Good Boy, Sad Girl

18: Danielle

When we arrive at the riverwalk, sadness immediately sets in. I haven't been here in weeks, but that's only because my parents weren't home.

Whenever they're home, I'm here almost every day.

Noah and I sit down on a bench looking at the river. The water is glistening against the lights, and people are walking by.

We sit there in silence for a few minutes. I've never really opened up to anybody before, but with Noah, it's different. I feel like Noah is the only person who has ever really gotten to know. He's the only person I've ever known in my entire life who doesn't judge me or anything that I do.

I take a deep breath as I look at the river.

"My parents have never been supportive of me or anything that I've tried to do. They've always told me that going to college and getting a job at their very successful accounting agency." I sigh. "At first, they let me take acting lessons because they thought that it would just be a hobby and I would get over it. However, as you can tell, it wasn't a hobby, and they stopped paying for my acting lessons."

"I'm sorry. I know that you're talented, and you're very capable of acting." Noah says. "You're parents just fail to recognize that. Parents aren't always supportive, but you can talk to them about it.

"Thank you, but they don't see that, and I don't think they ever will. I've tried talking to them before, but the conversation gets shut down every time. They won't even let me have one minute to talk to them about it." I sigh. "I honestly think that they hate me. We were such a close family until I said I wanted to pursue acting as a career. After that, they've been terrible to me."

"I wouldn't say that they hate you. I just think that they have a different mindset than you."

"Noah, I understand that you're trying to be supportive, but they hate me," I say. "I just don't know how much longer I can take it. There is nothing that I can do about it, and I can't even move out yet."

"You're seventeen and, it's July. That means you only have about eight more months until you're eighteen."

"Eight more months in hell, how exciting!" I say sarcastically.

"I know that it seems like a long time, but look how fast a month and a half went by while filming."

"Anyway, enough of my sob story," I say. "Let's go get dessert since we were interrupted by my horrible father."

"Alright, let's go."

***

Noah opens the door for me, and I walk into the ice cream shop. I look at all the different flavors; I'm going to switch it up today. "Two scoops of cotton candy, please."

"Alright, anything else?" The worker asks.

"Noah, what do you want?" I ask.

"I don't want anything. I'm good."

"You're getting mint chocolate chip if you don't tell me what you want," I say, trying to sound threatening.

He gasps, "You wouldn't dare!"

I try to keep my face serious, but we both end up laughing. "I'll have one scoop of chocolate on a cone."

"Alright, your total is seven dollars and 58 cents." The worker says.