Amid the Roar - Sequel to M.A.L.

Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Mailboxes flashed before Gabrielle’s eyes as the two made their way home. Her town always seemed too small for her and the therapist’s office being only twenty blocks away made it clearer; she was never meant to stay here. She unbuckled her seatbelt as they turned onto their block.

“Did you remember next weekend is the reunion?” Gabrielle turned to her mother as they pulled in the driveway. The car came to a stop and before the engine was shut off, the daughter was out of the car and racing back to her room. “Wait a second, young lady,” Mrs. Harris scolded her. “I am talking to you.”

Gabrielle sighed heavily and about faced. “What?”

“You will treat me with more respect,” her mother warned. She slammed the car door and pushed past her daughter for the front door. “We have things to talk about. Your father should be done with dinner soon so go wash your hands. There’s a family meeting afterward.”

The front door was finally unlocked and as soon as she was inside, Gabrielle bounded up the stairs for alone time in her room. Her door slammed behind her. She wanted to scream. All of hell was breaking loose in her mind again at the thought of playing the loving child to her parents. They expected her to become that doting daughter, the pushover, I-will-do-whatever-you-say kid that did no wrong. She threw herself to her bed and growled into her pillow.

This was the anger Gabrielle felt. This hatred was festering into her heart with no end in sight. Grabbing the nearest object on her nightstand, she hurled her alarm clock across the room. It landed loudly with a thud and cracked the plastic over the red numbers. It helped slightly loosen the tension within her but there was still the roar of her rage pumping in her veins.

“What happened,” her stern father’s voice yelled from the bottom of the stairs. Gabrielle’s head turned to her closed bedroom door and inhaled deeply. In a few steps, she was there and called back through the wood in the kind tone she remembered she needed to have.

“I tripped,” she lied. “And I knocked over my nightstand. I’m fine. I’ll be right down, dad.”

Taking his silence as him believing her, Gabrielle stormed over and picked her broken clock from off the ground. Pretending to be who she was would be difficult. Her innocence was corrupted. Lifting her chin, she caught a glimpse of herself in her makeup mirror. She wasn’t the sweet angel anymore. A smirk pulled the side of her mouth. Heaven lost her soul.

And she liked that.

~*~

“So how was your day, Harold,” Mrs. Harris asked her husband. She stuffed another bite of lasagna into her lipstick smeared mouth, making Gabrielle turn in disgust. She hated watching people eat. The girl played with the green beans on the side of her plate and prayed the night would go by faster.

“It was good,” her father replied. “Normal day. Bill’s son is fitting in nicely though. He might be withdrawn now but he’ll start to loosen up in time.”

“That’s great,” Mrs. Harris replied. “Nice to see him make good of himself. It’ll distract him as he makes his recovery.”

“Recovery?” Gabrielle looked up from her barely eaten food, finally interested.

“Yes.” Her mother’s eyes brightened at being able to gossip. “Nathan got into a terrible habit of drinking. And you know that drinking always leads to drugs. But Bill said they’ve sent him to this group therapy and he’s trying to get better.”

Gabrielle nodded and returned her eyes to her plate. The girl didn’t feel like stomaching anything which included the small talk her parents were trying to create. She would much rather eat alone.

“What’s wrong, Gabby,” her father asked. Harold looked at his daughter’s food and frowned. “You’ve barely eaten anything. You need to keep up your strength.”

“Okay, dad,” Gabrielle answered and took another bite of the food she didn’t want.

“And please sit up straight,” he mother commented. “Hunching your shoulders will give you back pain.”

The girl tightened her lips before replying, “Yes, mom. I’m sorry.”

The rest of the meal, Gabrielle ate quietly. It wasn’t that she was an ungrateful child but hearing comments like those drove her to madness. Every day they would nitpick over her posture or her choice in clothing or the way she didn’t talk or if she said something improper. Her parents were always trying to be their best which meant their daughter could do nothing but the same.

But burying silent aggression never helped anyone.

“Now that we’re done with dinner,” Mrs. Harris started while gathering the three plates and stacking all the dishes. “It’s time for that family meeting I was talking about.”

Harold nodded his head and smiled. “I’m all ears.”

Some family, Gabrielle thought bitterly in her head. We’re three people trying to tolerate each other. That’s not a family, that’s a nightmare.

“You know my relatives are going to be coming in to visit my great Aunt Vicky,” she said as she refolded her napkin beside the dirty plates. “They’re trying to make this into a big reunion for all of us and Aunt Vicky said she’d love to have us spend the weekend up there.”

“What?” Gabrielle finally spoke up but her parents didn’t look too thrilled. “Aunt Vicky with the barely insolated guest house? But she smells like cats and body odor.”

“Yes,” Mrs. Harris cleared her throat. “But she’s letting us stay at there so be thankful.”

There they went again with the dig at her ungratefulness. Gabrielle was sick of always being told what to do and her always being compliant. She took the napkin from her lap and tossed it onto the table.

“So,” Gabrielle said, scraping the chair back to leer down at her mother. “How long before you’re done unpacking the suitcases from the vacation you just took to forget about me?”

Mrs. Harris grew red in the cheeks and tightened her lips. “Don’t you dare think that’s the reason why we left.”

“What? Did I miss something? Was there something that mattered more than your missing child?”

“Gabrielle Lynn Harris,” her mother yelled with the stern voice her daughter was numb to fearing. “You were absent from our lives for a very long time. We couldn’t wallow in sorrow forever when we weren’t even sure if you left or were taken. Even you don’t remember. So do not think for one second that our worlds should have stopped because you weren’t here.”

“I’m sorry, I forgot,” Gabrielle spit back. She shrugged her shoulders before tilting her head with a mocking pout. “I’m not worthy of more worrying for more than a couple of months. My mistake.”

“Go to your room,” Mr. Harris yelled. “You’re grounded for a month.”

Gabrielle gladly moved her chair in and walked to the stairs. “I’m glad we had this family meeting.”

Gabrielle’s parents stared at their daughter with horror. But the girl wasn’t affected by it. She wished she were but her guilty emotions were drained from her long ago. As she climbed higher and higher, a smile grew on her lips.

I’m glad they’re starting to understand, she thought to herself. There’s a new order of dominance in this house and they’re not number one.

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AUTHOR'S NOTE: Sorry it took a while to upload. Computer troubles.... But what do you think of Gabrielle's bitch-fit? Is she becoming evil? I kind of want it to go that way. So I guess she will be. Do you like that? Or is that probably not the way to go? Let me know! :)