Don't Talk To Me

"Lindsey?" A voice knocked on my door softly.

"Mmm..." I groaned, rolling over in bed. It felt like I'd had the worst nightmare, me being kicked out of a party by Samantha.

"Are you sure you're all right?" JoAnn asked me.

"Yeah, I'll be fine." I muttered, standing up from my seat on Samantha's front steps. "I'm sorry but I think I'm going to take off now."

"Take off? Let me tell Greg I'll be right back." She stepped toward the entrance.

"Don't worry about it." I quickly replied. The last thing I wanted was for her night to be ruined. Mine.. well, at least I could say it was a more eventful Friday evening than I'd had in a long time.

"You've gotta be kidding me." JoAnn stared at me. "It's at least four miles back to your house."

"That's ok." I gave her an amused smile. "I could use the exercise."

"Up and out of bed!" That same voice commanded me, jerking my wonderfully warm blanket and sheet off of my body. At the realization my nightgown had gathered around my waist while sleeping, I immediately jerked it back down to my ankles and glared at the interrupter of my peaceful slumber.

I'm not allowed one moment to myself anymore, am I?

"What do you want, Dad?" I recognized the figure standing over me, arms crossed over his chest, as my father. Unfortunately, he didn't look too pleased at me.

"Downstairs in five minutes. No excuses." The severity with which he spoke, not to mention how loudly Dad slammed my bedroom door behind him immediately made butterflies flutter around my stomach as I sat up in bed. Biting my lower lip, I pulled myself out of bed and got dressed quickly. Noting the time of seven fifteen a.m., I wondered how on earth I could be in trouble when the sun was barely up. Especially with Dad: this was new, I was usually his favorite.

"Ohhh.." On my way out the door, I groaned at the sight of a crumpled green shirt and black pants in the corner of my room, not to mention JoAnn still sleeping on my floor in a sleeping bag.

That girl could sleep through a hurricane, I thought, glancing at her curled up figure for a moment, before remembering that my parents were waiting for me.

"It wasn't just all just a nightmare too." I muttered to myself as I thumped downstairs. "Damn."

"What's up?" I mumbled sleepily, trailing into the living room. Once there, I found my mother sitting on the edge of Dad's lazy boy, her hands folded over in her lap. Dad was standing behind her, gripping the back of the chair so tightly his knuckles were turning white. Both had extremely serious looks on their faces, I realized, sinking down onto the couch.

"Lindsey," Mom started tentatively. "If you had.. a.. problem, you'd tell us about it, right?"

"A problem?" I frowned at her emphasis on the word.

"Meaning, if there was anything that was wrong, you'd come talk to us about it." Dad spoke up gruffly.

"Yeah.. I guess so." I replied slowly, still not understanding what they were talking about. Hearing a tiny creak behind me, I caught a glimpse of Heidi sitting on the top of the stairs to eavesdrop. Great.

"I know you're life's been stretched thin, kiddo," Mom continued delicately, "with school and now hockey practice and work, but you need to understand that stress is just a natural part of life. It was stressful for me when I switched jobs. It was stressful when there was a food shortage at your father's company and he was out of work for a few weeks."

"Mom, I know that." I said indignantly, feeling as if she was talking down to me, like I was a child.

"I just meant that stress is something we all have to deal with in some form or another. However, it's extremely dangerous to be dependent on medication to get yourself through it. You can seriously damage your health."

"Wait a minute here," I said harshly. "What the heck are you talking about!?"

"Don't raise your voice to us, young lady." Dad warned me.

"Sorry, sir." I muttered quickly.

"These." Mom unfolded her hands, revealing a small bottle of pills. I recognized them as the ones Heidi had given me the night before last night. Immediately, I heaved a sigh of relief.

"Mom, Dad, you don't need to worry about that." I started with a half smile on my face.

"Like hell we don't!" Dad struggled to keep his temper down. It had a habit of flaring up every now and then.. emphasis on now. My light-hearted response hadn't helped the situation either.

"Do you have any idea how dangerous these are?" He grabbed the bottle from Mom's hands and shook it roughly in front of my face.

