Teenagers are hard

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Chapter 34

Tuesday, 7:37 pm

In the bunker

Sam's POV

Sam: No, Katie.

Katie: But why not?

Sam: I already told you why.

Katie: "It's too late for you to be out by yourself". She mocks what I said before.

I don't understand why she's mad. It's getting dark outside and she wants to go see a movie. I wouldn't have any problems with her going to see a movie, if she wouldn't be by herself. If somebody else was going with her, I'd be fine with her going out after dark. But she's gonna be alone, and I don't want my 16 year old to be out, at night, by herself. I'd go with her, but I've got stuff to do. I didn't know she wanted to go anywhere, until about 30 minutes ago. That's how long we've been having this conversation.

Sam: Do you understand why-

Katie: You just don't want me to have fun.

Sam: No. That's not it. I know the kind of people that hang around at night, in this town. Especially around the movie theater.

Katie: But I've gone to the movie theater, at night, before. Nothing happened. I watched the movie, and then I came home.

Sam: But you weren't alone. You were with your friend.

Katie: So, what you're saying is that you don't trust me to be out after dark, by myself.

Sam: What I'm saying is that you're 4'11, you've got no self defense skills whatsoever, and you wouldn't be able to tell if somebody wanted to hurt you. You think everybody out there wants to be your friend.

She gives me an offended look, but what I said is true. Katie can't tell the difference between someone using her, and someone trying to actually be her friend. That's why I don't want her going out, by herself. She's the easiest person to manipulate, which makes her an easy target for creeps and pedophiles. I don't want anything to happen to her, because she couldn't tell that someone was being creepy, not nice.

Katie: I can defend myself just fine. She says, still looking offended.

Sam: No, you can't. Katie, in the nicest way possible, you wouldn't be able to fight your way out of a wet paper bag. You've never needed to defend yourself, so you never learned. We never taught you, because we didn't need to. But you're getting older now, and I think it's time to start teaching you how to defend yourself. Especially if you wanna be going out after dark.

Katie: I don't wanna learn self defense. I wanna go see a movie.

Dean: What movie? He asks as he walks in to the living room.

Katie: It doesn't matter. Dad's not letting me go.

Dean: Why? What'd you do?

Katie: Nothing. He just doesn't want me to have fun, for self defense purposes.

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