Mr. Sir's Daughter: The Only Girl At Camp Green Lake (Holes fanfic)

Chapter 7

     Mr. Sir sat with his daughter in his office. She was twiddling her thumbs, bored, with her feet up on the desk. They had been sitting in silence for a while, not knowing how to start a normal conversation with each other. Mr. Sir chewed another handful of sunflower seeds and spat them into the waste paper basket at the side of him. He turned around, took a can of soda out of the mini fridge. Miss Ashley looked up suddenly, slightly startled by the sound of it being slammed on the desk in front of her. He nodded at her, so she picked it up and opened it. She took a sip while her father watched with his eyebrows raised.

"Not gonna say thank you?" he asked.

She tried her best not to glare at him as she held it in her lap. "Thank you."

He leaned forward, took his hat off and put his hands together. "How's your face?" he asked her. His daughter took no notice of him. "Ashley?"

"Fine," she said, glancing at him with a stoic expression.

He sighed. "Are you still mad at me?"

Miss Ashley shrugged.

"Well, don't be," he carried on. "I'm only doing what's best for you. That boy's a criminal. You can't trust criminals, believe me."

"But I can trust you?" she questioned, getting annoyed.

"I'm your father. There's a difference. You know nothing about that boy. He's trouble."

"No, daddy, you know nothing about him."

Mr. Sir shook his head in dismay. "What d'you see in him, Ashley?"

She took a long drink of her soda, slammed it down on the desk. "I don't know," she said, tutting, although she didn't know whether she was doing it at him or herself. She was torn between her own feelings and the thought that her father might actually know best. "Maybe it's because he's nice to me, even though you torture him for it, or maybe it's because he's like me."

Mr. Sir laughed. "Like you?"

"He doesn't have a dad, like I don't have a mom."

Now, Mr. Sir felt bad for laughing, but he kept his guard up. "Did he tell you that?"

Miss Ashley nodded. "I don't understand why you're so mean to him. He ain't done nothing wrong to me. So what if he's a criminal?"

Mr. Sir sighed again, louder this time. "You wanna know why I don't want you getting involved with him, or anyone for that matter?"

His daughter nodded cautiously, not really sure if she wanted to know the real reason behind her father's overprotective and unreasonable behaviour.

"Because, Ashley, when his sentence is up, you're gonna be left heartbroken and he's not gonna think twice about you. He'll be so happy to be getting outta here, that he'll forget to say goodbye."

Miss Ashley sat back in her chair, staring at the floor. She heard his words repeating in her mind. He was probably right, she thought, but what if he was just trying to get in her head to keep her away from Squid. "How do you know that?"

He held his hands up. "Love never lasts. It's gonna end one way or another."

She giggled. "Who said we're in love?"

"Well, clearly you feel something for him, if you're going through all this trouble. If you don't love him, what's the point?"

Miss Ashley bit her lip and her heart started thumping faster. She felt like he had discovered her deepest, darkest secrets. She thought it was kind of strange, talking to her father about such things, but he was the only one she had for guidance. Somehow, he was able to see inside her.