Out for Blood: A Billie Joe Story

I sit in the waiting room, staring at the clock. It's been an hour. My father and Susan will be walking out soon. He was so nervous when Susan brought me here to wait while she talked to him, I can't even imagine what he said to her. The door opens and my father stands in the doorway with Susan.

"Mike is going to pay for everything," Susan explains to him. He nods.

"Then I guess we'll be on our way," he says, looking back at me. His eyes are red, like he was crying. I stand up and walk with him to the door.

"See you in a couple days, Ellie," Susan says, smiling. I smile back and my father and I walk outside. We get in the car and start driving home.

"How was your session," he asks, staring at the road. I glance over at him.

"Fine," I say softly. "Yours?"

"Fine." I look down as he looks at me.

"You were crying," I say. "During your session, something made you start crying."

"Yeah," my father replies emotionlessly. "I was."

"Why?" He shifts in the seat uncomfortably.

"Something she asked just made me emotional." The rest of the ride home is silent. When we walk in to the house, Mike and Tre are sitting on the couch, watching TV.

"Hey guys, how'd it go," Mike asks, looking directly at me.

"Fine," my father and I say at the same time. I turn around and walk upstairs to my room, shutting my door behind me. After a few minutes of just sitting on my bed, doing nothing, someone knocks on the door.

"El, it's me," Tre says. "Can I come in?"

"Yeah," I murmur, staring at the quilt that was on my bed. He walks in and softly closes the door behind me. He sits next to me and looks down at me.

"How was it?"

"Fine."

"Stop saying that, Ellie; I know it wasn't. What happened? What'd she say? What'd you say?" I look up at him.

"She asked me questions and I answered them."

"What kind of questions?"

"When does it happen, what does he say to me, stuff like that." He sympathetically smiles.

"I'm sure it was hard for you to talk about it." I chuckle.

"She said it was fine if I cursed and everything, so I basically expressed everything in anger." Tre laugh.

"Cursing doesn't solve everything, Ellie." I smile.

"I know, but it helped me talk about something I didn't wanna even think about." Tre stays silent for a few seconds. He sighs when I look up at him.

"Can I ask you something, though?"

"Yeah, of course." He swallows.

"Why did you let it go so long and not tell Mike or me?"