Let me in

Chapter 5 : A hint of anger.

"I know! Okay? I know. But there's nothing we can do about it, Buck. They're there and... We have to deal with it. At least until they leave." Maddie told him, completely resolved, having had more time to get used to the idea.

"No, Maddie, there's no 'we' in there. I agreed to come to one dinner, just one, because you asked me to, but I wouldn't do it again." Buck says, 'cause there's no way he's going to put up with this again.

"Buck, you're not going to be able to avoid them all the time by sharing the same city!" She raises her voice a little, rolling her eyes, annoyed.

"But we'll have to! We can't manage to be in the same room without arguing! Shit Maddie, we can't even breathe the same air... So how can it be otherwise ?" Buck cracks, running his free hand through his hair, frustrated and angry. So angry.

"Well maybe you should stop playing their game! Damn, Buck, I thought you were done with all this, but they come back, Dad provokes you and there you go again." Maddie blames him, gradually losing her temper as well.

And Buck... Buck is appalled at what he hears. So much so that he laughs at it.

"Oh, I'm dreaming. So it's going to be my fault now? I'm telling you, you're the one who brought them back!"

"I want my child to feel loved and surrounded by a normal family when he is born. Is it really so terrible to want that?"

"A normal family?"  Buck says it again, like it's the most bewildering thing he's ever heard. "We're not a normal family, Maddie. They've never been there for us, and the few times they were, it was worse than better. I'm sorry, but the greatest gift you can give your child is never to present them to him."

Maddie hiccups with shock and protest.

"Evan, don't say things like that! They're still our parents!" She reprimands him.

"They're not my fucking parents!" Buck cracks, closing his fist around his hair. "They never have been and they never will be. I've accepted it, why can't you do it?"

"Because I want to have hope!" Maddie, in turn, breaks down, and yet, it sounds a little false, probably because like him, she knows that it's a waste of time and that it's not worth it.

"All right, then it's your problem, not mine." He spits before he hangs up.

When he goes up the stairs, he's so angry that he doesn't even pay attention to the looks on everyone's face.

He still has his phone clutched in his hand and his eyes glued to Chimney, who looks like he's trying to bury himself in a mouse hole.

"Did you know that?" He asks.

Chimney has never really seen Buck angry. He doesn't want to know what he looks like when he explodes. So he doesn't beat around the bush and he answers in his best sorry voice;

"She told me yesterday morning."

And Buck nods his head, his tongue turns in his mouth as if to prevent himself from saying something that will probably be regretted later, taking the confession.

His parents told Maddie two days ago, the day before they were supposed to leave. Maddie told Chimney yesterday morning.

But neither of them thought to tell her right away. They both knew, but they didn't say anything.

Good. That's very good.

"Buck, at least have your dinner." Bobby's voice screams, at once soft and stern, as Buck turns his heels and heads for the stairs again.