Buried

01: The world as she sees it

1:00 pm. Friday. April 16th, 2015

The leathery smell of 'new car' imprinted in sixteen-year-old Bailey Roberts' mind as the first day of her new life without her father. She would always hate Mondays, the day things changed forever, but now she would hate Fridays too. It would no longer signify the end of a grueling school week, but the beginning of an unwanted change.

Rows of different crops and livestock flashed by as her mom drove through miles of country. Taking her and her eleven-year-old brother Matt away from the only home they'd ever known and their father.

Bailey sighed and the gust of air ruffled her chocolate brown bangs, causing a tickling sensation across her forehead. Resisting the urge to scratch, she rested her head against the air-conditioned fogged window in the passenger seat of the new family car. Bailey thought her mom had been compensating with the fire-hydrant colored hybrid when she pulled her and her brother out of school early the day they left. Bailey even commented on it, but the color draining from her mother's face at the joke didn't prepare her for the ugly, hurtful truth.

"Mom?" Bailey asked, interrupting the silence. "Are you okay?"

"Would you stop asking me that?" Gale said making sure Matt was asleep with a glance to the rearview mirror.

"He already knows, has for a while. He's eleven, not an invalid. Well, sometimes I question that, but packing half our stuff and those first two night's of not-so-silent sobbing in a questionable motel..." Bailey pulled away from the window and shrugged, lifting her arms for emphasis. "I had to tell him."

"You couldn't have thought of something other than—"

Bailey turned, raising an eyebrow as she spoke, "—other than the truth? No. He needed to know and I'm not going to lie for that douche bag!"

"That 'douche bag' is still your father!"

"Not by choice and Mom, if you don't loosen your grip on the steering wheel, your knuckles may stay white forever!" Bailey said and turned her head away, slipping her headphones on to drown out her mother's voice.

Broken like I'm never gonna heal.

It wasn't what the song was about, but the Lady Antebellum lyrics stuck. How ironic that that lyric sequence was the one that played when she turned the music up. As the day dragged on with random gas and treat stops, it became an unintentional mantra as she replayed the song. It reminded her of what they'd left behind, of who they'd left behind, and of how hurt Bailey was—still is—at what he'd done to them.

Everything was changing. Everything was going to be different and her dad, once her best friend, wasn't going to be there to share it.

Bailey bit her bottom lip to stop the trembling. Her eyes burned with the accumulation of unshed tears. She wouldn't cry, not in front of them.

Why was the question she'd been asking herself since she'd found out. It wasn't every day a father got caught with a mother's social enemy in a compromising situation; the cliché of clichés. Why any self-respecting person would cheat was beyond her, of course, once that lottery money rolled in any self-respect her father had rolled out.

Derrick Roberts, Bailey's father, played the game like it was his religion, with the same numbers every time. Until one day, when he decided to use his teenage daughter's scarily apt 'guessing' ability and took her with him. Bailey knew what to do the minute she entered that gas station and she told him to purchase another ticket, but three people needed to go ahead of him first. The gas station wasn't busy at the time, so they waited thirty minutes and after the third person went they marched up to the register. He argued that he'd play his numbers, but Bailey insisted the machine do a random choosing.

It was the big winning ticket and that was the day, a Monday, everything changed about him. He went from a loving family man, stuck in an unhappy, but successful car salesman career to a multi-million dollar cheating scumbag. When he won, he promised them everything but followed through on nothing. It's funny how money can change priorities.

It only took two weeks after receiving that money for him to become unrecognizable to his family. He'd been like a snowball at the top of a frozen hill. Had every opportunity to roll through the pure white snow, but somehow he veered and picked up the yellow snow. Then it smashed into smithereens when her mom found out and decided to leave. Just up and decided for all of them. It was too quick for Bailey, but she knew, in the end, that it was the right choice. Yet she still couldn't help but wish she'd been away at college like her older sister Amanda. Maybe then she wouldn't have to deal with this move to another state. At college, she could've been away from these foolish people. At college, she wouldn't have had to see the hurt on her mothers' face when she found out the love of her life was banging his younger secretary.

Bailey jolted forward. Flipping around, she smacked at Matt but missed. "Stop kicking my seat you spaz!"

Matt pointed to his ears and she removed her headphones. "Phone's ringing, Jerk! Mom, did you get me more Cheetos?"

It was then the subtle buzzing noise and the vibration against her foot caught her attention. She glanced at her feet, roughly pushing fingers through her frizzy hair before reaching down into her mother's purse. Bailey pulled the golden zipper and shuffled the contents around before clamping her hand on the cell phone.

"Yes, Baby," Gale said, rummaging into the plastic sack that was in the middle console.

He reached for the bag, clapping his hands over the package, forcing it to explode open. He shoved a handful in his mouth. "Thank you!"

"You pig!" Bailey said, sneering at him as she lifted the phone to her ear.

"Who is it?" Matt asked, bouncing around the back seat to get closer. His grubby Cheeto-covered hand reaching forward. "Is it Dad? Let me talk to him."

Bailey jerked the phone away from his wandering hands and peeked at the caller id.

Derrick. It read. It was him.

"Yes, it's Dad," Bailey said loudly into the receiver and then she pressed the end button.

"Mooom!" Matt whined his voice quivering as he delivered another kick to Bailey's seat.

Bailey swiveled around, causing the seat belt to cut into her neck. "If you kick my seat again, I'll punch you in the throat and don't you cry for him! Dad doesn't—"

"Bailey!" Gale's voice boomed through the SUV. Matt jerked back, blinking at the back of his mother's head. "Leave your brother alone... Did you just hang up on your father?" The astonishment in her mother's voice was nauseating.

Bailey shrugged, using her hand to flip her hair behind her shoulders. "So, and you never used to yell at us like that. I guess that's something else Dad's ruined for us."

"You call him back right now young lady and apologize. I will not have that blatant disrespect near me, why do you think we left? Do you think you're different? Do you?"

Bailey felt a painful thud in her chest. She swallowed the lump of hurt forming in her throat. Turning her head she stared out the window, batting at the single tear that slipped down her cheek. Her mom should be thanking her, not reprimanding her. "I wouldn't talk to him even if he was on his deathbed."

"Young lady..."

"I'm not calling him back. Let him suffer!"

"Why are you being so mean to Dad? He didn't do this to you! Mom should be angry, not you!"

Bailey resisted the urge to turn again. Instead, she glared at her reflection in the window. If she squinted hard enough she could see the shadows of farmhouses playing against the surface. It was much more interesting than the idiocy happening in this car. "Matt, you're old enough to understand that a parental figure cheating affects his or her entire family! What part of us moving across the country to get away from his ass, don't you get?"

Gale reached over and smacked her on the shoulder. The loud clap stung and Bailey decided it was his fault too. "Wow, yelling and now physical abuse?"

"Well, you've never said 'ass' before. I guess we all have to deal with more unwanted changes like you cursing. If you continue to swear in front of me I'm going to slap you every time, fair warning!"

She fixed her gaze towards Matt. "Do you see what his cheating has done?" she asked as she reached for her drink, the condensation clinging to her fingertips. The syrupy flavor of Dr. Pepper turned flat on her tongue the minute she sipped. "I can't even enjoy my favorite drink. I don't want to talk about this anymore!"

"We can drop it for now. I don't want to fight anymore either. We're close to our new home and when we get there you will call your father and apologize. End. Of. Story."

Bailey scowled, but her words never came as the welcoming sign from hell appeared.

Welcome to Haven, New Hampshire

Population: three thousand

"Three-thousand and three," Bailey whispered.