"Yes, but if you would just listen, I can explain-" I tried again but this time Mom interrupted me.

"Lindsey, how long have you been taking these?"

"That's what I'm trying to tell you!" I fought the same urge not to raise my voice, without much luck. Hmm, like father like daughter I guess.

"I'm not taking them."

"Then what were they doing on your desk? I do know that you were up pretty late studying that night, Lindsey." Unlike two out of the three of us, Mom had remained calm through this entire conversation. If I wasn't so furious at them this moment, I'd give her credit for that.

"But I didn't take them." I pleaded, tears spilling over my eyes. "You've gotta believe me. I never took one pill. Honestly. I-i was given them b-buh-by a.. f-friend, but I n-never thought of actually taking any of them."

"Are you sure?" Dad asked in a doubting voice.

"Of course I'm sure!"

"Then who gave them to you?" He demanded.

"I.. ummm.." Glancing up to the top of the stairs, I caught sight of Heidi shaking her head back and forth at me, a pleading look on her own face. But still, it was her ass or mine..

"Lindsey... Who gave you these?" Mom inquired. Looking up into her face, I swallowed, trying to remove some of the dryness that had formed there. Suddenly, a name jumped from my lips, more bitterly than I thought it would.

" .. Zac." Now there's an lie if you ever told one, Lindsey: blame the guy they'd never see again anyway.

"Zac Hanson?" My parents asked in unison. I couldn't blame their surprise: Zac was squeaky clean.. Well, at least he was, until now, when I'd decided to deface his good nature.

Just call us even now.. I can only hope this doesn't get further than our house.

"Umm.. yeah." I mumbled, unable to look in their faces anymore.

"You've got to get to your drivers' ed class this morning, Lindsey." Mom said suddenly, glancing at the clock on the vcr. "Ride your bike, I need to talk to your father."

"Ride my bike!?" I asked, checking my watch. "I've only got twenty minutes to get to class."

"Then I suggest you hurry." She said pointedly, letting me know I wasn't completely off the hook yet. I could only hope that this wouldn't lead to a phone call to a certain ex-best friend's house.

"This is so unfair." I whined to Mom, jumping up from my seat on the couch and hoping I'd score some pity points with her. Not much luck:

"I need to discuss this with your father now."

Point made, Mom. I scrambled upstairs, sending a glaring look to my older sister as I brushed past her. She was still sitting there when I rushed out of my bedroom, backpack over my shoulders and started making my way back down the stairs.

"Lindsey." She grabbed my upper arm as I passed her again.

"Don't talk to me right now." I snapped at her, fuming that I was going to take the blame for her stupid boyfriend. "I need to get going."

"I'll give you a ride to school." She offered in a thin voice. I stared at her for a moment.

".. Thanks Heidi." Maybe there was a conscience under all that makeup after all.

"My class gets done at noon, and I'd appreciate not being stranded at the State Department's office please." My crisp voice cut through the silence in the car between me and my sister. Not that I wanted to come right out and beg for a ride, but I figured she owed me at least that much.

"I'll pick you up, no problem." She offered in an overly-kind voice. Nodding slightly, I purposely glanced out the passenger's side window so I wouldn't have to look at her, least of all speak to her. I couldn't remember the last time I'd been so angry with my sister. Irritated and slightly jealous, sure all the time, but I'd never felt outright angry at her. Well, until now.

".. And hey," she continued with a loud laugh.

"Why don't I take you out for lunch later, huh?" I didn't answer her.

"I mean, I could take you to the food court in the mall.. if you want." She persisted, her voice trailing. ".. buy you some pizza.."

"Why, Heidi?" I snapped at her. "So you can make your fat slob of a sister even fatter?"

"I never said you were a fat slob." She replied quietly.

Bullshit. I wanted to say. Instead of screaming at her, I kept my mouth clenched firmly shut and continued to stare out the window.

"What do you mean bullshit?" That was outloud? I stared at Heidi for a second.

"It's just that you- I mean.. you're so- Oh, nevermind." I sighed loudly.

