Tanner Chester Hates Me

Chapter 3: The news

My patients runs out. "I was thinking that there wasn't a snowballs chance in hell I would be able to beat him should I refuse."

Asher frowns as Mom chastizes me for my language.

"Could it be that he's pyrokenetic?" Asher asks very softly.

I snarl at him. "Why does everyone think that? It has nothing to do with that, or the fact that he is an upperclass citizen with a lower class aditude, nor does it have even the slightest possibility that I could even like it. The fact of the matter is, he is stronger then I, and I know that. What the hell is the point in fighting him if I know for sure, I can't win!"

Mom looks shocked, eyes turning bright yellow. I've never yelled in her presence before.

Asher swallows, eyes wide. "I..."

I shake my head. "I don't live in the past. You guys know that, yet you still throw it in my face."

"No," mom says slowly. "No, Sutton, it's not like that. Asher didn't mean it like that. We know it's in the past it's just sometimes..." she trails off.

"No, say it mom. I know you want to say it." She snaps her mouth shut so I finish her sentence for her. "Sometimes, I let shit get to me. I let it stay inside me."

Mom shakes her head. "Sutton, it's not like that. And listen, this isn't about that. This is about this mating proposal. Why did he ask you?"

I let out a breath and try to calm down. I've never been this mad before. I just don't have patiences today.

"You're guess," I lay back, staring at the ceiling, "is as good as mine."

Mom sits down next to me. "Asher, do you know?"

"No, I'm not exactly friends with the guy. I just heard people talking about it in the halls. I couldn't find you after school, Sutton." Asher says, more calmly.

If only I had that luck with Tanner, I think bitterly.

"God, what am I going to tell dad?" I mumbe more to myself than anyone else.

"The truth," mom suggests.

"Yeah," Asher agrees. "Either way he's going to flip shit."

Mom lets out a tired sigh and heads for the door. "I'll go make your dad's favorite meal for this news. He'll need it." She mumbles more to herself than to me.

Asher follows her out, closing the door behind himself. I can tell both of them are mad, but I told them the truth. I just hope dad takes this better.

***

We all sit around the table: Mom smiling widely and very obviously fakely, Asher stares down at his plate, almost waiting for shit to hit the fan, and while I'm the only one that isn't even looking at him. I just stare blankly at the floor.

So it's safe to assume that Dad knows something is wrong the moment he steps onto the property. He's suspicious, looking around the house as if waiting to spot something broken or misplaced or some sort of bad mail. Anything that could tell him what's going on.

We all sit around the table and dad eyes us. "Okay, I give. What happened?"

Asher glances at me in the corner of his eye but thankfully doesn't say anything. Mom, on the other hand, swallows her food and folds her hands neatly on the table. "Dave, we have to talk about Sutton."

Dad's light orange eyes dark over to me, scanning my body trying to find something physically wrong with me. Then he said the dreaded words.

"What happened, Sutton?"