MESSED UP - completed!

29- Goodbye Party

Isla shows up. "Hey. You ready?" She asks me.

I nod and join her. The guests arrive and dance to the music. Isla approaches the newcomers and greets them. Then she shows them where the appetizers and drinks are and leaves to greet others.

Zoey looks stunning in her white dress, but I can't even open my mouth to compliment her. I have lost the will to talk. "Are you okay?" She says when she sees me.

"Yes," I answer without looking her in the eyes.

"We haven't seen each other in so long. We just kept talking on the phone."

"I know."

"Did something happen?"

"No."

"Let's take a picture," Isla says, unlocking her phone to take a picture.

"Ladies, let me help," a man says, and before I can look at his face, I smell an aromatic scent from him. I glance up to look at him. His black tuxedo is a perfect match for his body.

"Oliver?" Isla asks, almost not recognizing him with his clean hairstyle.

"Hey," he says with a smile.

"You look... Gorgeous!" Isla says.

"I used to look like this all the time."

"And we always loved watching you."

"Look at the camera!" Smith says, changing the subject. "Say cheese." Then he gets closer. "Selfie time."

As he takes pictures of us, my attention falls to a different place, where I see a glimpse of Phil walking in. "Your dad's here," Isla says to Zoey.

"Did you invite him?" Zoey asks me. I shake my head.

"How is he your dad, anyway?" Isla asks.

"Isla!" I scold her.

"What? I'm just curious!" She says. Zoey hesitates to answer, so Isla continues. "My dad left when I was five 'cause my mom fucked his brother," she says. Zoey exchanges a shocked look with me. "Quite Cersei Lannister, my mom was. Now you tell me."

Zoey breathes deeply. "Um... my parents... they—um... they died in a car accident when I was eight."

"I'm so sorry," I say and pat her back.

"My uncle was only sixteen, and he raised me with the help of my grans."

"He's your uncle?" Isla asks.

"Yeah," she nods. "The 'dad' label got stuck with him since he really was a dad to me."

"Wow. My uncle fucked my mom, and yours raised you," Isla says, and her attention gets drawn to someone's presence. "Alicia!" she calls the girl that has just approached her. "Guys, meet Alicia." She introduces her friend to us. I slowly step back and try to get away from them. But Phil catches me off guard, standing in front of me.

"Phil Pearson. Are you here to threaten me again?" I ask him, all my rage ready to be taken out on him. He says nothing. "Did you find out that I sucked on my mom's breast a little too hard when I was a baby?"

He moves his hand in front of me, offering to dance. I stare at him. "Come on," he says.

"No, thank you."

"Aren't you a little too hard on me?"

"Fuck you."

His mouth opens in shock.

"Yeah. I just said that," I say. "You're too hard on me. I'm not your daughter's boyfriend. You don't get to act overprotective and bossy. You don't get to invade my life. I'm done proving that I mean no harm to her."