Let me in

Chapter 7 : A shoulder to cry on.

Buck should have known it wouldn't get any better, that this was only a moment's respite.

His parents hadn't tried to contact him since dinner, and he was secretly grateful for that.

Because he had made a promise to Maddie, and he was going to keep it, but it was better if he only had to keep it two or three times a year. For birthdays, maybe for Christmas.

It was definitely selfish, but he hoped his parents would go away soon and rarely contact her, that they would do as they always did... so he wouldn't be forced to deal with them any more than necessary.

But the silence only lasted for a while and he found himself sitting around a table in a cafe -where he could barely afford to order a glass of water- with his parents. Both his parents. And no Maddie. Just them... and him.

"Don't be an obstacle between your sister and us again. We just want to be there for her. And if you let us, maybe for you too." His mother said as she sipped her glass of wine at just six in the morning.

Buck chuckled at that, before shaking his head.

"Don't do that. Don't pretend, okay? You want to be there for Maddie and that's fine, I won't come between you. But don't pretend that you want to be there for me too. We all three know that's not true. So... Just keep ignoring me." He replied before glancing at his watch.

"We can't ignore you, Evan. We're bound to be led to se--" His mother objected but he interrupted her with an annoyed and impatient sigh.

"Then we'll say hello, exchange a couple of small talk, and say goodbye."

His mother raised an eyebrow in a perfect arc and looked at him condescendingly, as she always did when no one was looking. The only real face he'd ever known her to have, and to tell the truth, it fit her much better than her frozen smile and fake warm look.

"Fine." She said before retrieving her purse and standing up, disappearing from the cafe, abandoning her barely started glass of wine.

Buck watched her for a moment, expecting her father to follow her and reflecting that his parents never had the value of money. They had always been professionals in the art of waste, no matter what it was.

"Look at me." His father's voice snapped him out of his thoughts and he almost flinched.

He clenched his jaw, held his back straight and looked up at him. He met his icy gaze for the first time since he'd arrived.

"Do you like it here?" He suddenly asked and Buck couldn't help but be surprised and a little confused.

"Yes." He answered in a whisper, not really thinking about it, trying to figure out what his dad was up to.

Because he could tell; he had something on his mind. He always had.

And this time was no exception. It was confirmed when he said;

"So don't do anything that will force me to tell who you really are, to this family you think you've found here."

Buck felt himself boiling inside. His fists clenched on his thighs; his whole body tensed in his seat.

"You don't know me. I'm not who I was before." He spat through clenched teeth and was too angry to blame himself for letting his father get to him.

His father, whose corners of his mouth turned up slightly in a petty, satisfied smile.

"I know you better than anyone. Even better than yourself. And I know you haven't changed. I can see it in your eyes; you think you're strong and infallible... But you're this close to breaking." His father paused as he stood up and put a hand on his shoulder. "One more time."