Fragile Bones

Chapter Twenty-One

"Wait, let me give you your sweatshirt," I said, and began pulling it off.

"Keep it. It's pretty cold inside your house and I have a lot more. See you around Madeline," he finished with a smirk, and rode off before I could even argue. I stood, barefoot on my front porch and watched him drive away, and still kept standing there even after he was long gone.

•••

"Madeline, we're home!" I heard a yell from the front door, and I turned off the show I was watching. It was now around 7:30 pm, and I had done absolutely nothing after Asher left. And by nothing, I mean I cleaned up the kitchen and watched TV. Assuming they had brought home something to eat for dinner, I wandered into the kitchen so I could sit down with them. Instead, they held nothing in their hands, which kind of relieved me if I'm being honest. However, the look on their faces replaced the feelings once more. My mom glanced at my dad, and together they both pulled out a chair from the kitchen table and sat down. I watched them suspiciously, still not moving from my spot in the kitchen where my feet seemed to be rooted. "We have something we want to talk to you about Madeline. Sit down," my mom said, gesturing to the chair.

I didn't want to sit down. I didn't want to hear whatever bad news they had to deliver. I didn't want to have my life turn into more chaos than it already was in.

I sat down anyway.

"This is probably going to be incredibly hard for you to hear," my dad started, "but it's what Nikki and I think is for the best. We're going to get a divorce," he finished, letting out a long sigh. I stared at both of them, while they waited for my response. It's kind of odd. I had expected this, even wished for it at some points, but now, sitting here while they're actually saying it to me? It was different. I had hardly seen them for the past three weeks, and when they finally bother to actually talk to me it was to tell me they were splitting up. A wave of emotions crashed over me all at once.

"What do you mean you're getting a divorce? You guys have barely even been fighting. Why don't you just try couples therapy, or something else?" I responded, looking back and forth between both of them somewhat frantically. I really was kidding myself though; I knew how much they screamed at each other.

"We don't think that would work. And we've been fighting a lot more than you have probably seen. The way this is going to work is until your father can get his own place, he'll still be staying here, but in the guest room because we don't want to spend the money for a hotel. Also-"

"Do my feelings just not matter here?" I interjected.

My mom looked at me incredulously, and my dad had the same expression. "Of course your feelings matter Mads, but-" my dad tried to speak but I wasn't having any of it right now.

"I've barely seen any one of you these past weeks, and when I did you barely even talked to me. Now, when we're finally all sitting down together and you can look at me for more than a few seconds, all you have to say is this? I'm sorry, but that's a bunch of bullshit." My parents looked surprised at my outburst, and I was surprised I had the courage to say all that too.

"Madeline, watch your language," my mother tried to reprimand me, which just succeeded in making me angrier.

"No, I won't watch my language mom," I said, my voice beginning to rise. " How can you both be so selfish? You don't know anything about my life right now because all you can focus on is your own selves. How do you think I've felt, being left alone in the house all the time and being around you guys when you're screaming at each other? You don't care, do you? Even if I had the worst problems in the world, you wouldn't notice," I muttered, scraping my chair back and running upstairs to my room before they had the chance to say anything.

I slammed my bedroom door behind me, and leaned against it, heaving out a large sigh. How did my day go from being fun-filled with Asher to downright depressing? My life kept taking turns for the worst just when things were starting to look up. Perhaps I had overreacted at my parents, but it's really what I felt. It would have been different if they had been communicating with me throughout the whole thing maybe, but now I just felt alienated from the situation since they hadn't done that. I just wanted a normal family, and a normal life. I though about our neighbors, and how happy they looked together, and I'm sure their daughter was exactly the same. Right now, I would kill to have someone to talk to, to be comforted by.

I opened my phone and scrolled through my limited contacts, finger hovering over Asher's name. Fiddling with the strings on the hoodie he lent me, I pressed on it and almost clicked the call button. I sighed and shut it off again, knowing that I had bothered him enough today. His mom wanted him home anyway, so he probably couldn't spend time with me even if he wanted to.

Which he doesn't, a small voice in my head reminded me.

I pushed myself up from the door and began walking towards my bathroom. Everything seemed to be going wrong, but I knew the one thing that was guaranteed to make me feel better.

•••
A/N

I know this is a very short chapter, but I put down everything that I wanted to happen so oh well lol. Plus, I'm releasing it less than a week after I did the last one. I might rewrite some parts later on, if it's not super well received. Keep staying safe during this pandemic!

Shoutouts to:
@Sapphire_Quartz08
@missadventure111
@Kaitlynn3560

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Emma x