Swish

.26

How I'd kept my cool and not asked, 'what the fuck do you two motherfuckers think you're doing on my fucking bed fuck fuck fuck fuckers' I had no idea, but from the widening of their eyes and shrinking back from me in the door frame, I realized my eyes must've conveyed the curses my mouth had refused to utter. 

"Virginia.  Your cousin wanted to bring Jared along to watch the game tomorrow.  We were here to invite you to dinner tonight, and to let you know we will be staying in the hotel across the street so there was no need to return home tonight."

I cut my eyes to my father, teeth grinding in my mouth while my nostrils flared while I tried to reel in my emotions, and almost failing. 

So many questions wanted to worm their way out of my mouth, most of them about my mother and the accident that night, but the rest were about his need to control me.  For some reason, the only question that slipped out was, "Why didn't you just call me?  I would've told you that I have a shift tonight at the gym."

Hazel and Bea exchanged wary glances from their spots on their own beds, eyes jumping from family member to family member while Sara seemed to giggle into her hand like a school girl. Kara looked downright uncomfortable and my father folded his hands calmly in his lap, taking a deep breath like he was going to have to explain something for the fiftieth time to an uncomprehending toddler.

"I spoke with Chuck.  He told me you could have the night off.  I'm surprised you still have a job there, with your work ethic..."

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes and storm over to him and dump him out of his wheelchair. 

I would be checking in with Chuck to make sure he was being truthful and not tricking me into pulling a no-call, no-show to my job, which was surely something he would do. 

"But I couldn't call you.  Your phone doesn't seem to be working, Virginia.  You should get it looked at soon."

I pulled my phone up and noticed that there was no signal, and that the last call I'd made had been to my grandmother the night before.  What, had my father been immediately alerted when I found out the truth about him?  Had he tapped my phone, too? 

"I will."  And I would get on my own damn phone plan, too, so that the asshole couldn't shut the service off on it like he had obviously just done with mine. 

"You look very pretty.  Your friends were just telling us about your audition.  They think you're totally going to win.  We didn't know you were even auditioning for this showcase, let alone that it even existed, why didn't you tell us about it?"

I met my father's eyes with a dead, blank stare.  I wasn't going to give him anything more than an emotionless robot, shutting my feelings down before they swelled over and got the best of me.  

"It was a last minute thing."

"Oh yeah, she didn't even seem interested in it until recently."

Shut up, Hazel.  Please, please shut up.

"Oh is that so?  And what is the prize if someone wins?"

"A hundred thousand dollars, and you get the option of three different music labels to work with.  They'll decide if they want to sign you after a three month probation period of making music at their studio, but its an unspoken rule, and no one has never not been signed."