You Have My Heart Are You Happy Now?

Early March: Frankie and Amber were hanging out with a few friends at the park and Lorelei and Chris were visiting. The three of us were talking and laughing in the kitchen as we started the dinner for tonight…I kind of liked spending time with them…and the fact of all the years I missed out with them made me upset…but I’m going to make up for it. Anthony, Nick, Joe and Kevin showed up minutes later, being kind of sweaty, but they washed up and joined us in the kitchen.

“…you want me to meet your parents?” I asked with an uneasy tone.

“Your grandparents? Yes. My parents? No. They’ll be much different with you than they are with me…come on Casey, you have to, they know about you now and they wont stop bothering me until I get you to come to a dinner or something, please?” Lorelei begged.

“Okay okay I’ll come…”

“Ha ha” Joe laughed at me and pointed but I smacked his finger away. “Great!…Oh and Joe kind of has to come too…” she added.

“What? Why me?”

“Ha ha” I laughed at Joe. “Because they want to meet the prodigy’s…that’s Nicole…boyfriend…that’s you”

“But…what if they don’t like me…” Joe said.

“Which is very likely” Chris commented.

“Chris,” Lor scolded. “Don’t worry Joe, my parents don’t like most people,” she assured him and I just laughed. Then the door bell rang. “I got it,” I said and walked to the door.

I opened it…but when I did, I immediately started to regret it. There stood Sarah and Steve…my adoptive parents. “What are you doing here?" I hissed.

“Just came by to visit our daughter” Sarah said.

“I’m not your daughter” I said with a little anger. “Hon who’s at the door”? Lorelei asked.

I guessed they could hear me. But when Anthony, Lorelei, Chris, Nick, Kevin, and Joe all came from around the corner, they saw who I was looking at and I felt Anthony, Lorelei and Chris tense up as I noticed Kevin, Joe and Nick looked kind of clueless.

“What the hell do you want,” Anthony snapped as he took a few steps forward but when he got to my side, I stopped him, so he couldn’t move forward anymore.

“Anthony stop,” I said. “You have some nerve to come here,” Chris said and did the same thing as Anthony but I stopped him too.

“We didn’t come to fight,” Steve said. “We just came to talk” Sarah said. “Calm yourself, we’re not forcing you to come back with us or to leave with us or do anything,” she added.

“Because she’s 18 now and she doesn’t have to take orders from you,” Lorelei snapped. “Yes we know that she’s 18 now, all of America knows, yes it’s a very big deal,” Steve said with annoyance and sarcasm.

“Hey…” Joe started to say but I stopped him

“Look you will not into come into my home and start disrespecting me, if you like, you are more than welcome to come in and talk to us about whatever it is you want to talk about,” I said and they nodded. So I got Chris and Anthony to move to the side to let them in.

“Umm you can sit in the dining room…at the table,” I instructed and they followed as I shut the door and Joe, Kevin and Nick got to my side and Anthony, Lor and Chris followed Steve and Sarah.

“Casey what’s going on? Who are they?” Joe asked and I could hear the annoyance in his voice. “Steve and Sarah…my adoptive parents,” I said and all of their jaws dropped but Joe also had anger written on his face.

“You’re kidding right?” Joe asked. “I wish I was,” I sighed and walked passed them and they followed.

“Well it’s good to see you both again,” Steve said to Lor and Chris. “Wish we could say the same,” Chris said coldly.

Lor and Chris knew what went on in Steve and Sarah’s household, when they got drunk and hit me a few times and didn’t care what I did…and that threw them off the edge…I told Nick, Kevin and Joe too…and Joe really got mad at that.

“Now, now, no need to be rude, we aren’t here to start anything,” Steven said as I leaned against the corner of the wall. “You started everything when you came into our lives," Chris said angrily.

“If we recall, you were the ones who handed Nicole over to us,” Sarah mentioned.

“We did not hand her over, we had no choice in the matter, child services took her away because they felt she would be living in a poor condition, since we were teenagers without jobs and I moved out of my parents house,” Lor defended.

