Train Hunters

Anagnorisis

The next morning things had gone as Grace expected. She'd woken up, thanked Simon for allowing her to stay and left. His mother had offered her breakfast and she'd considered taking her up on it but ultimately decided against it. After all, there was no use in delaying the inevitable fight waiting for her at home. As she drove towards the center of conflict in her life she turned the radio up in the misguided hope that maybe it would drown out her thoughts. It didn't, of course, and Grace began mentally rehearsing what she'd say.

Of course, she wouldn't implicate Simon in any way, she still needed her parents to like him or else she'd have an entirely different can of worms to grapple with. She pulled up to the gate of her home and considered just turning around and driving into the sunset never to be seen again before shaking that thought from her head and pulled into the driveway parking her car. As she got out she half expected to see her mother standing on the porch in a robe, mug in hand waiting to chew her out.

She wasn't, of course and Grace entered into the house and silently hoped that her mother would be out, giving her just the tiniest taste of freedom before it was ripped away from her possibly forever. The universe granted her no such luck as she saw her mother sitting casually on the living room couch. Grace could tell she'd heard her enter but her mother made no move to look at her or address her presence in any way. She'd force Grace to be the one to make the first move.

"I'm home." she said quietly. Her mother paused the show she was pretending to watch and turned to look at her.

"You're in the same clothes from last night, where have you been?" she asked and Grace prepared her answer.

"I stayed the night at a friend's place." she said confidently because it wasn't technically a lie.

"Your boyfriend?" her mother asked and Grace responded.

"No, Taylor." she said. Grace felt bad about dragging someone who had nothing to do with the situation into her drama but her mother already hated Taylor and it wasn't like he was allowed around the house anyway. She needed Simon to continue being seen as a paragon who was fixing her. Her mother looked somewhere between annoyed and furious.

"Of course you were over at some boy's house and you didn't even have the decency to make it your boyfriend. God Grace, tell me, is everything you do to embarrass me or is that just a side effect of your actions?" her mother asked. Grace remained calm.

"I didn't want to stay over here because I didn't want to get into a fight." she explained. Her mother rolled her eyes.

"If you were really so concerned about not starting a fight maybe you'd consider not dressing so ridiculously, or not yelling at me and making a scene in restaurants, or not sleeping with random boys." she said coldly. Grace rushed to her own defense.

"I didn't sleep with him mom, why would you think I'd do that?" she asked annoyed. Of course her mother thought the worst of her.

"I don't know Grace, these days I don't know what you'll do until you're doing it. You're eighteen years old and yet I feel as though I'm parenting a toddler." her mother kept a low even tone as if they were in a public place and she was worried about people hearing them. Really, it was another ploy. As long as she kept her voice down any slight uptick in volume from Grace would be taken as an outburst. Grace at the very least wasn't falling for that trick again and kept the same low even tone.

"I assure you it won't happen again." Grace explained.

"I know it won't, because I'm taking your car." she said calmly gesturing for the keys which Grace promptly handed over. This almost got a rise out of Grace. Almost.

"Ok, that's fine." she said calmly though internally she was panicking as she was likely going to have to rely on the help of others, namely Simon, in order to research the train. That was if she was ever allowed out of this house again. Her mother raised an eyebrow at her reaction and as if still determined to get a rise out of her daughter she looked at her for something else to pick on. She set her sights on the flyer hanging out of Grace's purse. Snatching the thing and reading it over she looked at her daughter with annoyance and disgust.