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Chapter 16 - More Common Ground

No matter what happened between me and Mom, we're still having dinner with the Halloways. Their house again. Great.

Mom doesn't say anything to me about our fight. And I don't either. She talks to me like nothing happened, but there's an edge to everything now. Even more so than usual because at least then Mom didn't know what I was thinking. Now she does, and that makes it ten times worse.

During the car ride to the Halloways, I'm actually tempted to call Dad. Or make up a fake email to send a message to his advice column. I've done it before when I felt too ashamed to ask him for help in person. I remember it being a horrible feeling, and it's just as horrible as I remember.

Before I can make the email, Mom parks the car in front of the Halloways' house. I trail behind Mom and Don. When Kean opens the door, Mom takes his hand. They go to the far end of the kitchen, talking in low voices. They don't glance at me or anything, but I'm pretty sure they're talking about me and Marcus.

Speaking of Marcus, he's not in the room. That's one good thing that's happened so far. I hover around Tobias and Don, but I don't talk to them unless Tobias asks me a question. If he doesn't, I pull out my phone and go back to opening and closing the page to make a new email.

"Ashlyn," Kean calls.

I glance up. "Yes?"

"Do you mind getting Marcus? He's in his room."

What? I glance at Mom. Her eyes widen, and she stares at Kean. But he focuses on me, his eyes expectant. Guess he's serious...

"Sure," I say, tucking my phone away.

Tobias offers me a smile before giving his dad a questioning look. Don gives me a pointed one. Always Socrates with that one... I head for the stairs, taking my time to reach the second floor. I drag my feet to Marcus' room. The door is shut. I take a deep breath and raise a fist to knock. I'm just about to make contact with the wood when his voice drifts through.

"Yeah, Mom."

I jerk my hand back at the last minute, almost stumbling back against the opposite wall. I hold my breath, listening to Marcus' footsteps, but it sounds like he's still talking to his mom. I let out a breath and go back to the stairs. I sit on the top step and lean against the wall. Even from here, I hear his muffled voice drift through the door, so I put on my headphones and drown out everything with a podcast.

While I wait, I go back to deciding whether I want to make a new email or not. Is it worth the trouble? Dad might not even get to my message any time soon, and everything will blow over by then. And it'll be so much easier to just talk to him about it. I can call him anytime I want to, but I don't want to tell him about how much of a brat his daughter is. I'm sure he already knows, but still.

I start to make a new email. The shame road it is.

First Name: Emery

Last Name: Ember

Username: EmEmber320

Perfect.

I open up my notes and start drafting a message to Dad.

Dear Mr. Ashwell,

My mom and I aren't on good terms right now. We're usually okay. Not on the best terms, but not the worst. But we just had a talk which turned into a fight, and I don't really know what to do.

Our talk was about my relationship with this friend. This friend and I also aren't always on the best terms (a problem for a different email...). We very rarely ever get along, and when we do manage to have a decent conversation, something always goes wrong. I told my mom this and she told me that I should be careful about what I say and do around this friend. Which makes sense, but she implied that I'm the only one that has to be careful and considerate. This friend doesn't have to be in her eyes. This isn't the first time that she's said or implied this either.