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My stomach curdles.
“Dane did not trick me. I am an adult and I am capable of making my own decisions about my body. I went willingly,” I emphasize.
Conrad makes an angry gesture with his hand.
“You are just a child!” he says violently. “And this is not okay. You are to end things with him, immediately!”
My own face is turning red now and I jump up, shaking in the middle of our kitchen.
“No! I love him! You can’t make me,” I shout at the top of my lungs. I feel my pulse begin to quicken, blood rushing to my cheeks causing them to flush. Anger is bubbling over in my gut and I feel like I’m about to explode with rage. Yet a deep sadness lies beneath this, and I feel that turmoil as well. I begin to cry.
“You know what, June? Clearly, he’s gotten in her head. He’s brainwashed her, and I think it’s time,” my dad says to my mom, never taking his eyes off of me.
“Time for what? What are you talking about?” My voice is coming out in fragments, my words becoming broken intervals between sobs. “What are you going to do?” I bellow.
They ignore me. My mom nods yes to my dad and he promptly walks to the other side of the room. I run forward to my mom’s chair, practically screaming in her face.
“You have to tell me what is going on!”
Every cell in my body is now vibrating with fear. I feel like I have to work to get my body to continue breathing while waiting to hear the future of my relationship with Dane. The dog is now whimpering loudly, bopping me in the leg with her nose in an attempt to calm me down.
“Mom, Dad, please! Stop! Stop doing this to me. I love Dane. Please. What are you going to do?”
The colors of the room seem to be fading in and out, coinciding with the beat of my lunch flip flopping in my stomach.
“We’re calling the cops,” my mom finally says in a grim tone. “This needs to be reported.”
“What?!?! No, this is not an emergency!” I scream.
But my dad’s already on the line.
“Officer? Yes, I have a crime to report. Should I come to the station or shall we handle this over the phone?” I hear my dad say into his iPhone.
“N00000!” I scream so intensely that it actually hurts the back of my throat. I am crying so heavily now that the tears have formed a cloudy haze over my vision. I seem to be wandering drunkenly in some kind of nightmarish situation.
“Zoe knock it off!” my dad barks from the other side of the room, clearly lacking any empathy, mercy, love, or understanding.
I swivel and look at my mom. She turns away, refusing to meet my eyes. There’s nothing here. They simply do not care.
I will never forgive my parents for this.
In a moment, I make up my mind. I choose Dane. I grab my bag and run full speed to the front door. At least my parents don’t know where Dane lives, I hope.
“Get back here this instant! We are not done!” my mom screams after me.
I turn back for an instant, seeing my parents for who they really are. June and Conrad are no mild-mannered, friendly Midwestern couple. They’re evil, and determined to upend my life. But for what? Because I’m seeing a man who’s seven years older than me? Yes, maybe there were dirty drawings of Dane in my sketchbook, but that’s not a crime.
Suddenly, I glimpse the journal sitting on the counter, where my dad put it. Like a madwoman, I streak into the kitchen once more and seize it, before bolting out the front door for good. Cocoa barks up a storm as the door slams, but I don’t stop. I rush into my car and drive like a lunatic, still incapable of steadying my breath or the tremor in my hands.
I get to Dane’s apartment complex and park around back so that my car isn’t visible from the street. Then, crying a bit, I run to his unit, clutching the journal to my chest.
He must have seen me coming because the door opens and I hurl into his arms, sobbing his name.
“Sweetheart, what’s wrong?” he asks, stroking my hair and pulling me close. I turn to him, and see worry, empathy, care, and wonder in those blue eyes; all the emotions my parents were lacking back at the house.
I fall into his arms and begin to sob again.
12
Dane
Today was a slow day. There were practically no walk-ins, and I had no appointments, so I came home early to relax. I’d just hopped out of the shower and cracked a beer open when I heard a car screeching into the apartment complex’s parking lot.
