Fight For It

Chapter 12.Explain Yourself

"So Scarlett, what do you like to do in your free time?" Danielle asked me as we all sat around the dining room table eating the pizza and salad she ordered from the local pizzeria. I thoroughly enjoyed conversation with Asher's family! They asked me about me, not about school and not about careers like Dylan's parents did.

"I like to paint and draw mostly. I have my own art studio in my house and I spend a lot of my time in there, well, I spent a lot of my time in there." I wish I hadn't brought up home. I know I didn't have a good relationship with my mother, but I was still really upset by our fight.

"That sounds very cool! What do you enjoy painting and drawing?" Danielle quickly rerouted my mind away from the negative thoughts of today.

"I love to paint and draw people; trying to find ways to show whatever emotions they're expressing. But I also enjoy working with creative lettering! Which probably links to my love for writing." I already felt very comfortable talking with Danielle. Asher's little sister, Macy, was only 13, and you can never really be sure with 13-year-olds, but she seemed to like me. Asher's dad, Jeremy, was just as welcoming as Danielle was.

"I would love to see some of your work! I'm a bit of an art fanatic myself," Danielle replied. I quickly nodded my head; I loved showing people my art, especially when they showed interest in it.

"What happened to your eye?" Macy asked out of no where. I knew she was referring to the substantial gash right above my eyebrow. I didn't know how to explain that to such a young girl. I shot a panicked look towards Asher and he helped me with my response.

"It was just an accident with a wooden spoon," he said, completely avoiding the detail that it was my own mother who threw the spoon in the first place. Macy giggled seeing that his answer sounded kind of odd, but I was glad she didn't pry for more information. Danielle gave me a sympathetic look and moved the conversation along.

After dinner Asher and Jeremy cleared the table and exited to the kitchen to do the dishes. Macy had homework to do before school tomorrow, so she scurried off to her bedroom to do it. Left at the table were me and Danielle. I was nervous to know what she would ask me about now that it was just the two of us.

"I realize it is still a touchy topic seeing as it happened just this weekend, but if you feel like you can talk about it, I would like to know what happened with your mother just so I have an idea of what may be to come," Danielle said sweetly. I knew she meant no harm in asking, she just wanted to understand why I couldn't be at my house.

"Is there somewhere more private we could go to talk about this? I'm just not sure how my emotions will hold up while discussing it." I really just didn't want Asher to see me cry anymore. I knew he could walk in at any moment and I knew I would be crying at some point in this conversation, so I wanted to avoid him seeing any more tears from me.

"Of course, dear, we can go to my office." We stood from the table and I followed Danielle down a hallway to her office.

Her office was very organized and clean. She seemed to follow a black, lime, and white color scheme with much of her decorating. It was a lovely office! She had a couch resting against the far wall by the window, and that's where she directed me to sit.

"Now tell me what's been happening...wait!" she stood and retrieved a box of tissues from her bookshelf, "Okay, now go." I laughed a bit. She knew I would cry just as much as I did.

"It's kind of a long story. But I guess it really started when my dad passed away. It was about five months ago that my dad died because of lung cancer. Since then my relationship with my mother has continued to get worse and worse. Just this weekend it got particularly terrible. I got home from school Friday and heard my mom laughing and talking with someone. I went to see who was over and saw her with some tall, tanned, muscular man. I wasn't very kind to either of them then I went off to my room. I knew Asher would be picking me up soon so I got ready to go out." I decided to leave out the fact that I wasn't particularly positive about going on the date with Asher. "When I went back downstairs I heard a movie playing, so I walked into the family room and saw my mom snuggled up to Mr. Rico Suave and I blew up. I was so upset by how quickly she moved on from my dad that I could do nothing but yell and cry.