[Joey]
After the meeting had ended, Joey and her father decided to ditch the stupid business-smelling building and go on to the father-daughter day they had been anticipating. The weather outside seemed to have made way for the two of them to enjoy their time together, and that was a rarity as Mr. Lee was always so busy which meant not being able to spend time with Joey.
"Are we actually going to do something or are we going to end up just grabbing sugar pretzels and going home right after?" Joey said, stepping into their car.
Jared shook his head and chuckled as Joey was clearly sulking over the fact that she barely had any time with him. He kept quiet and started the car, going in the direction opposite of their condominium.
"Dad, this isn't the way home?" Joey questioned her dad's driving. "I'm pretty sure there's no construction or whatever so you don't really need to take a detour."
"We're going to the mall, so don't complain or else I'm taking us straight home," Jared said with a smile.
-
The two got out of their car and into the mall, which was surprisingly not completely buzzing with so many people. It wasn't a usual thing for them to just go and hang out at the mall, so Joey decided to savor the moment and make the quality time with her father last.
Unlike most people, it wasn't a common occurrence for Joey to go out with her family. No one had time for that anymore, and it wasn't like Joey's family was actually.. complete. But whatever, she was there to do something with her dad, not to make herself sad over things that have happened in the past. It was best to live in the moment, not the past.
"So, Joey, what do you want to do?"
"I was thinking of, um.. I don't really know, but I guess we'll know what to do when we see it?"
"Then let's walk around."
It was quite obvious the two weren't quite familiar with situations like these anymore. They knew they wanted to talk casually without having to bring up the topic of Joey's mother and brother, but it seemed that they haven't gotten over them yet.
No, they didn't die, but it seemed that they had permanently lost the other half of their beloved family.
Mr. Lee attempted to break the silence between them. "You met some guys, right? Niall and Zayn, huh?"
Joey rolled her eyes at the lame mention of the boys she had met earlier. "Yeah, but it's not that big of a deal. I mean, they're okay, but I'm not interested in having a relationship or whatever."
"Joey, you're turning eighteen soon. It's been quite a while since you've had a boy over at our house."
It was true. It'd been about two and a half years since Joey's last relationship, which she was over, but she wasn't really up for the whole 'falling-in-love-and-getting-into-a-relationship' thing. Her parents split up over many problems, and their entire family never got closure over it. That was probably one of the reasons Joey didn't want to involve herself with boys. That and the fact that she somehow magically caused them bad luck.
"I'm turning eighteen, not thirty," Joey stopped at a pretzel place, eyeing the cinnamon-flavored ones. "It's not really a problem, I don't see why you're constantly trying to play matchmaker when I could spend time on more things."
Jared shook his head and moved to the line in front of the cashier. "I was just thinking that you should find someone who could be there for you when I'm not. Someone that makes you happy, you know?"
Joey pouted, slightly creasing her eyebrows together, unamused. "I don't need a boyfriend to be happy. Trust me dad, I'm fine."
The two got their pretzels and walked off into the mall, conversing about small and subtle things in order to maintain the peace they had with each other. It was somewhat a tradition in their family to get pretzels every time they went out to a mall, which gave Joey a bad feeling because that was usually the last thing they would do before going home. She didn't want to go back to their place, she didn't want to go back to doing nothing again.
"Wait a minute, are we going home?" Joey asked.
"I thought that's what you meant when you started eyeing the pretzels?"
"No! I mean, not yet. Please?"
"Fine."
The two Lee's ended up doing what they did when they got to the mall; they began walking around (again.) Not quite long after had they seen some freshly familiar faces, much to Joey's dismay.
"Yaser!" Jared called to his partner in business. "Funny to see you and your boys around here."
The two older men had a small chit chat as their children awkwardly stood right next to them, waiting for their conversation to come to an end.
"Hey, Joey," Niall politely greeted.
"Hi Niall," Joey looked down to her feet. "This is awfully awkward. I mean this in the nicest way possible, but I thought I'd never had to see you two again."
"Tell me about it," Zayn rolled his eyes.
"Don't be rude," Niall lightly elbowed his step brother.
Zayn grunted. "You can't expect me to."
Maybe it was Joey's curse of bad luck that had caused the two step brothers to argue, but their actions were telling her otherwise. It kind of sucked that it only caused her to think about her own brother, it made her uncomfortable. The mere thought of Logan made her stomach flip and her mind blocked.
"Jesus, I can't believe you two are taking each other for granted," Joey stormed off, leaving the men around her puzzled and quiet.
Joey hated it when siblings fought. They didn't know how lucky they were to even have a brother or a sister. It pissed her off that of all people, she was the one who had to be separated from her brother whom she barely fought with. Joey and Logan barely fought, unlike most siblings, they got along so well.
Then there were people like Niall and Zayn who couldn't even talk to each other without having an argument. She felt sorry for them, they were too stupid to realize the value of having each other.
Those stupid thoughts had caused her to cry in front of plenty of people. She just stood there and cried away the pain until she felt no more. But apparently, one of the guys was kind enough to run after her.
"Joey, are you alright?"
-
really. really. really. bad. and. short. chapter.
i was literally just sitting down for three hours or so doing this, and i was thinking "f.uck i need to update"
pls deal with it, i swear the next chapter will be 28537328579 times better
also, please read my other fanfic called december, it's a michael fic :)
merry christmas btw! have a good one!
