Dance Prodigy

The Battle Begins

(unedited)

"Barbie! What's wrong?" Jacob huffed, annoyed at her silence.

"Nothing, I'm fine"

"Sure you are" he sarcastically replied, rolling his eyes in aggravation.

"I'm not leaving until you tell me.. you've been quiet ever since we left New York" he stubbornly told her.

"It's just..."

"It's just what?" he repeated waiting for her to continue.

"I saw my dad kiss his 'friend' Susan" I replied, grumbling out her name.

"OH... is that why you wanted to go home early" he questioned.

"Mm-hmm... yeh. He lied to me... he said they were friends"

"Well I kiss you and were friends ? " he objected, trying to stick up for Robert.

"But that's not all, I went to my dad's room to say goodnight and there was loads of girls stuff in there. She's living there!" I cried out, tears building in my eyes.

"Oh flower! come here" he sighed softly, pulling Eden into a hug. 

Jacob thought back to the day Eden had stubbornly claimed she wanted to go back home. He remembered Roberts face falling, Eden had never wanted to leave early and he couldn't understand what went wrong.

Their was no consoling her, or changing her mind. She wanted to leave.

To say it had not gone to plan for Robert was an understatement. Eden had taken a vow of silence  for her remaining time in New York, not even a threat of no dancing got her to talk. Susan was severely disappointed, Eden wouldn't even look her in the eye the next morning.

"Your going to have to talk to your dad at some point. I'm sure he'd rather you scream and cry at him rather than ignore him" he suggested.

"No! I don't want to talk to him. He's going to start a new family with Susan and forget all about me!" I cried.

Jacob shook his head in disapproval. "Eden!" he snapped, pulling her up to face him. "Stop that! a blind man can see how much your dad loves you! He'd never forget about you, so don't say something like that. Okay?" he told her sternly, or as sternly as a twelve year old could be.

"Sorry.. I- I'm just scared" I whimpered.

"I know... but you have to tell them. You can't just hold it in or the problem won't be solved. Okay?"

"ok" I mumbled. "When did you get so smart?" 

"I've always been smart, your just to dumb to realize it" he joked, making her laugh.

"I'm not dumb" I gasped, filling the room with laughter.

Unknown to the pair Angelina stood outside the room, clutching two drinks in her hands. Having overheard the private conversation, her heart broke at hearing her confession.

With the encouragement of Jacob, Eden poured her worries onto her mom. 

Angela made sure to reassure her in every possible way that nothing would change between their relationship, she would just have another person to love her.

*

Eden sat in the den, sipping on her water as she waited for the girls.