I Do It For Them

Chapter Two

Thank you everyone for reading so far J you all make me so happy

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Ethan and I sat on the couch, watching the door. My hair was wet from the shower we took and I was working it up into a bun with a hair clip. Ethan kept stroking my shoulder because, whenever I was nervous, I would play with my hair. He kept saying things like, “What’s the worst that could happen?” Need I remind you that my dad does not like Ethan? He enjoys hurting Ethan and laughs every time he gets a reaction out of him. We all have moved on from the past (you know what I mean) except for my dad and Ethan. Ethan still feels guilty about doing what he did and dad is still mad at him so he made it his job to make Ethan remember every single time they met. For example, my parents came over a couple weeks after Serena was born to see our new house. Dad saw Ethan and told me, “At least you don’t have to raise that one alone. That would be one heck of a job.” Yeah, not cool dad.

But, for some reason, Ethan didn’t hate my dad. I’m actually mad at him sometimes for not hating my dad. I kept on telling him to fight back, say something that would shut him up. All Ethan would say is, “I think your dad’s cool” then go on about his business. Sometimes, I want to strangle them both because I’d have to defend Ethan but dad would keep yelling. There were times when he would turn on me and Ethan would interject, making it worse, so mom had to get into it. It always stops when Avory walks into the room because dad, once he gets going, never stops.

So I know, for a fact, that there he is going to have something to say. Luckily, Avory isn’t here so, if he does, I’m not going to worry about the father-daughter relationship. I’m going to hand it to him on a silver platter and if he doesn’t want it, he can leave, as simple as that. “You’re freaking out for nothing,” he sounded as if dad wouldn’t walk in here and start screaming at every little thing. “Your mom didn’t sound too happy so you need to be calm when she gets here. You know how… sensitive she is.” Sensitive is an understatement. Overemotional somewhat explains it. She cries at every little thing in the world. For all we know, she could have lost her favorite hat and needs to talk to someone about it. This time, she happened to have chosen us.

“I’m calm,” I assured him, giving him a small kiss. He pulled me onto his lap, breathing into the crook of my neck.

“Are you sure,” he asked. “I don’t want you to cry like last time.” Oh, last time. Let me tell you what happened. Last time, I actually had to kick my dad out because he was yelling at everyone and Avory was crying, I was crying, he was going crazy. I don’t exactly want him to come over now (if I hadn’t already made that clear); I haven’t recovered from last time. “It took me two hours to calm you down. And your face was all red and your mascara was running…”

I covered his mouth, “Okay, I looked like a mess, I get it.”

“Actually,” he spoke through my hand. “You looked sexy. But, you know, that may just be me.”

“Aww.” I removed him hand from his mouth and was going to lean into him except we were uncomfortably interrupted.

“Hello,” my mom threw the front door open, dad tailing behind her, with a large smile on her face. Startled, I jumped from Ethan’s lap and onto the couch, meeting her suspicious gaze. Ethan only smiled, making the situation worse. “Did I interrupt something?” For a second, she looked like any old grandma who had a happy life but then the sadness started taking over. Her eyes were red and puffy while her skin was a little flushed. She always looked like this after, about, twenty minutes of crying. I turned to Ethan, seeing that he also noticed.