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“I’ll decide if there’s another shoe to drop, Deb.”
“Oh, right.I called you for another reason on top of wondering if you’ve been murdered yet.”
I shake my head.“And what would that be?”
“So I was walking home from work last night, passing by your apartment.Or what used to be your apartment.Police were all over the place.They were pulling two men apart.I think you know who one of them was.”
I groan loudly, shaking my head as I fall back onto my bed.“Who was my dad in a fight with this time?”
“I’m not sure.Maybe your landlord?Did your dad know your lease was up?”
“I told him a bunch of times what day we needed to clear out, and he had plans to crash on a friend’s couch.I guess he got too drunk to remember.”
“Anyway, I hung around.They pulled him away from the guy, threw cuffs on him, and stuffed him in the back of a car before waving everyone off.I think your old man is in jail again, Clara.”
Another pained groan escapes my lips.“Thanks for filling me in, Deb.Know you hate bringing me bad news.”
“Figured you'd find out eventually.May as well be from me instead of a guy with a badge showing up to talk to you.”
“I need to figure out how to deal with this.I’ll talk to you later.”
“Good luck!”
She hangs up first.
I let out a pained groan as I stare up at the ceiling.
My fucking dad is at it again.
Dammit.
This will be the sixth time I’ve gone through these motions for him.Getting a bail bond and then making sure he shows up for his court date so we don’t go even further into debt.
“Are you alright in here?”Sebastian says as he pokes his head in.“Are you sick?That was one weird noise I heard from you, Clara.”
“I’m fine.That’s just the noise of me coping with my life.”
He walks into the room and sits down beside me on my bed.“What’s going on?”
“My dad’s in jail.Again.”
“Sounds like it’s his problem, not yours.”
I sit up, now side by side with him.“Am I supposed to just abandon him in there?He has no one else.”
“It sounds like he makes a lot of trouble for you.”
“He does.My mom passed before I was even a teenager.And he’s been in a drunken downward spiral ever since.”
“And you’ve been taking care of him all this time?”
“More or less.I’ve been working part-time jobs ever since I was able, and when I turned eighteen, I started working full-time alongside my studies, but I’ve had to bail him out of jail five times.And now I need to do it a sixth.”
To my surprise, he wraps an arm around me and pulls me close.It’s not sexual in the slightest.It’s empathetic.Caring.“That’s not how it should be.”
“Well, that’s how it is.”
“And that’s bullshit.A father’s role is to take care of his daughter, not the other way around.”
