Music Therapy

3 || Chapter One

Me Without You by tobyMac

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"We're extremely disappointed in you, son." Frank said, barely containing his anger as he gave me his sternest expression.

I rolled my eyes, opting for the least painful form of retaliation, "Uh-huh."

"Disappointed is an understatement David — you got suspended!" Charlene shrieked, her voice rising in pitch with every word.

"I noticed."

And they were *beeping* lucky that that was all that had happened. I knew that I should have been expelled. Maybe that's even what I had wanted. But, like always, Frank and Charlene's stupid connections had saved my *beep*.

"Do you realize how this looks to all of our friends? To the entire town?" Frank shouted, "My chances at a re-election next year depends on our family's reputation and now you've tarnished it!"

Reputation. That's all these two *beeping* people even cared about. They had to be invited to all of the dinner parties, all of the charity benefits, all of the cookouts. It didn't matter how I felt or what I wanted. They could care less about me. And with everyday I spent trapped in this *beep* of a house, I wished even more that Jacob would have taken me with him.

But he hadn't and I was stuck here with people that forgot too often that they even had a child, let alone a second one, and didn't give a *beep* about anything regarding me unless it affected their public image negatively.

"You're grounded." Frank announced firmly, finality prominent in his tone, "And we're sending you somewhere to get help."

"That's right." Charlene agreed, "You're obviously messed up in the head and you need assistance straightening out your priorities. Reputation should be your priority above all. Your desire for petty revenge or whatever that was all about with that girl is irrelevant. We'll be taking away your phone and sending you somewhere as soon as possible."

I looked back at these people that called themselves my parents with nothing but pure hatred. If only they weren't such *beeping* idiots, they would actually understand. But of course they were too occupied with just about anything else to spare a second glance at the matter. So now I'd probably have to go ignore some shrink as they rattled on about healing and forgiveness and all of that *beep*.

*Beep* my life.

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Charlene pulled into the parking lot of a single level church — in a building that obviously hadn't been originally built for that purpose — after picking me up from the house when she and Frank had finished up at their Sunday night dinner party. A big sign across the entrance of the building read Wallowdale United Methodist Church and boasted a large cross with a red flag thing looped around it as the t in Methodist. I couldn't believe that Frank and Charlene were actually sending me to a church of all places. They'd never been religious, and by extension, I'd never even so much as set foot in a church.

"The group leader said to just knock on the door and he'd come let you in. This'll be good for you, trust me. Just give it a chance," Charlene said carefully, still treading on a shifting shoreline between the casual indifference she usually directed towards me and the anger that had exploded in her because of my suspension.

Biting back a comment about how she didn't pay enough attention to be able to properly dictate what was good for me and what wasn't, I got out of the car without a word, slamming the door behind me. Heaving a sigh of annoyance and disdain for this current situation, I knocked on the door before crossing my arms over my chest as I waited for this director to show up.