These Unquiet Bones by Dean Harrison

of her face where he struck her. He caressed it gently. “You worried me to death last night. You know that? You’re the only thing I got left in the world.”
    Amy drew her knees up to her chest, wrapped her arms around her legs, and bowed her head. She knew what was coming.
    Her father dropped his hand. “But I decided to trust you,” he continued. “I gave you a little freedom, let you go out and party with your friends. And what did you do? You betrayed my trust. For that, I’m tightening the leash. Understand?”
    Upset with the punishment, but knowing protest would only enrage her father, she nodded her head.
    “Until I say otherwise, when you’re not in school your butt will be home. Your friends can come over here if they wanna see you, but other than that you go nowhere unless I say it’s okay.”
    “Yes sir.”
    “I love you, peanut.” Hank caressed her hair and kissed her forehead. “I hate that it has to be like this, but you leave me no choice.”
    Just then Amy’s cell phone jingled, signaling that she had a text. She reached for the nightstand and grabbed her phone.
    The text was from Layne. He wanted to know if she was up for doing anything tonight. He asked her to call him.
    Amy sighed and looked at her father. “Is it okay if Layne comes over? We won’t do anything but watch a movie.”
    Hank stared at her, his frown chiseled deep. “You and that boy are just friends, ain’t’cha?”
    “Yes,” Amy said, cowering a little under her father’s steady gaze.
    “I wonder sometimes. Don’t like the way you two always hug on each other.”
    Amy shrugged. She never thought it would be an issue, but then it occurred to her she never really knew how he felt about Layne. “It doesn’t mean anything.”
    “Maybe to you it doesn’t. But I know what goes on inside the brain of a teenage a boy.”
    “He’s just a friend. I promise.”
    “Prove it, then. No more of this huggin’ and cuddlin’ crap. You say you’re just friends, act like it. Hear?”
    Suppressing her annoyance with his dour interpretation of her friendship with Layne, Amy agreed. “But can he come over?”
    Hank stood up with a grunt. “As long as he’s gone before nine.” He scratched his beer gut and stretched. “You want a pizza? I kind of got me a cravin’.”
    Amy smiled thinly. “Sure.”
    “All right then.”
    She watched him walk out of the room and remembered the picture under her pillow. She pulled it out and studied it.
    Who were these people? How did her father know them? What did they have to do with her mother’s death?
    If she had the courage she would’ve asked her father, but that wasn’t an option right now. She wondered when it would be.
    “When you conquer your fears,” said Dr. Massie. “Confront your father.”
    Amy wished that was possible.
    “What’s the worst that could happen?”
    She could end up like her mother.
     
     

Chapter 21
    After getting off the phone with Amy Layne grabbed his keys, and a mix CD he made. He rushed downstairs. Before he could reach the front door, however, his stepmother called to him from the living room.
    “Where do you think you are going, mister man?”
    The tone of her voice made him flinch.
    Gritting his teeth, Layne wondered what the bitch wanted now, and turned to face Kelley McLain, the witch who married his father and went out of her way to make Layne’s life a living hell on earth.
    The black-haired slob stared at him from the couch with her baleful blue eyes. “You gonna answer me, or stand there like a dumb-ass?” she asked around a mouthful of potato chips.
    Hatred burned in Layne’s chest. He forced a tight smile. “I’m going to a friend’s house to watch a movie.”
    Kelley dug a bony hand into the crinkled bag of Ruffles in her lap and sneered. “Going out every night doing God knows what and coming home late. I swear, if you cause any more trouble for me, I’ll send your butt to military school.”
    Layne’s taut smile