Diary of a Rocker's Kid (D.O.R.K #1) Read Online Free Page B

yet to come.
    Ttyl,
    Mads…or whoever the fuck I am…
     
    ***
     
    Lying motionless in my bed, I stare at the white popcorn ceiling as the sun comes up and wonder what it must be like to be an inanimate object. It’s gotta be nice not to have any parents or feelings to worry about. If I could transform into one of those bumps on the ceiling right now, I would. I want to go numb and forget about everything that ever happened to me.
    After a long time, I hear someone coming down the hall toward my door with a suitcase, so I throw a hoodie on over my American Idiot tee and open my door. As the door moves out of the way, I see Cass passing by in a T-shirt and sweats with her luggage.
    “Where are you going?” I croak. My voice is an octave lower from the crying and lack of sleep.
    “I don’t think Mike is going to want me here anymore after yesterday.” Her face is dragged down by that morning exhaustion that comes after a night full of tears. I guess they must have had a huge fight before they went to bed.
    “He may not, but I do.” I cross the hall to hug her, and she lets go of her luggage and holds me tight. “Thank you for making him tell me the truth,” I say with a sniff. Damn teenage hormones…I’m crying again.
    “Oh, sweetie…are you okay?” Cass asks with a sympathetic squeeze.
    “I don’t know,” I sob. “Am I supposed to be okay?”
    “No…no, you can be as sad as you want.” Cass soothes some of my tension with a back rub. She lets me cry it out for a while, and then she says, “I’m so sorry for doing this to you. I didn’t think, I just spoke—”
    “No, please don’t apologize.” I detach myself from her to wipe my eyes. “I needed to know the truth.”
    “He was going to tell you when you turned eighteen, but…honestly, I think he should have told you a lot sooner. It wasn’t my place, though, and for that, I’m sorry.”
    “I’m just glad someone around here has common sense enough to realize I should be told,” I say, and her pretty red lips pull up in a half smile. “By the way, did you change your name too?”
    “I agreed to go by a different one whenever I was around you.” Cass rolls her eyes with a ‘whatever’ smirk. “Your dad talked me into it. He said it would seem less suspicious.”
    “He put a lot of thought into hiding this from me, didn’t he?” Last night I remembered Dad was the one that steered me away from older bands. He said I should focus on playing more ‘current’ rock. Now I know exactly why he did that.
    “Oh, you have no idea,” Cass says, and then we hear a doorknob twist and clatter open and fall dead silent.
    Dad trudges out of his room into the hall, groaning and rubbing the back of his neck. He looks like a dad cliché in a plaid robe and big black slippers. “Too early for all this noise,” he growls. Dad is a zombie in the morning if he hasn’t gotten much sleep. He probably didn’t hear what we were talking about, just our voices.
    Cass turns around with the fear of losing him evident in her eyes. “Please forgive me,” she begs.
    “We’ll talk later,” Dad says, and then he turns to me. “Where were you last night?”
    “Just out in the loft…you know, getting a time out from this house of lies.” My gaze is steady with accusation.
    Dad’s shoulders droop, and he glances back in the direction of his bedroom. “I think I should have stayed in there.”
    My voice is broken and whisper-soft. “Please don’t hide from me anymore. Please .”
    Pain registers in his eyes, and then he turns to Cass. “Can I talk to her privately?” he asks. Cass nods and quickly tiptoes down the stairs.
    Dad takes my hand, leads me to my room, and shuts the door behind us. He settles in front of me with the same steady gaze he held with me last night, and I pull my hand away to fold my arms. “Look…I know what I did sounds completely crazy. I know it’s gonna be a while before you understand—”
    “I don’t think I’m