Inferno Part 2

~16~ Proud and Pig-Headed

Ellie's POV

"Trace, are you staying for dinner?" I ask from the kitchen.

"Yeah, if that's ok" he says from the living room. He and Luke are playing Fortnite.

"You checked with your mom?" I ask, unsure. Megan has been acting funny lately.

"She and Izzy are at volleyball"

"Ok. Call your dad and invite him over then" I say, adding more potatoes to the oven.

We're eating dinner and the boys are being dumb. I made baked potatoes, and they are flicking the skin at each other.

"Knock it off, you too" I say, annoyed. How hard is it to eat dinner like mature people? In this family....Hard.

We finish dinner and I get the mess cleaned up. Emma helps me.

"You don't need to help, beautiful" I say, kissing her cheek.

"I'm not letting you do this all by yourself" she says gently.

I sniff. I don't know how we made such a considerate human, but we did.

"I'm dreading your graduation, lady. I don't know what I'm going to do without you"

"Mom, I'm not leaving. It's going to take me years to get my degree, and I plan on mooching off of you" she says, giving me a teasing smile.

"Good. Mooch as long as you want" I say, smiling back at her.

We're just about done with dishes when Megan comes in the door. Once she sees Trace and Wes she becomes livid.

"What the hell are you two doing?!?" She yells.

I look at her, surprised. I'm not sure why she's so mad right now.

She looks at me and throws her arms up, exasperated. "I'm about to scream at my son and husband. I love you friend, this is nothing about you" she says as she goes into the living room.

I follow her. Megan is very sweet, calm, and docile. She rarely gets mad, and when she does, it's mild. She looks like she's about ready to kill someone right now.

"What the hell?!?" She asks, throwing a coaster at Wes.

"Woah! Don't come in here and start throwing stuff, Megan. This isn't our house" Wes snaps.

"Oh trust me, I know that. I don't have a house anymore."

My poor, beautiful friend. She's been suffering more than she's been letting on.

"What are you doing here?" She asks, trying to calm herself down.

"We had dinner, and now we're hanging out" Wes says, looking at her like she's crazy.

"You seriously had dinner here? I asked you to be home tonight" she says, trying not to cry.

"When did you say that?!?" Wes asks with a huge attitude.

"Last night. I asked both of you to be home. Volleyball was getting done at 5:30 and I wanted to have dinner together for once." She says, wiping a tear that slipped down her cheek.

"I don't remember that at all" Wes says, still not happy.

"Of course not. You two are always too worried about coming over here with your friends. Well I've got news for you. I want you with me once in a while. Both of you. I lost my house that day, I didn't realize I lost my family too" she screams.

Wes stands up, still mad. "You're being dramatic, Megan."

She shakes her head. "I'm not. He's graduating in two months. I have two months left. I don't get to spend that time with him because I don't have a house anymore? How is that fair? He never even sleeps over. I've been understanding for months. When is it my turn? I wanted a damn family dinner tonight. I didn't think that was asking too much. Didn't think it would be that upsetting to you two" she says, leaving and slamming the door on her way out.