𝗥𝗘𝗕𝗘𝗟𝗟𝗜𝗢𝗨𝗦 𝗧𝗥𝗔𝗚𝗘𝗗𝗜𝗘𝗦, 𝙅𝙊𝙃𝙉 𝘽 ¹.

𝙭𝙭𝙫. 𝙘𝙖𝙡𝙢 𝙗𝙚𝙛𝙤𝙧𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙨𝙩𝙤𝙧𝙢

( 𝘾𝙃𝘼𝙋𝙏𝙀𝙍 𝙏𝙒𝙀𝙉𝙏𝙔 𝙁𝙄𝙑𝙀. )
▬▬▬∘◦ ☆ ◦∘▬▬▬

THE CLOCK STRUCK MIDNIGHT as Jaylene stepped into the Rosewood household, tiptoeing across the shiny tile which was of no use because her father was sat in the living room, watching some sort of documentary with no sort of interest set on his face.

"Jaylene." He called out before she could make it up the stairs, causing her to sigh as she turned around, a fake smile planted on her lips. "Look, there's a few weeks left of summer break, so I was thinking that the three of us should head down to our home in The Hamptons. Your grandparents have been wanting to see you two kids for some time now." Henderson explained, standing from his seat with his arms crossed.

A shocked look formed on her face as she raised her eyebrows up at him. "The Hamptons? In New York? The state where I spent six whole months at?" She couldn't help but chuckle at the fact that he had even made it an option for them to head up to New York. "Yeah, hard pass on that."

"It'll be different this time." He assured her, hoping to convince her to take a much-needed getaway from the island. "And maybe we can permanently move there and turn this into our vacation home."

"What about Lorelei? Are you two filing for divorce?" Jaylene had so many other questions and concerns, but that seemed to be the one that mattered to her the most at the moment.

"I don't know. We're taking some time apart right now. She left a few hours ago." Henderson responded, awkwardly glancing at his daughter who was making it extremely clear that she was still mad at him.

"You wanna go to the Hamptons because everyone here knows what you did. You wanna try and escape reality, don't you?" Jaylene quickly realized, causing her to scoff as she shakes her head in disbelief. It was obvious that he was tired of the backlash he'd received the past couple of days, but she didn't think it bothered him this much. Clearly she was mistaken. "Go ahead. Go to New York for a few weeks, but I'm staying put. My life is finally starting to go back to normal and I don't need anything, or anyone, ruining that for me."

"Listen, Jaylene, Celia told me that you've been consuming alcohol since being back. And not just small quantities. She said that your clothes reek of it sometimes." He begins, evident concern laced in his tone as the brunette-haired girl rolls her eyes at him.

"I've gotten tipsy like once. The other times I must've accidentally spilled some." She shrugged, beginning to grow annoyed with everything he was saying to her. "I mean, hooray for you trying to be a good dad and all, but I'm not turning back to my old habits if that's what you're worried about." Jaylene knew that she wasn't being completely honest, but she wasn't about to give him the satisfaction of being right. She held way too much pride. "So quit trying to have some sort of input in my life."

"No. You know what, sit down!" Henderson ordered, his voice rising as he pointed at the couch that he'd previously been sat on.

Jaylene shot him a funny look, holding back a laugh because she couldn't tell whether he was being serious or not, but when he impatiently tapped his foot against the ground with a scowl on his face, she knew he wasn't messing around.