Original Work: You'll Always Find Your Way Back Home, Chapter 1, Part 8
Part 8
My dad came to stand beside me, putting a hand on my shoulder. “Scout’s just a little surprised to see you, Linda. We all are.”
Linda nodded, clearing her throat. “I know, I certainly didn’t expect to be here.” I decided not to take that personally, even though I couldn’t help but be offended. “But I’m running out of options, Mitch, I’m not sure what to do.”
Dad gestured for us all to take a seat at the table once more and the way we sat, with Linda on one side and the rest of us clustered on the other, made it seem like we were the judges to whom she was pleading her case.
“Emilia…she’s…getting to be out of control.” Linda said finally, looking down at her hands. I couldn’t help but think that the magazines were suggesting that Emilia wasn’t ‘getting to’ anything, she was all ready there. “I thought maybe…if you…her father…” Linda looked up at my dad. “I don’t know what else to do, Mitch. She’s not listening to me, she does whatever she wants, the label is getting antsy, people are getting upset with her behavior…”
“What makes you think she’d be anymore willing to listen to me?” Dad questioned, raising an eyebrow. “You’re her mother and I’m someone she’s never met.” My dad didn’t sound like the warm and loving person I had known all my life, but his tone was cold, someone talking business instead of something personal. I could tell he wasn’t very happy about my mother showing up on his doorstep, begging to be listened to.
Linda shook her head. “I know…I know…I just…I’m at my wit’s end.” She continued, sighing heavily. “No matter how many times we tell her, beg her, nothing seems to get through to Emilia. She doesn’t seem to care about anything but what she wants to do: she wants to go out and party ‘til three in the morning, she wants to be rude to the people who buy her CDs and concert tickets. She seems to have the stubborn inability to be nice to anyone.” Again, Linda shook her head. “I don’t know what to do with her.”
It should have occurred to me that Luke (and Zach, to be fair) would have found a way to listen in on our conversation before Luke spoke up but it didn’t and his voice caught me completely off guard. “Too bad you can’t take Scout, she’s nice to everyone.” He remarked from his spot pressed against the living room wall, out of our sight, but right by the entrance to the kitchen. We all turned in surprise at his words. “And she looks just like Emilia, only she wouldn’t dump water on anyone’s head. She’s not cool enough.” He started laughing. Good to know even my eight-year-old brother thought I was boring.
Dad and Beverly started to yell at Luke for eavesdropping, but I knew the damage had all ready been done. I saw something enter Linda’s eyes, a slow understanding, a comprehension, the look of someone seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. She was taking Luke’s words to heart and I didn’t have a good feeling about it.
I knew it was only a matter of time before Luke’s scheming got me into trouble.
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