White Cloud

8- We Need To Talk

"Bea, we need to talk," My dad tells me after I arrive at his office. He'd texted me and told me that he needs to speak to me, which is the first time that we've communicated since the catastrophe that was supposed to be our family dinner. I just blink at him a few times before I sit down in the seat across from his desk. He doesn't look to be very happy right now, like he really doesn't want to be talking to me right now which makes us even because I don't really want to be talking to him right now either.

"What?" I eventually ask him when he doesn't keep speaking.

"I know that you're still upset about what happened with Lionel but I think that it's for the best," He explains to me, looking just a little bit apologetic. "And I'm not going to change my mind. But I didn't ask you in here to talk about that. I want you to start looking at colleges."

"I still have a year," I remind him.

"I know that but it never hurts to start looking early. You should know what you want to do before you start looking at colleges so that you know how good their program is for what you want to do. I'm not sure if you want to go back to Indiana for school or if you want to stay here or go somewhere else but you know that no matter where you want to go, we'll support you. You just have to make sure that it's the right fit for you."

"Sure, Dad," I sigh, still not wanting to be in here, talking to my dad because I'm still very upset about him threatening Lionel's job just for being friends with me. "Anything for you."

He gives me a frowning look—not angry, just upset that I'm upset with him. "You'll find friends here, Bea," He assures me with a small nod. "Friends that don't work at the hotel."

"Yeah, whatever," I mumble immaturely before I get up from the chair and I start to leave the office.

"Bea," My dad stops me before I can get completely out of the office. I turn back around to look at him to see what he wants now. "Give your brother his money back."

I ignore him and leave the room. I only took Dylan's stuff yesterday but he's already throwing himself into a full blown conniption. I will give him back his stuff today though, except for his book that I didn't actually take, I just hid under his bed. He'll have to find that one on his own.

As I'm going through the back halls of the hotel, I pass through the employee break room to grab a can of soda before going up to my room to rest for the day. I have that meeting with Vincent tonight at the pool but until them, I'm just going to hang out in my room and I'll probably end up looking at colleges per my father's request because even though we're not seeing eye to eye right now, I don't really want to make it worse by disregarding everything that he says.

As I'm pulling a can out of the fridge in the break room, I hear somebody clear their throat behind me. Looking back, I see Lionel sitting on the couch without his bellhop jacket on, he's only wearing a black t-shirt... a very well-fitted t-shirt, of course, and his black uniform pants. He offers me a small friendly wave and I wave back. I wish that we could hang out again like we had before. Without the alcohol and making out of course, but just hanging out with him was nice. It made me miss home a lot less.

I wait only a moment to see if he's going to say anything to me but he doesn't. Probably in fear of losing his job, which I understand, so I just take my pop and shut the refrigerator before I leave the room.

Back in my hotel room, I grab Dylan's money jar from my nightstand and I take fifty dollars out. That way this whole fiasco has cost him ten dollars since he made forty from selling me out to our father. I then grab his "How to Get Rich Quick" manual and put them both in a small cardboard box that I'd found in the recycling pile downstairs full of packing peanuts. The manual has been generously edited by me though, so I know that he won't be very happy with that.