There Will Be Blood (not mine)

18. Chaos and Order in Russia

JUSTIN POV

I folded my last collared shirt and put it in my suitcase before going over my clothes one more time. Everything was exactly as I wanted it, with neat rows of shirts, pants, underwear, socks,

belts

, shoes and toiletries.

I hated packing while at the same time, found joy in it. It was one of the small things that kept me sane in this crazy world.

I sat next to my gigantic, open suitcase on my bed and let out a deep breath.

It had been five days since that disastrous dinner at my parents' house. My brothers, Jeremy and I were supposed to go to Russia on Tuesday but our trip was delayed because my father had some other matters to attend to so it was pushed back a couple of days.

Since I actually had free time, I was able to see Maddie more than I thought I would and that put me in a better mood.

As of now, Jeremy and I weren't speaking.

After I dropped Maddie off at her

dorm

on Sunday, I did a little driving before I went back to my parents' house

and pretty

much had a two hour screaming match at my father for treating Maddie so horribly. We had disagreed before on things but it was never as bad as it had gotten when I stormed into his

office

. I was livid that he made her feel like shit and I knew that he was going to act that way but it still pissed me off.

For the first hour, he just sat there and listened to my rants but then stood and gave me the 'I'm looking out for your future' speech. Maddie was the first girl I had ever brought home and I should have waited longer than one day to let her meet my parents. Pattie was fine and more infatuated with Maddie than I was but Jeremy seemed to think that this was another one of my sexual flings that was going to go by the wayside.

Maybe I was just jaded but I couldn't really see his argument very clearly. Jeremy was being a jackass and I had never outright defied him before so even I was kind of shocked when I told him that I wasn't following his orders to stop seeing Maddie. I walked out while he was talking and that was the last time I had said one word to him.

Could that day have gotten any worse?

Not only was I mad at my father but I had to watch Maddie the whole time like a hawk. I needed to know that she was alright around my family.

I knew on Saturday, that Maddie would probably be coming with me to church but I didn't want to warn her or she might flake out. What I wasn't planning on was being such a wimp about her meeting Jeremy. Like I told her, he was dangerous and could be quite scary if he wanted to be.

Keegan was texting me throughout the entire service, telling me to man up and just take the plunge. Easy for him to say when his

girlfriend

was a half Italian, Catholic, piano prodigy who actually worked for my father. Keegan and Bridget were set. Finn and Olivia were set.

Maddie and I…not so much.

Dinner was going well up to a point and my father behaved although I could tell that he didn't like Maddie. Whether his reasoning was just or not was still to be determined but that was beside the point.