𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐄𝐍𝐃𝐈𝐍𝐆 • Neil Perry

Chapter 15

WITH her father in a suit reading his morning paper, and her mother in a deep red cocktail dress and apron placing streaks of bacon on Milly's plate that had already been decorated with sunny-side up eggs, it felt strange to say things felt normal.

The very second Milly, dressed in a white top and a dark blue skirt with a bomber jacket, stepped into the kitchen, her presence was noticed by her mother.

"One day left until A Midsummer Night's Dream," Mrs Meeks grins, trailing the kitchen with a frying pan and spatula. "Are you excited?"

"As excited as I'll ever be," Milly parked her butt in her usual seat, pouring herself a glass of orange juice.

"I heard that Neil of yours has the lead," Mr Meeks says, his eyes peeled on his morning paper. "Started quite the discourse at the Danburry's."

Milly held the jug in the air, awestricken, "You were at the Danburry's last night?"

"For dinner." Mr Meeks looked over at his daughter. "We told you that morning we had arrangements."

"Sorry," Milly placed the jug down, shaken back to life. "My head must have been away with the clouds."

Her father hummed knowingly. "Aren't they always these days."

"It's only easy when you're a teenager in love," her mother teases, joining them at the table in her usual seat.

"Spare me."

"And Mr Perry was there?" Milly asks her father directly.

But her mother answers, "And Mrs Perry, yes."

Her eyes softened on Mrs Meeks, "Did he seem..."

"Disgruntled?" Mr Meeks hit his newspaper down onto the table, the conversation stirring enough in him to garner his undivided attention. "An understatement, I'll have you find."

"He felt made a fool of," says Mrs Meeks. "Of course he wouldn't be pleased."

"Maybe he wouldn't have been made a fool if he could bare to care about what his son truly wants," Milly bites back.

Mr Meeks' eyebrows dipped, "Don't take that tone with your mother."

"No, I understand," Mrs Meeks insists. "But I also understand Mr Perry alike. Neil can't truly think that acting is—"

"Manly enough?" Milly nods, feigning understanding. "Prosperous? Business savvy?"

"That was loosely what I was going to say but—"

"It's what makes him happy," Milly interjects sternly. "It's everything to him and he could never bare to see it taken away."

"But that doesn't make it okay to scheme and conspire behind his father's back—" Mr Meeks starts.

"He wasn't scheming or conspiring, he was trying to follow his heart," she beckons, practically leaning over the table by now. "How can you not see that?"

"Oh, I see it clearly," he counters, taking off his glasses. "But even clearer I see that he should have dutifully respected his father's wishes."

"Dutifully," Milly snickers under her breath. "Neil would willingly act on a stage, but to ask him to act in his everyday life—that's just cruel."

"Maybe we should change the topic," Mrs Meeks tries, mustering a picture perfect grin that went unnoticed by Milly. "It's the start to a bright and sunny day; let's not rain on any parades shall we."

"It's entrapment," Milly muses, reeling in the longevity of the situation. "How can you stand to make a convict out a boy that simply chose to follow his heart?"