Fifth Harmony/You - Should've Been Us

Chapter 19

The silence in the room was deafening and kind of awkward now that I think about it, but the rest of the girls haven't said anything since Camila told me she had bad news. I typically jump to the worse possible scenario that I could think of. I was so focused on what the news might be regarding my talk with Lauren regarding my stepdad that I wasn't prepared to think that something has potentially happen to Tori. Maia was the one to break the awkward silence.

"So, are you ever going to tell us what the bad news is or are we just going to sit here?" Maia asked.

Ally was the one to speak up as she cleared her throat.

"Well we took the liberty of answering the phone call from your step dad" Ally said and handed me back my phone.

I took the phone from her and out it in my pocket. "And...?" I asked.

Ally and Camila looked at one another nervously.

"Oh for god's sake, your step dad's sentence has been reduced for good behavior" Normani said.

"How exactly is that bad news?" Maia asked.

"His sentence wasn't that long to begin with" Dinah said.

"What do you mean it wasn't that long to begin with? Is everyone forgetting what he did to me?" I asked.

Lauren entered the room fully and spoke.

"We live in America Y/N with that being said your mom got more time than your step dad. They put most of the blame on your mom for being the parent that didn't stop what was happening since she knew it was happening. It's pretty sexist if you ask me, but this country isn't really big on equal rights when it comes to females" Lauren said.

"That was actually Lauren's campaign speech to become president if you weren't aware" Dinah said and Lauren gave Dinah the finger.

"Okay, so he's still going to be in prison then, right?" I asked.

Normani nudged Camila and Camila glared at Normani.

"That's...uh the tricky part of it all" Camila said.

"I'm not seeing what's so tricky about if someone is going to remain in prison or not" I said.

"The judge for your step dad's case was a Republican" Lauren said.

Dinah rolled her eyes and groaned. "I'm going to stop her before she even starts because no one has got the time. The judge was more for the patriarchy side of things so he was lenient on your step dad which means his sentence wasn't as bad as your mom's. So, with your step dad's reduced sentence added into the equation that he's getting out sooner than expected" Dinah said.

I couldn't dare to ask, so I looked at Maia.

"How soon are we talking?" Maia asked.

Normani pushed Camila again and Camila groaned then took a deep breath.

"Tomorrow," Camila said.

"But we are taking care of it" Ally quickly added.

I wasn't sure how to feel. I mean I felt like an idiot for not at least trying to get the details on both my step dad and mom's cases. I could've been more prepared for something like this.

"What exactly is your idea of taking care of it? Remember the last time you took care of it?" I said.

"We are doing everything that we legally can" Dinah said.

"Yeah and there's not much that we can do" Normani said.

"You aren't doing enough" I said.

"Can you all give us a moment?" Maia asked.