "I didn't want to bother you guys," I confessed.

"Ally! We want to help you, no matter what! You don't bother us when you have a problem, trust me!" Normani protested as she gave me a hug. Dinah joined in the hug, causing me to smile, when my parents walked up to us.

I looked up at my parents and my smile faded away as quickly as it came. "What's the news?" I asked. "He woke up, but he's going to have to stay here at least a couple of days," my mom said. "May I see him?" I questioned shyly. "He's not aloud visitors until tomorrow," my dad replied.

"Girls, it's getting really late, you should go home," my mom said. "You can stay at my house tonight," Normani told me. I turned back to my parents who nodded. "Dinah you could come too," Normani said. "For sure," she replied. With that, we headed to Normani's house.

Of course, Ashley was just conveniently outside of her house, this time with Vanessa by her side, when we got there. "Hey losers," Vanessa said. "Shut up b***h," Normani replied.

Evidently not wanting to cause conflict, I tugged on Normani's shirt. "Just ignore them," I whispered to her. She ignored me and gave both of the girls a glare.

"Vanessa, oh my gosh, they're making eye contact, RUN," Ashley mocked us. "You f*****g little pieces of crap," Normani started and Dinah continued, "What in the world did we ever do to you?" "Not you two, just her," Ashley said with poison laced in her voice while pointing at me. "We just make you all suffer," Vanessa added with a shrug.

With that, I had had enough. I stormed off to Normani's house with both of my friends at my heels. I rushed inside and stormed up to Normani's room and began to cry my eyes out of my sockets.

The door burst open moments later. Normani and Dinah came rushing to my side. I leaned on Dinah's shoulder while I continued to sob. The girls asked me questions for a few minutes, but I didn't answer an of them.

"Pero, go get ice cream. I'll handle this," Dinah ordered, so Normani left quickly. The moment she left, Dinah turned to me. "Tell me what's wrong. I know it's more than just Ashley and Vanessa being their stupid selves.

I sniffled. "It's just everything," I told her. "What do you mean?" she asked. "Well I've never liked this drama with those girls, but there's my grandfather, and now I have things with Troy," I started, yet I was cut off by Normani walking in. "What happened with Troy?" she questioned. "Nothing," I trailed off in a soft voice.

"Ally," Dinah and Normani warned simultaneously. "I don't want to talk about it," I told them as I wiped away my tears. "Ally, we want to help you," Normani insisted. "I do not want to talk about it!" I said too loudly, causing Dinah and Normani to be shocked.

Even though I felt bad, I didn't say anything about it. "I'm going to bed," I said in a shaky voice. My sleeping bag from the previous night was still set up, so I curled into it and went to bed with new tears streaming down my damp cheeks.

Lauren's POV

"Lauren, wake up, mama's making pancakes," Camz whispered in my ear, waking me up. I didn't want to get up, so I pretended to be asleep. There was a moment of silence before I felt someone jump on top of me.

"Ouch!" I pretended to cry as I got up to see that it had been Sofia. "Come on! I want food!" Sofia exclaimed. I began to chuckle as I turned to Camz and said, "Yup, she's definitely our sister. Camz laughed and we all headed downstairs for breakfast.

When the three of us got downstairs, there was an abundance of pancakes on the table. Camz and Sofia rushed to the table and began to devour them as I slowly followed them and had a few. As we ate, our dad came down.

No one else payed attention, but I kept my eyes on him. He seemed calmer than the night before, yet I could tell that it was only a short matter of time before he was going to need another fix.

Throughout the day, I payed very close attention to him. Maybe the way he acted would give me a hint of what he was hiding. Sadly, I had no luck with this.

"I'm going out," my dad said after lunch to all of us. This was my chance to find out his secret. It was either then or never, so I shot up and said, "I'm going to go with you."

Clearly, he didn't want this at all. However, he didn't say anything in front of our mom because I had come to the conclusion that she knew nothing about this.

He walked out of the house briskly, and I followed him quickly. He got into the driver's seat and I sat in shotgun. I wanted to drive instead of him because he was obviously in no position to drive, yet that would arouse suspicion from others.

Before we left, my dad went into the glove department. He pulled out a huge roll of masking tape. He took of a strip of tape and put it on my mouth. "Don't make a sound if you know what's good for you," he warned, and with that he began to drive.

My dad took out his phone and called a number. The phone call went onto the the dashboard so I could hear everything that was happening on either line.

After three rings, a boy, probably around fourteen years old, picked up the phone. "Hello?" he asked. "Hey, can I speak with your mother?" my dad asked. "Sure, no problem," the boy replied. Then he called in the background. "Mom! Dad's calling!"

Wait a minute- dad?