Beyond Repair

Chapter 16: The Fallout

To say things have been tense is an understatement. It's been a couple days since we found out dad got a new girlfriend and no one speaks about it. Dad has been home a lot more recently, trying to patch things up, but I'm not the only one upset about the whole girlfriend situation. The guys won't admit it but they're upset dad moved on too. It seems like it was way too fast, and then they're also pissed because I'm upset about it.

"How's school?" Dad asks, poking at his Chinese takeout. He forced us all to sit at the table and eat dinner together.

"Fine," everyone grumbles except for the little ones because they are much more excited about throwing their noodles at each other than talking to us.

"That's good," Dad smiles, "Any hard classes?"

"Nope," everyone mumbles.

"Okay," dad says, slowly, "We all live in the same house so we're going to have to talk about what happened eventually."

"No we don't," Evan remarks, I know he's speaking for me.

"Look guys, you haven't even met her, she's a really nice person. She'd love to meet you guys, so I was thinking maybe we can have her over for dinner?" Dad asks.

"Why?" Jordan smirks, "So you can feed her instant noodles and take out?"

"No of course not, we can all pitch in and make something."

"No thanks," Jordan says, looking into his carton.

"Paisley?" He asks, "What do you think?"

I stop moving my noodles around, and look at him, "Do whatever you want; you're going to do whatever you want anyway. Why waste our time by asking?"

"Okay, forget I said anything, but honestly, we are going to have to mend this. We live together and we have to mend our relationship. This is just awkward. No one is talking to anyone," Dad says, "Besides, you are judging her based on what Paisley saw. You should give her a chance."

"Can I be excused?" I ask.

"No," dad says, sternly, "We are going to talk about it."

I sigh, "You want to talk about it?"

He nods, "Yes."

"Okay fine. Let's talk."

"Paisley..."Evan warns.

"No he wants to talk about it so let's talk about it. You see dad, us nine are talking to each other, we're not talking to you. Besides, what do you care? You work nearly seven days a week, when you are home, it's for a small amount of time, that time which you spend with your girlfriend. So no, we do not need to mend our relationship because it's not awkward. What is awkward is when you are home because we don't know what to do. We're always on our own and seriously just go back. You're ruining the whole environment," I say, "And as for your girlfriend, I'm not going to like her because it hasn't been a year and you're moving on. So screw you, and you most definitely are screwing her, so just leave me alone. I do not care what you do with her, I don't want to hear about her anymore."

Everyone stares at me, wide-eyed. Chris and Logan have completely dropped their chopsticks on the table. Evan sits, arms crossed with a look saying, I-told-you-so. The little ones still are oblivious to everything. Jordan stares with the take out carton in his hand, a noodle mid-slurp in his mouth, while James simply just stares. Dad, well, I can't tell if he's angry or hurt, maybe both.

"Now," I say, more calmly, "Can I be excused?"

Dad looks down, "Yeah sure, whatever. I don't care anymore; do whatever you want."

With this said, he pushes his chair, throwing the napkin on the table and slams his bedroom door shut. Before either of my brothers can speak, I turn around, retreating upstairs in my bedroom. I fall onto my bed, closing my eyes, at least it can't get any worse than this. 

******************************************

Thanks so much for reading! I appreciate it so much!

Vote. 

Comment.

Share.

xoxo