"No, seriously.. I don't think you're fat."

"..." I finally glanced at her. "You don't?"

"No." She replied with a tight smile. "I mean, you used to be, but not anymore."

"..." I chose not to answer her again, this time on the grounds I seriously disbelieved her.

"You've lost a lot of weight, Lindsey."

Now there's bullshit if I ever heard it, I thought. Instead, I jumped out of the car and slammed the door behind me as quickly as I could when she pulled up to the curb of the State Department building. Compliments aside, my sister was the last person I wanted to see right now.

Not like she meant it anyway, I rationalized to myself, walking to the front door. She just doesn't want her own butt to get roasted - that's what I'm for.

"Umm.. Hi Lindsey." A male voice spoke tentatively to me as I walked into our classroom, my eyes cast down on the floor.

"David." I gave him a fleeting glance before darting my eyes back to the floor. After what had happened last night, I couldn't bear to even look him in the face right now. He must think I'm the biggest loser after all that.

".. How are you?"

"Fine, thanks." I sat down in a seat one away from him, after noticing he'd saved a seat for me again.

"That's good. Because I was worried that-"

"Don't worry. I'm fine." I snapped my head up, finally looking directly into his eyes. After all, that was a message I certainly wanted to make clear.

".."

I cringed as he thought for a moment. I seriously hadn't mean to snap at him, but I didn't think I could take more of life's hurdles after last night's encounter with Samantha and this morning's with my parents. So far, I just seemed to be tripping over all of them and landing flat on my face anyway.

"That's.. good." David said softly with a nod of his head. At least he seemed to understand that I didn't want to talk about it. I could give him respect, at least. Better than nothing.. better than what my parents were giving me now.

"Gale, just please sit down." Mom pleaded with my dad, feeling slightly irritated at his pacing ever since Heidi and I had left.

"I just don't understand it." He said, frustration thick in his voice. "We raised our kids right, how could one of them do something so stupid? And Lindsey too- she's always been the good kid."

"She is a good kid." Mom reminded him.

"But getting messed up with caffeine pills? That doesn't sound like her at all."

"I'm sure there's an explanation to all this." Mom spoke rationally.

"Our kid messed up." Dad shook his head. "That's all there is to it, Lynn."

"Gale, for God's sake just please sit down." In a desperate tone, she grabbed his arm and pointed to a chair.

"Something's just not right here." Ignoring her, Dad continued to pace between the kitchen and living room.

"Let me call Diana. We'll get this worked out, don't worry." She assured her husband, patting his shoulder as she walked into the kitchen and picked up the phone. After dialing the Hanson's number, a familiar voice picked up the phone.

"Hanson residence."

"Hi, Diana, it's Lynn Williams, and I-" "-I'm sorry, we're not home to take your call now. Please leave a message." Beep!

"Hi, Diana, it's Lynn Williams." Mom tried again with a sigh. "I need you to call me as soon as possible. Thanks."

"Any luck?" Dad asked her when she returned to the living room.

"They weren't home." She replied with a small smile. "I guess we'll just have to wait until they do."

"I wonder if they know. Walker and Diana have always been tighter with their kids than anyone else we know."

"There, you see?" Mom smiled again. "It's not necessarily the parents' fault. Kids just have so many more issues to deal with today. Sometimes they just make the wrong choices."

"Well, Lindsey sure as hell isn't going to make any more after this mess." He stood up and marched into the kitchen himself. Mom sighed when she heard a drawn bang open and followed him back in there.

"What are you looking for, dear?" She asked wearily, watching her husband rummage through a drawer.

"The phonebook."

"Next drawer down."

"Oh.. right." Dad slammed the drawer shut and yanked open the one below it, Mom sighed again at the noise he was making. After flipping through the yellow pages, he found a certain number and picked up the phone.

"Who are you calling?"

"Our family doctor. Lindsey's getting tested for caffeine in her system after her class today." One look at his face made Mom keep any doubting thoughts to herself.

"Fine. You take her to the clinic then, Gale."

"Fine."