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I was going to kill my family for ruining my morning with her. It seemed as if we couldn't get a decent one to ourselves.
“Coming?” my father asked.
I wanted to tell him no. I wanted to tell him to get lost. But I knew I had to go. Andrea needed to be alone and I needed to redress a very stark balance that had apparently tipped out of my favor. I looked around the apartment and made sure I wasn’t leaving anything behind, then I stepped out onto the porch and shut the door.
I should have known the argument wouldn't have been that easy to shut down.
TWENTY-THREE
Everett
“What the hell were you thinking, son?” my father asked.
“I’m not saying another damn word to either of you until we’re downstairs,” I said.
“How could you keep something like this from us? We’re family, Everett,” Lucas said.
“See this reaction!?” I asked.
I panned my arms around the porch entryway of Andrea’s apartment as the two of them stood there, dumbfounded.
“See what’s going on!? This is why I didn’t tell you. It’s why I never tell you anything. You and Dad both are absolute hot-heads who do nothing but yell and barge into other people’s words and jam their lives underneath your thumbs. Now, get your asses downstairs or this conversation is over,” I said.
Before they could get in another word edgewise, I tossed myself down the stairs. I practically jumped down them to get this argument away from Andrea. I was livid. Seething with anger. I’d never felt anger like this in my entire life. It was as if I couldn't see straight. What the hell were they thinking? Where did they get off having the right? The only thing I was thankful for was the fact that Andrea held herself with a grace and a poise unlike anything I’d ever seen.
Anything I’d ever experienced.
I strode over to my car and leaned myself against it. I looked back up to Andrea’s apartment and sighed. I saw the curtain of her bedroom door. I saw the light on. I saw a shadowed silhouette walking back and forth, and it looked to be running something through its hair.
Andrea.
She was running her hands through her hair.
“We’re going home,” my father said.
“I’m not going anywhere with the two of you,” I said.
“Everett, stop being an ass. Everyone is headed back to Mom and Dad’s to talk,” Lucas said.
“Do you mean to tell me the entire family knows about an issue I’m already handling?” I asked.
The two of them fell silent as a snicker fell from my lips.
“Let’s get one thing very clear. I’m not going with either of you. I’m not going back to my home, nor am I going back to Mom and Dad’s,” I said.
“Then where are you going? Because it’s not back up there,” my father said.
I turned and looked him straight in his eyes as a calm came over me. I couldn't explain it. I didn’t have time to understand it. All I knew was that the right words had popped into my head and that I felt comfortable expressing them to him.
Whether or not he was about to enjoy my expression of them.
“Father, you made a fool out of yourself up there. You're the one who taught me how to treat women with respect. How to open doors for them and treat them with kindness. I watched your marriage with Mom and absorbed how it should be to spend your life with someone. And then you turn around, stick your finger in a young girl’s face, and yell at her? Berate her? Call her names? In her own damn home?” I asked.
I watched my father take a few deep breaths before his posture settled back into its normal state.
“And you, Lucas.”
I turned my gaze toward my brother as his eyes locked onto mine.
