Captivation

44: Choice

Choice (noun): an act of selecting or making a decision when faced with two or more possibilities.

"So you're here for that boy." My father says, his tone harsh.

"I'm here for him, and for me." I say.

"And for you...do you really think he cares about you?" My father asks. "You don't mean anything to him, he's just playing you for a fool. I thought you were smarter than this Madelyn. He's The Captain, there is nothing good that can come from being around him."

"His name is Henry." I say, "And you don't know him. You don't know the kind of person he is."

"Yes I do! And so do you. He's a user, he just wants to sleep with you." My father argues.

"And how would you know that?" I ask, "You're making all these assumptions on his character. You don't know him!"

"And you think you do?" My father asks.

I think of the time we've spent together. From the time he chastised me over getting sick while scaling fish, to the time we spent in Felticion. Yes he's hurt me, and I've hurt him. We'll probably never stop hurting each other. That's just what happens when you get close with someone. You're bound to step on each other's toes. And I wasn't ready for that with Andrew, or with my family. But I'm ready for that with Henry.

"I know him." I say. "And I know that he deserves a second chance even if you don't give it to him."

I turn and walk out the door, fully ready to  be done talking, but my father is just like me, or maybe I'm just like him, but either way that means that he's not done with me yet. He follows me out.

"He's putting on whatever mask is necessary to get to you!" He cries out. "You're falling for the show he's been putting on!"

I remember Henry pinning his grandfather against the wall after I was hit. I don't think that's a mask. "I'm not falling, papa. I've fallen. Past tense."

"Madelyn, this man, he's bad news. Do you know how many women he's been with?" My father asks.

"Why does that matter?" I ask.

"Because people don't change!" My father says forcefully.

"I know that's a lie." I laugh, rolling my eyes. I changed. I changed when I left Trenton almost four years ago. I changed for the worse. I changed when I met Henry, and for a while I wouldn't admit it, but it was for the better.

"You're too young to see –" My father begins.

"I'm too young?" I ask, angry. "Me? I'm almost twenty two years old, unmarried and I lived on my own for three years. You have the audacity to accuse me of naivety?"

"Madelyn." This voice does not belong to my father. It's Henry's. I turn and see him standing a few yards away from me. "Madelyn, it's all right."

"No!" I yell, walking toward him. "It's not okay!" I point at my father. "He acts like he knows everything!"

"You're making a scene." Henry tells me gently.

"Don't I always?" I say forcefully and loudly, and then Henry smiles. This diminishes some of my anger but not all of it.

"Please, Madelyn, this is not the kind of person you are." My father says.

I turn around slowly. "You don't know who I am." I take a few steps toward him. I see my mother and my sisters in my peripheral vision. "I have done things that would make Henry look like a saint. So don't you dare accuse me of being the girl you remember."