Threads of Compassion

Part 5

Present...

Emily was jolted awake by the loud banging on her door. She gasped and sat up from the carpet floor she had been laying on and had apparently fallen asleep at some point.

"Fuuuuck" Emily groaned quietly as she rubbed her temple. "...When did I fall asleep on the floor of my room?" She mumbled to herself as she rubbed the sleep out of her eyes while the banging continued.

"EMILY?! Answer if you can hear me or else I will barge into your room!" Someone yelled, Emily recognized the male voice as her father's, Cassander.

"I'm here!" Emily answered annoyed as she slowly got up on her feet and noticed how sore her body was from falling asleep on the hard wooden floor of her room. Even if it was on a carpet, it definitely had not helped at all in making it any more comfortable—not that she noticed when she was asleep.

She walked to the door and opened it reluctantly only to see her father mad and her mother who was right behind him hyperventilating while clutching her husband from behind.

"What is it?" Emily asked in a sleepy tone, her face had drool on it and her eyes were red and groggy from just waking up.

"Oh...you were sleeping...?" Her mother's soft voice mumbled as she took deep breaths to stop her hyperventilation.

"Yes...? I was taking a nap. Why?" Emily asked, she crossed her arms over her chest defensively as she glared at her parents even through her groggy vision.

"We...well I was worried about you... .It's past our usual dinner time, you know?" Delilah said softly, trying not to sound as if she was scolding her daughter because she knew Emily would not respond well to scolding.

"It is? Oh well. I'm not hungry anyway. But why are you so worried? Even when I go to dinner it gets all silent and no one ever eats anything. It's a waste of my time, your time, and food." Emily scoffed as she finally noticed why her mother was so concerned. "Don't tell me you think I was so silent up here in my room because I was doing drugs?"

Delilah opened and closed her mouth trying to speak but not knowing how to explain that her daughter was right and she had been thinking that. "Well, uh—"

"I knew it. You thought I was doing drugs. And Cassander was thinking so too. I am right. Don't look at me like that. Don't deny it, am I not right?" Emily held her chin high, defying them, almost daring them to tell her no.

"Well, okay, yes, we thought that. We know that the older siblings are always the example of the youngest child after them and since you know ... .Well I just thought that...." Her mother's voice cracked at the end and it got softer until it went completely silent.

"Of course you would think that. But other than what you think is your 'intuition'," Emily did air quotes with her fingers at the word intuition, "which is messed up because it is not in thinking correctly — what other evidence do you have to justify thinking that?"

Before Delilah could even squeak out a word from her open mouth, Cassander spoke up for her, "I saw your backpack."

"You looked inside it?" Emily raised an eyebrow at her father rebelliously.

"No, but let's just say it looked suspicious to me and the fact that you came so late today is the very evidence I needed." He laid out the evidence with an aloof tone.

Emily laughed indifferently, "Wow, thinking that you are Sherlock Holmes now in some type of mystery story, huh?" She snorted and clapped. "Father intuition and protectiveness is it?" She cocked her head to the side as she smirked. "You know, maybe that could have been useful before. Like, hm, some 3 months ago."