pretty girl (Lauren/You- first person)

chapter twenty six.

Unfortunately for us, we couldn't hide out in a hotel suite for the rest of lives. Checkout was at noon on Sunday, so between now and then Lauren and I were trying our best to get back into the swing of daily life. For some reason, it was proving more difficult and stressful than I would expect. But we had survived up until Tuesday, today wasn't a typical Tuesday however, it was Halloween.

The weather, for lack of a better word, sucked. It was cold, cloudy and rainy most of the morning and afternoon, putting an automatic damper on all of our moods. Delilah put up a hell of a fight before school against wearing warm clothes under or over her costume, saying it would ruin it. At one point I had to walk out of the room because I was so frustrated, and when I came back Lauren was physically on her knees, pleading with our daughter to wear the purple sweater.

"Delilah, it's the same color as your dress!"

"No! It's different!"

"It's close enough."

"It's not my costume!" Delilah stomped her foot, slammed her arms across herself and dropped down onto her bed. "She could give Meryl Streep a run for her money." I mumbled under my breath. I rolled my eyes for the hundredth time, I was tired of this.

"Just don't wear it then. You'll get cold and wet but that's you making the decision." I threw my hands up in defeat.

"No! We are not asking her, she needs to wear warm clothes so she doesn't get sick." Lauren gave me an incredulous look. I raised my eyebrow at her.

"Lauren, she's not going to wear it no matter how hard we try. Let her learn the hard way."

"She doesn't get her way just for throwing a fit. We've already explained why she needs to bundle up, it's not a compromise." She huffed, still giving me the same look. I felt an unfamiliar heat in my chest with the way she was looking at me.

"She's going to be miserable if you force her into it. Frankly, I don't feel like dealing with a crabby kid all day since I'm the one who volunteered to help at this party. It's easy to make the decision when you don't have to deal with the consequences." I bit back, without even thinking.

"So you'd rather deal with her catching a cold than pouting for half a day from having to wear a jacket?" She shook her head at me. "Fine. Sorry I couldn't volunteer at the party with you, but unfortunately, I have a class to teach." The sarcasm was dripping from each word.

"I just don't see the point in arguing with her!"

"It's not an argument! We are the parents, we make the decisions!"

"I am! I'm her mother!" I froze the second the words fell out of my mouth. Lauren froze too, staring at me with wide eyes and an open mouth of disbelief. The hurt on her face broke my heart. "Lauren, I didn't-"

"I need to go to work." She all but ran past me, she was a blur but I knew there were tears in her eyes, because they were in mine too. I spun on my heel and followed her into the kitchen, where she was packing up her purse and grabbing her keys.

"Lauren stop, I'm so sor-" I reached out for her arm, but she yanked it away like she had been burned.

"Have fun at the party, take some pictures for me." She sniffled, not even trying to hide her tears anymore and rushed out the door. I ran after her, watching her jump into her suv and back out of the driveway in record time. I hit my head on the doorframe, letting the tears fall. How could I have been so ignorant? I thought to myself. I didn't have much time to wallow in pity, I still had to get Delilah to school. So I wiped my face with the back of my hand and trudged upstairs, putting on a happy face and acting as if everything was okay. I knew Delilah had seen our fight, but I wasn't in the right place to talk to her about it now. All I wanted to do was wrap my wife up in my arms and take away all of the pain I just caused her.