Unity | Harry Styles AU

XIII: welcome back (not)

"Everything's.. Good." I lied again, not making eye contact.

"Is that so?" She crossed her arms.

"Yessum." I said, looking at the ceiling.

My mom walked closer to me.

"How would you handle a situation where you and your supervisor disagreed about an issue or course of action?" She threw at me. What?

I had no idea how to even answer that. At least not on the spot like this.

"I-"

"I-" I stuttered

"You spoiled brat. Look at me." I did not look at her.

"Look at me." I looked up at her. Her eyes were angry and her teeth were clenched.

"Do you even go to Cardozo right now? Are you enrolled like I asked you to?" She hissed.

"I-"

"I never transferred." I looked down, tears welling up in my eyes.

"You little brat. I can't believe you would deceive us like this." She stood tall in front of me, my dad watching intently as all of this went down.

"Look at me." She said. I looked up, but I wish I hadn't.

Suddenly her hand slapped my face, making me wince in pain. Tears from my cheeks had fell onto the floor as I caressed my skin attempting to cool the redness.

"At least i'm going to school you know?" I yelled. My voice was muffled from the tears.

"You're a liar." She said.

"You know i'm top of the class? You know that i'm doing excellent in my courses right now? You know that i've been called an extremely talented young artist? Did you know that?" I screamed at her.

"Art is a hobby. Art is merely a hobby. You will never survive as an artist in our world." My mom hissed at me.

"In your opinion. That's merely an opinion. If I'm good, I can get recognized and create a career doing what I love." I said, trying to calm down. I was always so vulnerable around my parents, more specifically my mom.

"You are naive. You are going to law school. No more objections." She said as she pulled out her phone. For the first time in my life, I've decided to say this to my mom straight on.

"No." I said. But not quietly like the victim I was my entire life.

"Pardon?" She looked at me.

"No. I am not going to law school. I will not, because I don't want to." I crossed my arms.

"Shut up." She said.

"I'm 19. I can do what I want now. I don't even live under your roof anymore."

My mom threw her phone down onto the counter in a fit. She walked even closer to me. Her black heels making loud sounds on the floor.

"You are not my daughter. A daughter of mine would never go against her mother this way."

I could feel the tears coming again. My heart was in my throat so it was becoming difficult to speak.

"How could you say that? Because I don't want to go down the career path you want me to go down?"

"Because you are choosing the path of failure. You will fail. And a Dwyer daughter is not allowed to be a failure. I can not call any girl my daughter who is soon to be living on the streets begging for money instead of being the one who owns it." She said. "That is not a daughter I deserve." She raised her voice. I exhaled deeply.