Pen Pals ||Shelby and Toni||

I Cant Have You

Shelby wakes up to the alarm ringing in her ear. She's still dressed in last nights clothes. Toni's jacket is still on her. Without noticing at first Shelby leans over and sniffs the jacket.

She immediately stops and jumps up. Although the jacket might be a little hot for the wear today she finds a cute church outfit that goes well with it. She doesn't think much of it until she walks down stairs into the kitchen grabbing a plate and fork.

"Good morning honey!" Mom Joe walks into the kitchen and servers her some eggs and bacon. "Morning." Shelby mumbles tiredly.

"Hey you better get it together before church. We said that the curfew can be later if you can keep being well rested for Sundays." Her Dad walks in giving Jobeth a kiss on the forehead while she heads him some coffee.

"Yes Daddy. I just need to eat some food and I'll be fine." Shelby looks up noticing that he's now looking at her. He looks like he's trying to find the killer at a crime scene. "What?" Shelby asks looking at herself. "Who got you that jacket I've never seen it before?" Her dad says. He's playing with the ring around his finger nervously.

"It's just a friends dad." Shelby says picking at her eggs. He looks a little taken aback that she had said dad instead of daddy but doesn't mention it. "Ah, okay. Who's is it?" He asks trying to sound like he's just curious.

"My friend Toni's..." Shelby can sense that her father isn't pleased with that. "Melody, Spencer, why don't you go put on your church clothes. We should get going in a bit." Jobeth says they hurriedly walk up the stairs.

"Shelby your friend Toni... we don't think it's in your best interest to talk with her." Dave starts he's slowly. "What why you haven't even met her yet. She's really not a bad person dad. I was just cold last night." Shelby says now facing his direction fully.

"Well we were concerned when you found her as a friend online-" he starts but is cut off by Shelby.

"How do you know that." Shelby says now looking guarded. "There's an app that shows what you do on your phone... we look sometimes." Dave said still trying to be calm but is clearly mad. Shelby wants to scream. Shout. Break things. But the only thing she can manage is a look of not even sadness. Disappointment.

It happens every time. Shelby thinks they will stop prying into her life and they do something else to disrespect her privacy. "You don't care about my privacy at all do you? What did you do? D-did you find something on her or her family or what?" Shelby says. She feels like if she had more energy she could cry. All the years of built up anger and sadness would over take her and she for once she'd let it out.

But her dad is completely angry now. "No we don't" He says it like it's a know fact. Like it's okay. "Because we want what's best for you. We found she's an orphan. And she's a les- she's not straight. You can't be hanging around people like that Shelby. Your better than that."

Shelby was hurt by that. Because she knew she wants better than that. She knew that she will just have to change her clothes and put on a nice Sunday church smile when they sat through a angry car ride there. She knew she would have to sit next to Andrew and pretend she wanted to marry him. Then she would have to come home and her dad he was right. Lie to him and tell him she is better than that and she is sorry for question is judgement.

And that's what she did. She said she would return Toni's jacket tomorrow to her and that would be it. She lied about that part.

It was now 2 o'clock and she gets a text from Andrew reminding her that they were suppose to go out today. She sends back a reply and walks toward her dad. "Daddy? Andrew and I were suppose to be going out in a bit for dinner. Could I still go tonight?" She looks at him with her best puppy dog eyes. She needs this. A chance to get away from the house. Even if it's with Andrew.