Five Things They Never Told Me Read Online Free

cry.
    ‘I wanted to trust you, Erin. But you’ve shown me that I can’t and that makes me sadder than anything else that has happened over the last few months. We’re a family, you and I, and we stick together. We don’t steal from each other. HOW COULD YOU DO THIS TO ME?’
    He shouted the last bit and I flinched. I don’t think I’ve ever seen my dad that angry in my whole life.
    He’d stopped talking then and looked away from me, as if he was trying to stop himself from saying something more. I wanted to say sorry but the word just wouldn’t come out of my mouth and I started to cry instead.
    ‘You obviously won’t be keeping this,’ Dad said to me, picking up the iPad box and standing up. ‘And you’ve lost all your privileges. That means no pocket money and no spending time with your friends outside of school until further
notice.’ He told me that the clothes would all be going back to the shop but that I could keep the art supplies and I’d better make them last for a while because there would be no more coming my way for quite some time.
    I didn’t even bother to argue. I guess a part of me always knew that someone with my rubbish life would never be lucky enough to keep something as amazing as an iPad. And actually, I was feeling pretty awful about making Dad so worried – although he didn’t have to yell at me like that.
    So the last two weeks have been totally terrible. Dad barely spoke to me for the first week and I have been SO bored. This last week has been a bit better, though – I helped Dad wash the car after school on Tuesday and he actually talked to me like I was a normal human being. I think he’s starting to forgive me. And I’m feeling pretty good today. It’s the last day of school and I’ve spent the whole day making plans for the summer holidays with Lauren and Nat. I’ve got no money but I’m fairly sure that Dad will reinstate my pocket money from tomorrow – after all, he’s not going to expect me to entertain myself for six weeks without any funds. I’ve taken my
punishment and now we can move on – I can get my life back.
    Mum keeps phoning me up, trying to get me to go and visit her new house. I tried saying that I didn’t want to talk to her but Dad got really cross again so now it’s just easier to hold the phone away from my ear while she rambles on. When we met in town last week she asked if I wanted to go on holiday with her and Mark and her two substitute children, but I politely declined. Actually, I said that I’d rather eat my own toenails for breakfast than spend two weeks in sunny Spain with them. She laughed, like she thought I was joking – but then she realized that I wasn’t being funny and she stopped laughing and put on that false ‘concerned-parent’ voice that she uses with me these days and said that I was very welcome to go with them and that if I was going to change my mind then could I please do it soon while they could still get me a plane ticket. I just munched my blueberry muffin and ignored her.
    Dad will be working at the care home all summer – apparently old people don’t get a summer holiday off from being old and he’ll be needed five days a week. He’s the grounds manager, which means that he does everything
that needs doing in the gardens and the house. He’s always going on about being lucky to have a job and that there are always lots of interesting people around to chat to – but I can’t think of anything worse than being stuck with a load of old people, blathering on about the ‘good old days’ to anyone who will listen.
    So, I’ve got a summer of freedom ahead of me and it can’t come soon enough. The last few months have been horrible. It’s now Fifty Days Without Mum and I’m hoping that I can just have a nice, normal holiday, hanging out with my friends and chilling with Picasso.
    The plans I’ve made today with Lauren and Nat have put me in a great mood and I’m whistling while I grate the cheese,