I Never Told You What I Did for a Living

"I said what any good father would," he replied innocently.

"What did you say?" I demanded.

"Well we were discussing his school, and apparently he's quite an artist."

"You're not answering my question."

"I'm getting to it, Lily. I never actually said anything wrong, he just took certain implications from it."

"And what implications were there?"

"After a while of conversing about school, the topic shifted to his past romances."

I groaned. "And where did it go from there?"

"He seems to think I was threatening him."

"Were you?"

"I was simply advising him against going very far with you... ever."

"That's none of your business! I should be able to do whatever I want with my boyfriend!"

"But you're my daughter, and I know what's best. And he's not what's best."

"Did you actually tell him that? Is that why they left? What the hell is wrong with you?"

He looked slightly shocked by my tone. "I told you he took some implications. I never said it to him."

"But you meant it! How can you do this? You couldn't even count as a father until a couple of days ago, and now you're trying to control every aspect of my life? I was wrong, you're worse than Mom."

I turned and stormed from the room, slamming my bedroom door behind me.

"You'll regret throwing this tantrum when I send you back to your mother," he yelled after me.

"So send me back! I can't even look at you anymore!"

I was seething, and I couldn't sit still. I paced my room, suddenly feeling trapped. It would be pointless to call Gerard to come and get me, because Dad knew where he lived. Maybe that was the real reason he offered to drive me there. I couldn't believe the way things had turned out with my dad. I thought I finally had a decent parent, but I was proven horribly wrong.

My cell phone rang in my pocket. It was too soon for it to be Gerard saying he'd arrived at home, but I didn't know who else would call me. The number was unfamiliar, but I answered it anyway, grateful for any excuse to occupy my mind.

"Hello?"

"Lily?"

"Um... yeah." It was a girl, but I didn't know who.

"It's Angela."

Mystery solved.

"Oh, hey! How'd you get my number?"

"I called your house this morning and you weren't home. Your dad gave me your cell number."

"Oh, okay. What's up?"

"Are you busy?"

"Not really."

"I'll be at your house in ten minutes."

"Need directions?"

"It's a small town, Lily. Everybody knows everybody else. I know where you live."

"Okay, but why are you coming over?"

"To pick you up. We're going to hang out."

"I'm kind of in shit right now. I don't know if I can get out of here if Dad sees someone coming."

"So sneak out your window and meet me down the road. That way he won't see my car. I'll bet you could cover quite a bit of ground in ten minutes."

"Okay, I'll see you in a bit."

I hung up and carefully slid open the window. I took the screen out and set it on my floor so I could replace it afterwards. I hopped through the opening and closed the window, then dashed across the yard. I ran until I couldn't breathe, but the wind in my face had relieved my earlier feeling of being trapped. I wasn't trapped, I had friends that would help me. Maybe they would even know what to do to help me stay with Gerard.

As Angela pulled up beside me on the road, my phone rang again.

"Hello?"

"Hey. We're home."

"Okay, good. I really need to talk to you about what happened."

"It's okay. You had nothing to do with it."

Angela threw me an impatient look.

"Irregardless, I still want to talk about it. But I can't right now. Can I call you tomorrow?"

"Sure."

"Okay. I love you."

"Love you, too."

I snapped my phone shut and slid into the passenger seat. Angela took her foot off of the brake and slammed down the accelerator.

"So, where are we going?"

"We're all going to Natalie's house to watch a movie or something. We all wanted you there."

"What movie?"

She shrugged. "We'll decide that when we get there. Don't worry, we're not doing anything illegal or stupid."

I laughed. "That thought doesn't worry me at all."