~Ophelia's POV~
"Phe!" My mom called for me as I sat in my room in bed, dressed in my pajamas. I glanced up, knowing she was calling for me from the living room, most likely. "Yeah?" I called back.
Silence. There was no answer.
"Mom, what is it?!" I yelled, not wanting to have to get up from my bed. But alas, she didn't respond yet again, so I was sadly forced to get up out of bed and from underneath my warm blankets.
My white nightgown that had little blue flowers on it slipped down over my thighs more as I stood up, a groan leaving me. I hated when she would call for me and then purposefully not respond when I called back, just to make me get up and come to where she was. Could she not just yell back to me from where she was at? I mean, she'd done it the first time.
I made my way down the hallway and into the living room, where I found both my mom and my granny sitting on the couch. Mom was drinking coffee while my granny had a cup of tea in a little floral tea cup as she watched TV. Granny's favorite thing to drink was tea, for as long as I could remember. "What's wrong?" I asked mom as I sat down on the other couch, wondering what was so important that she had made me come all the way in here.
Granny smiled. "Your dad is going to be here in an hour. He wants to take you out for lunch." She said, making me freeze. I prayed that I had heard her wrong. "Excuse me?" I blinked, glancing over at my mom to see if it was true. When she smiled and nodded her head as if this was a good thing, I knew that they weren't just joking with me. My dad was going to be here in an hour, and I was going to be forced to go to lunch with him.
"No. Mom, I don't want to." I refused, shaking my head as I peered down at her with a frown.
My mom set her coffee cup on the table and furrowed her brows, giving me that no nonsense look. "Phe, this is a good thing. You haven't seen him in a long time and he misses you. Besides, it's just one lunch. It'll be nice!" She said enthusiastically. It was as if I was the only one here who remembered that he had left. He was the reason I hadn't seen him in years, yet I was supposed to believed that he had missed me?
"Please don't make me. I don't want to see him. I don't need him." I pleaded, but she sent me a look that told me to shut up. "You're going to lunch with your father whether you like it or not, Ophelia. He flew all the way down here last night just to see you. You're going, so go get ready." Mom demanded, no room for negotiation left in her tone. I wanted to continue to protest, but I knew it would do no good. My mom had made up her mind and I knew her well enough to know there'd be no changing it, not with this. She was a stubborn woman, so maybe that's where I got it from.
"Fine." I huffed, spinning around before I angrily marched back down the hall and into my bedroom. I slammed my bedroom door shut and heard mom yell at me from the living room, but I completely disregarded it as I went into the bathroom to shower.
I took a long shower this time, far longer than I would normally take, but I was in need of some time to myself so I could calm down. Something about taking showers always calmed me down, soothed me. By the time I got out, I was still upset but I wasn't as angry. I'd just have to get this lunch over with. I didn't know how long I'd been in the shower or how much longer I had to get ready, but I took my time doing my makeup anyways.
My father could wait a little longer for me to be ready if he got here early. After all, I'd been waiting for years without ever hearing a word from him. He was lucky to be able to even set foot near me.
Once I finished doing my makeup, I put on some undergarments and then blow dried my still damp hair in the bathroom, brushing it out afterwards. Deciding to leave my hair down in its natural state, I headed into my closet to look for something to wear, sifting through my things. I ended up picking out a white tank top with a yellow butterfly on the chest, matched with a flowy pink skirt that had green vines with leaves on it and a pair of white heeled boots with a black sole that had small pink and green butterflies on them. Aside from my necklace, I used green hair clips to pin my hair back at the front and a little green purse to keep my phone in.
Lastly, I spritzed some perfume on myself before I reluctantly forced myself to leave my room, knowing my dad was here already. I could hear him in the living room as he spoke to mom and wondered how she could even stomach looking at him as I entered the room.
My dad looked up as I came in and smiled at me, which I didn't return until mom sent me a look from across the living room. So I forced a smile back at him, all while wishing that he would just leave already.
"Ready to go, sweetheart?" Dad asked as he stood up off the couch, rising to his full 6'6 height. He was a tall and thin man, so thin that he was basically just like a walking stick. Even as a kid, he'd looked like this and it was weird to see that that hadn't changed a bit. Nothing about him looked different, just...vaguely familiar—the type of familiar where you are more used to seeing something in your memories, so it looks strange when you see it in person again.
