Danger's Back 2

3

"You don't know us."

Kelsey's Point of View.

Walking through the front door, I closed it behind me while slipping off my jacket. Looking up, I noticed both my parents sitting in the living room before standing once they saw I had arrived.

I wonder if they knew they were the start of my pain.

I wonder if they knew anything at all.

Carly had left despite wanting to come inside. I told her it was time she went back to her life and I went back to mine.

"Where's Carly?"

"Gone."

"Where were you? We were—"

"Worried sick," I finished. "Yeah, I know. She told me." I slipped off my jacket before setting it around my arm and looking up at them with a look of indifference.

"Why didn't you call?"

"Because I'm not fifteen anymore, mom." I snapped, taking a deep breath. "I'm not a child. I am an adult, okay? I don't need to check in with you every moment of every day. I don't need to call you if I don't want to and I definitely don't need your permission to go anywhere alone."

"We're just—"

"Suffocating me? Yeah, I know that too." I laughed frustratingly evidently shown as I stared over at them with a look of pure despair. I wanted to shake them, scream why did you do this to me, but nothing would come out. Instead I took a deep breath and relayed on the pit of my stomach in order to process the truth. "Ever since the accident, you guys have been hovering and hovering like I can't take care of myself and yes, at first, I couldn't, but I'm back up on my feet now. I'm fine; hurt inside, breaking, and hoping I could find something to hold onto but I'm trying. I really am and I need you guys to let me do it on my own." I paused for a moment. "I need you to trust me."

Closing my eyes, I rolled my lips into my mouth, inhaling deeply while trying to recollect my thoughts. Everything began to weigh on my shoulders and before I ever had the chance to stop myself, everything just kept coming out.

Word vomit. It was the worst.

"God, all I ever did was try to make you guys proud but no matter what I did, you were never happy. So I went out and did something for myself for a change and it ended up changing my life forever. I found love, and not just any kind. I found the love you only read about in books or see in movies. I found love that consumes you and makes you feel alive, the kind of love that makes all the bad worth the good, but all you saw was a criminal and a naïve girl who you thought couldn't take care of herself but I did. I was fine without you. I lived my life like I knew I could. I lived my life with him and without him, I lived my life for myself. I did it. Me. All on my own. You guys can't just come in and expect me to drop everything to go back to how it all used to be. I didn't go through all this just to go back." I looked them dead in the eye. "I refuse to go back."

Shaking my head, I hurriedly walked out before they ever got the chance to say anything and went straight up to my room.

It amazed me how sometimes the parents could be so fucking clueless.

Slamming the door behind me, I let out a groan of frustration, one that I would usually cover by a pillow in order not to be heard.

This time, I could care less if they heard me two houses over.

Sitting on the edge of my bed, I looked down at my hands. Part of me felt guilty for allowing myself to blow up like that. I rarely ever did, having trained myself to keep it all inside, but after everything that's happened, it was near impossible not to say anything at all.