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"Are you really going to eat that?" Gloria snarked as I began to pour myself a bowl of cereal. "You know your body doesn't do well with carbs."
I rolled my eyes but said nothing, and of course neither did my father. I would have loved it if he actually stuck up for me once in a while. I didn’t know why I still expected that since the last few years had consisted of him letting Gloria steamroll him at every moment.
"You got a letter from USC," my dad commented softly, laying an envelope next to my bowl. I put my spoon down and picked up the letter, ripping it open. It was information for graduation, the standard ordering forms for getting my cap and gown as well as information for parents on where to stay and when events took place.
"Do you need me to get a hotel reservation for you for graduation?" I asked my dad, sliding the packet over to him so he could look through it. Gloria grabbed it before he could pick it up.
"This is right in the middle of the trip we planned with Emily and Dave," Gloria complained to my father as she glanced through the packet. She looked up at me, a triumphant spark in her eyes. "Oh honey," she said in a fake voice. "We're not going to be able to make it. The tickets were non-refundable," she continued.
Horror-struck, I looked over at my father. "Please tell me that you aren't going on vacation instead of my college graduation," I begged him. But the look on his face said all I needed to know.
It was as if a match had been struck, and all of the anger and sadness that I been bottling up since my dad had married this awful woman came barreling out.
"You have got to be fucking kidding me," I yelled at him.
Gloria gasped, pretended to be upset over my reaction, even though I was pretty sure it was the first “f” word that I'd ever uttered in my life.
"For years, I've let you push me aside," I said coldly to my father.
He looked upset, but he still wasn't saying anything.
"I told myself that you deserve the chance to be happy since we lost Mom. That marryingherwas what Mom would have wanted. But there's no way that she would've ever done this if the situation was reversed. You've made me feel like a burden for years, pushed aside anything that I needed. NEVER stood up for me.” I took a deep breath before continuing. “Did you know that her disgusting son has been hitting on me for years?” I said, pointing to Gloria. “I’ve had to lock my door every time we were both home at the same time so that he didn't sneak into my bedroom in the middle of the night. These bruises are from him,” I said, pointing to my neck.
My dad looked sick as Gloria began to furiously protest what a liar I was.
I looked at her. "Shut up,” I told her, effectively silencing her with the vehemence in my voice. I pushed away from the counter and began to back out of the room. "You know what, you both deserve each other. I'm done.” Looking straight at my father to make sure the message went through, I continued. "I don't care if I ever see you again," I said before leaving the room.
Once in my bedroom, I threw all my things into a bag, half expecting my dad to come up the stairs to try to make things right. When I was finished packing and he hadn't appeared, and I could hear Gloria screaming from downstairs, I knew he really wasn't coming.
I left the house that I'd grown up in without a backwards glance. It was expensive to move my flight, but I happily put it on my dad's credit card, a card I wouldn't be using after this. Paying for my flight back to school was the least he could do after everything he had put me through.
As the plane took off and I watched as New York disappeared from sight, I felt free for the first time in forever. My departure from reality with the guys had given me the courage to do something that I should have done a long time ago. Whatever happened in the future, I was going to channel the bravery of the Belle who had taken a chance on a wintry layover in Chicago.
* * *
There wasa knock on my dorm door, and I frowned as I looked at the door as if it had offended me. I was in the middle of a really good book and I didn’t want to take a break. I had no idea who was even in the dorm to bother me right now. I still had one more week of winter break before students needed to return for class and the campus was a ghost town except for the people on sports teams that had to come back early to practice. When another knock came, I sighed and set the book down. Whoever it was wasn’t going to go away.
I was dressed in a pair of sweats and a ratty t-shirt and I looked like crap. It had been three days since I’d gotten back to school and there had been no word from my dad. I knew it was going to take a bit for it not to hurt even though I was proud of standing up for myself, but between that and leaving the guys...I wasn’t in a good place.
I was swept into a pair of strong, familiar arms before I had even seen who was at the door.
“You are in so much fucking trouble,” a voice growled.
Belatedly I realized that I was somehow in Max’s arms. I allowed myself to sink into his embrace before asking any questions, closing my eyes as I squeezed him tight.
There was a gentle stroke on my face. When I opened my eyes, I saw Danny. Was this a dream?
Max let me go and Danny scooped me into his arms, squeezing me so tight that I let out a little grunt because I couldn’t breathe.
“Whoops,” said Danny, loosening his hold.
“What are you…?” I began to ask.
“If you hadn’t snuck out of bed in the middle of the night we could have talked,” chided Max.
“What were you thinking?” barked Danny very uncharacteristically.
I didn’t really have an excuse to give them. It had been the fear of the unknown, the fear of rejection that had made me leave.
