the cards that life deals you {camren}

fourteen

It had been a week after the incident at school and Lauren was minding her own business as she sat on the couch in the den and watched re-runs of old shows she used to love when she was younger. Of course, watching them at the age she was then at revealed to her how many things went way over her head when she was little. Then she heard keys in the door and in walked Clara and Lauren's father. He hadn't changed much since she had last seen him, except he had a beard when he walked inside the house and the kind light in his eyes, reserved only for his little girl, was long gone.

That of course wasn't what shocked her down to her very core. It was more about the fact that her mother and father were laughing together as if they had never split up. Her mom wasn't drunk or passed out for the first time in a while, and there she was, standing with her ex husband and laughing as if they hadn't a care in the world. With a look of sheer disbelief, her iPhone slipped through her fingers and clattered onto the floor with a loud thud that drew her parent's attention.

Their laughter died down and she made eye contact with her father for the first time in years. He eyed her for a while with a carefully blank expression on his stubbly, handsome face. With a tired sigh he shook his head in disappointment and walked into the kitchen with Lauren's mother who either didn't notice the hurt that flashed across Lauren's face, or just ignored it. Lauren hoped it was the first one. She really did.

Her bottom lip found itself caught between her teeth as she numbly picked her phone up from the floor and grabbed the remote to turn off the TV and head upstairs so that she wouldn't have to be bothered with receiving dirty looks instead of a simple hello and warm greeting that she should have gotten from her MIA father. As much as she truly hated to admit it, Lauren was hurt and she didn't know what to do about it. When they all sat around the table for dinner that night, Lauren's father acted as if he never left.

He talked about his job just like he used to and he talked about how stupid his coworkers are, though Lauren knew that if they were sitting at the table with them, he'd be even nicer to them than to his own family. If that was how the business world worked, kissing the asses of people 'above' her, then she was glad she selected performing arts to get into rather than the cold and cruel world of businessmen and women. That lifestyle wasn't made for her.

Basically, everything and nothing was different. It was different because her father didn't acknowledge her in the sense of making her feel important and loved, but the same because his mannerisms immediately came flooding back and with them came memories of when he used to be her father and not just some man that contributed to her creation. She glared at her plate and angrily stabbed pieces of her steak with the silverware in her left hand.

When she realized it had suddenly become silent, she dared to look up from the meal in front of her. Her eyebrows shot downward in irritation when she saw that her father was looking at her like she was stupid. After a loaded silence, she quirked and eyebrow and burst.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" She snapped sharply, causing an indignant frown to form on the man's face.

"Why on earth would you use your left hand to eat when you are defiantly right handed? I know you're not nearly talented enough to be ambidextrous, so fix your hand and eat the correct way." He nodded in a satisfied manner and returned to his meal as well as the conversation he was holding with his ex wife as if he hasn't just completely insulted his daughter. Lauren ran her tongue over the front of her teeth and cast her gaze back down to her meal.

Her heart banged loudly in her chest. She hadn't felt that shameful since she was eight and her asshole of a principal said that her play wasn't good and that she needed physiological help. Her jaw clenched as she gathered the last of her dignity and switched hands that she held her fork in before resuming her meal without once speaking up. She wouldn't dare interrupt their conversation.