By the Playbook

By the Playbook (17)

It's been like eight years so recap!!

Previously in By the Playbook:

A quick modelling shoot left everybody in a good mood, but not for long. Someone trashed Alec Johnson's car, and all eyes are turned to Ryder. Ryder finds out about the incident before the game when Alec got grabby with Addie before the football game, and the coach is sure that Addie hurt his hand in order to sabatoge Alec in order to help out Ryder. Ryder's in line for the bench unless he can prove that he didn't touch the car, and Addie's staying the night at Sam's after a big fight with Ryder. Big sister Emily is on her way...

Emily was sitting on the couch, a defiant look on her face. My head was in her lap, but she looked completely annoyed as she stared into the kitchen, one hand playing absently with my hair. "I can stay with Courtney!" she shouted after my parents, but there was no reply. "They won't care! Mom, come on, please...don't make me leave!"

"He's just a boy, honey," Mom said quietly from the kitchen, her head bent over a pot of soup. "If he's worth it, he'll wait."

"Mom, I love him! I've never fought you about moving before, but please, please, let me stay! We can live like a normal family for once – I've finally figured out English, Mom, I finally have friends-"

"Emily, that's enough," Dad's voice rumbled as he walked back into the living room. Emily stood, nearly knocking me off the couch, and I rolled to the floor and watched as she stomped her foot in a rather childish manner, her voice breaking with tears. "Daddy, please! Why don't you want me to be happy?"

"You are happy, Emily. You will be happy. The island will be good for you – Emily, it's Mexico! How many people can say they're moving to Mexico?" He tried to sound cheerful, but Emily was fighting back tears.

"If I was like everybody else, this would be exciting, Dad! But every time we move I have to start over, and you don't care! You already have Mom! You lived your life, and you won't let me live mine because you never got the chance to travel! If you want me to go to Mexico, take me for a vacation! Like a normal family! I just want to be normal!"

She broke down crying, and something in Dad's eyes changed, but his voice stayed firm. "Emily, you're not part of a normal family. Your mother and I are able to give you a life where you can see the world, and you're not to complain about it. You are so privileged, so blessed, and you want to throw it away for a boy?"

"Yes!" She sobbed, covering her mouth with one hand as the tears rolled down her face. "For a boy, and for my friends, and for my life! I have friends here, Dad! Here I can be normal! I can actually be like a teenage girl, Dad, not just some kid who has to be dragged off every time her parents want to leave! I know you like it here, Dad, so why are we leaving? I don't want to go! I don't want AJ to have to relearn Spanish and not fit in – you're not the one who has to suffer here, Dad! It's hard enough going to a high school, let alone six of them, six of them in different countries! I don't want to go!"

Dad stared at her, his jaw working under his skin, then turned. "Go pack," he said, tossing the words over his shoulder. "We leave in two weeks."

She howled out a sob and sprinted upstairs, leaving me alone in the living room. A few minutes later, Mom and Dad walked back out into the living room, talking heatedly in low voices.

"She doesn't want to go, and you have to admit it's been hard for her, for both of them-"

They hadn't seen me, and so I quietly shifted so I was mostly hidden behind the couch. Mom cut him off with a sigh. "Emily wants to stay because Damien is here, Jacob. That's the reason she's fighting us. She thinks she's in love with him."