It was true, they were both teenagers and jobless and Lorelei moved out because she didn’t get along with her parents and she didn’t have any contact with them at all at first but then when she tried to get me back and she couldn’t, she called her parents.

“Enough!” I said loud enough so they all stopped. “Why don’t you both just tell us why you’re here” I snapped. “We’ve been thinking and we want to know why and how you were able to go on tour last summer with those three,” Sarah said, looking at me.

“What are you talking about Sarah,” Lor snapped at her. “What I’m talking about is…those boys kidnapped our daughter and we didn’t get a call or anything,” she said and Joe and Nick tensed a little and I saw they both turned a little red.

“First of all, they did not kidnap me, they wanted me and Colleen to go on tour with them and I wanted to go with them, if they kidnapped me I could’ve easily escaped” I said.

“Who would want you there?" Sarah asked. “Yea, what were you good for?" Steven added and I noticed everyone's reactions and all of the guys were about to say something.

“What was I good for? I can sing, if you haven't noticed,” I said. “You will not talk to us that way” Steven said. “Yes I will, you know why? Because you aren't my parents,” I snapped.

“We raised you,” Sarah said and I laughed without humor.

“You raised me? I raised myself, you both were never home anyway and you never taught me anything, I had to teach myself ”

“Maybe if you weren’t so useless and worthless…” Steven started to say but was cut off.

“Hey!” Chris, Anthony and Joe’s voices boomed.

“You will not talk about our daughter like that,” Lor snapped. “She’s still ours until we hand custody back over to you,” Sarah snapped back.

“She is nobody‘s, she is 18 now” Anthony spoke up, harshly. “Yea, she has a life of her own, she’s no one’s property,” Joe said, snapping a glare at Steven and Sarah.

“Joe it’s okay,” I muttered, holding onto his hand, to keep him back a little. “Yea Joe, just stay out of it,” Kevin murmured so only, Nick, Joe and I heard him. Joe was about to protest but Lor spoke.

“Just tell us why you’re here, so you can leave, you obviously didn’t come all the way here to pick a fight”

“You’re right…we actually did come for a purpose…and that’d purpose is to return custody of Casey back over to you,” Sarah stated. “Since she knows you both now, we think it would best if she was officially yours,” she added.

Yea right, they just wanted to erase me from their lives completely…not that I was complaining.

“How did you know we were here,” Chris asked. “Actually Anthony called,” Steven said. “You called them, told them to come here and you didn’t tell me?” I snapped. “I just talked to them last night, I didn’t think they would be here right away, I was going to tell you tonight,” he defended and I let it slide.

“Casey, we have to get Frankie and Amber from the park,” Nick whispered in my ear.

So then without responding, I led them all by the door, so Steve and Sarah wouldn’t hear our conversation. “How about you stay here and we’ll go,” he added and I nodded.

“Alright, thank you so much,” I said. “I’m gonna stay here with you…if that’s alright,” Joe said, looking at me. “You sure? You don't have to,” I assured him.

“I want to…I don’t really feel safe with you here with them…even if Lorelei is going to strangle Sarah, and Chris and Anthony are sure to beat the crap out of Steven…but I want a part of that” he said and I giggled and he smiled lightly at me. “I like to know that you’re alright” he added.

“Okay then you can stay if you like,” I said. Then I looked back at Kevin and Nick and they were smiling at us. “We’ll be right back with Frankie and Amber,” Kevin said.

“Alright, thanks again guys,” I said and hugged them both. “But if you can, can you please try to prevent Amber coming through the door, I don’t even want to think about what Steven and Sarah would say about her…to her nonetheless,” I said.

“We’ll try,” Nick said with a reassuring smile. “But no promises, that girl’s got as much energy as you and Joe got put together,” Kevin added and I just rolled my eyes playfully and they left.

Then I shut the door and Joe and I got back to the adults who had papers all over the table, which I guessed were the papers. Going in for round two.