Sidelines ✔️

58 • behind her mask • 58

"Charlotte," Peter warned me. "Lose the attitude."

I wanted to raise my eyebrows back at him and tell Peter he had no right to tell me what to do. Yet, something within his warning was kind and considerate. Peter's crystal eyes were telling me to tread carefully. Peter knew something I didn't.

My Mom sighed and looked straight at me. "We think it's best if you go and spend some time living with your Dad."

I pursed my lips in shock. I didn't know what to say to that. They had the power to take everything I had ever known away from me.

My Mom took my moment of silence to continue. "I warned you a little while ago that something like this would happen if you kept getting yourself into trouble and you've gotten yourself into far more than a little trouble. Your Dad and I have talked it through and we think a little space from this town would be good for you. At the end of this school semester, you'll move in with him."

I felt the wave rising again. The tide that had been calming was about to turn on me, ready to rip me away from everything I had come to care about.

"No." I said, feeling my heart rise in panic. "You can't do that."

"I can. You're sixteen. I am your legal guardian and what I say goes. When your Dad and I split, we agreed that I would take full custody of you. It's my decision and your father agrees with it."

"But that's not fair, what about what I want? Things were just starting to feel okay again and then you go and do this?"

"I'm not doing anything, this is your work Charlotte. You chose to get into the car with that boy."

"I hadn't realised he was drinking!" I almost shouted, feeling infuriated. "I made a mistake, I know. But I have and can learn from it. It's not enough to send me away."

"Charlie, this is for your own good." My father began. "After what happened with your sister and almost the same thing happening to you, we think this is the best decision."

"You don't know what's for my own good, you haven't been around to know that!"

I shook my head in disbelief, feeling utterly powerless. I couldn't comprehend how this could be good for me. Why couldn't they just ground me? Why did I have to leave? Did my Mom just want to wash her hands of me? Maybe she saw that as the easy option. Maybe my Dad thought this was the only way we could rebuild our relationship. Maybe being forced to live with him was the only way we could repair our relationship and everything would be okay. The issue was it wasn't what I wanted.

"I'll run away. I'll get Taylor's parents to adopt me. I'll live with my Nana. Anything! But I will not live with him." I stated, looking at them all.

I heard Peter suck in a breath besides us whilst he looked between the three of us. We were a shadow of an old family that had been so neglected it's very foundation was almost irreparable.

"Maybe Charlie's point of view should be considered properly here too." Peter began, "I've already told you I don't agree with sending her away. Sending her away will not fix any problems, it will just avoid them and maybe even make Charlie resent us all. We all need to make sure we communicate here."

I felt a small smile creep its way onto my face when I looked to Peter, realising he was defending me. Peter was thinking about my point of view and what he thought was good for me. Listening and communicating is vital for any relationship to work.

"This our decision, Peter." My Dad said to him, looking at him with an irritated glare.

I almost raised my eyebrows at my Dad. He used to be the one that was on my side and the one that would listen to me when no one else would. Here, he was someone else. Right now, this was a version of him I hadn't yet experienced my self.