"Sure." I mumbled unenthusiastically, turning around before he could respond and marching right out of the house.
Dad came walking out after me just a moment later, leading me down to his car after he shut the front door. It was a rental car, but it looked like he had purposely chosen the most expensive car they had. I rolled my eyes and got into the front seat, slamming the car door before I pulled on my seatbelt and dad got into the car as well.
The car ride to whatever restaurant he was taking me to was painfully slow and horrifically quiet, filled with an awkward tension that I knew he didn't know how to break and that I didn't want to break because I'd have to speak to him to do that.
When we got to the restaurant, I got out of the car and looked up at the rather nice looking restaurant. I hadn't been here before, so I didn't know if their food was good, but I assumed it must've been because there were a lot of cars in the parking lot. It was pretty packed here.
The two of us walked into the restaurant and I heard my stomach rumble quietly when the smell of food hit me, making me realize how hungry I actually was. I hadn't eaten breakfast this morning. Evidently, dad heard it too because he looked down at me with an amused smile on his lips. "Hungry?" He asked, and I gave a simple nod of my head, frowning.
After we were shown to a table, I sat down across from him and began to look through the menu, wishing I could go back home already.
It was awkward and quiet between us as we looked through our menus, but I almost preferred it to having to talk to him. It wasn't until we had already ordered and then been served our food that my dad decided to finally speak, though with hesitation at first. "So..." He began slowly, a frown on his thin lips. "Are you enjoying your new school? Your mom said you've made friends." He asked, glancing up at me.
"Yeah." I mumbled, twirling the spaghetti around my fork as I stared down at my plate. I really didn't want to talk with him.
He was silent for a few minutes while he ate, but then he spoke again. "You're graduating this year. Have you applied to any colleges or thought about what you want to major in?" He asked me. I felt more like I was being interviewed rather than being spoken to by my dad."No, not yet. I don't want to make a decision like that until I'm absolutely sure." I answered, bouncing my knee as I took a bite of my pasta.
"Mm, yeah. That's a good idea." He smiled. I wanted to roll my eyes but I managed to refrain, glancing up at him. "How have you been? Anything major happen? I didn't realize how much I missed you until I saw you earlier." He said, and I didn't mean to but I snapped at him.
"Oh, yeah. You missed me so much that you ignored all my calls and never even bothered to text me back when I tried talking to you." I said sarcastically, rolling my eyes as he cringed a little. I didn't care. I wanted him to know that I was bitter and angry with him, that I didn't forgive him. Even now, he wasn't apologizing, so I wasn't forgiving. "It wasn't like that, sweetheart." He sighed, making me scoff in disbelief. Was he really about to make excuses for abandoning me right now?
"You're joking." I said, disbelief clear in my tone. "Are you saying you didn't move states to be closer to someone else's children?" I scoffed, raising a brow at him. He could try to make up as many excuses as he wanted, but that didn't change the fact that I knew the truth already. After cheating on my mom with his secretary, he divorced my mom and then moved entire states away to be closer to her children. It pissed me off, especially when I considered the fact that he could do that for random children but couldn't even be bothered to pick up the phone when I—his daughter—called. I would not forgive him.
"Well..." He frowned and looked down at his food, biting his cheek as he shrugged his shoulders. "I mean, I did." He admitted, and I hummed, giving him a look that said I already knew that.
I continued to eat my spaghetti, not paying him very much mind as I was too angry to deal with him. I knew it seemed like I was being mean, but I thought I had the right to be mean, to be angry. He had completely abandoned me. It'd been several years since I had even heard his voice over the phone, let alone seen him in person.
"Ophelia, please." Dad sighed, pushing the peas around on his plate with his spoon. "I know I'm not the best father, but I missed you. I want to be in your life. I'm trying here, sweetheart." He said, looking at me with a frown on his face.
"So why now, then? If you missed me so much, why'd you never return my calls or answer my texts? You just completely ignored me." I snapped, openly glaring at him now. He looked at me with parted lips, not knowing what he could say that could fix this now. Truthfully, nothing could—at least, not for me. Him apologizing didn't mean anything. If he wanted to be in my life so bad, it was going to take more than just a few sorry apologies. I was going to make him earn his spot in my life.
And if he didn't want to earn it, he never wanted it in the first place.