Soft Spot

F I V E

I was in the airport with my father, waiting for his flight to be called. It was completely silent, and not the comfortable silence, the awkward one. After the argument that we had, I didn't know what to say to him, or if I should say anything at all. I glanced up at him, and he was staring straight ahead, his face completely serious and rid of emotion. I hated when he was like this, especially now since he was about to leave. I sighed and turned to him, causing him to look down at me flatly. 

"I'm going to go ahead and head home.." I trailed off, looking away from him and down at my nails. "I'll miss you daddy." I whispered, before leaning up and kissing his cheek and turning to leave. I waited for him to say anything, that he'd miss me too, or something but he didn't. When I turned back around to look at him, he was staring straight ahead again, looking completely emotionless. I frowned and turned back around, walking out of the airport. I got in my car and started to drive back to my building, tears silently falling down my face as I remembered our argument.

I was walking through the lobby with my father, getting ready to take him to the airport when Jason and Nathan walked into the lobby. My father suddenly stopped as he saw them, his whole body tensing. I raised my eyebrows, and turned to look at the boys, who held the same expression as my father. It was like they all knew each other. 

"Dad, what is it?" I asked my father, when he finally regained his composure and continued to walk out the building. He completely ignored my question and continued his way to my car, getting into the drivers seat. "Dad, whats wrong?" I asked, and he turned to look at me, completely serious. My father was never the one to act so serious.

"Katherine, do you know those boys?" He asked, his tone kind of freaking me out. I nodded, unable to speak.

"You need to stay away from them, do you hear me? Your mother was foolish to move here." He snapped, turning the car on. 

"What do you mean? Do you know them? How?" I had so many questions. It surprised me to hear my father talk lowly of my mother like that, and kind of made me upset. When he didn't answer I asked him again, only angering him more.

"Katherine enough with the questions." He growled, not answering me.

"No, you can't just come to moms house and tell me who I can't talk to with no explanation, especially when you're never around anyway, and on top of that talk badly about mom!" I fired back, getting more and more mad. My father and I rarely ever didn't get along. We always saw eye-to-eye and told each other everything. He wasn't the type of person to get mad over any little thing, so I knew this was serious but that gave him no excuse to treat me as a child and tell me who I can and can't talk to, and to call my mother, the woman who birthed his child, a fool. 

"Katherine Silvia Walker you will do as I say and will not question me any further, is that understood? If I say you don't talk to those boys then you are not to talk to them, am I clear?" He yelled, making me flinch. I simply nodded my head and turned to look out the window, not saying another word. 

Once I got home, I immediately called my mother to ask her about the situation. She answered on the first ring, as if she had expected me to call. I didn't know how to ask her, if I should bring the boys up and see how she reacted, or if I should just tell her about how my father acted. 

"Hi sweetie, I was just about to call and see how things went with your father." She greeted me, and I could hear in her voice that she didn't know a thing about what had happened. Good, my father didn't call her first. I sighed and decided to tell her instead of trying to trick it out of her.

"Oh sweetie.. I'm sorry that your father acted that way, he should have handled things better." She sighed, clearly distraught by the situation. "I didn't even know they lived next door." She sighed and there was a noise in the background, like something had fell over. 

"Mom, just tell me the truth." I said, getting kind of annoyed. All this secrecy was making me mad. I had the right to know about the people that I hang out with.

"Honey Jason was a client of mine before.." She trailed off, and I could tell she didn't want to talk about it but I needed answers. "When he was just 13 his father murdered his little sister, and tried to make Jason take the blame. There was a lot of evidence against him, and he needed a good lawyer to defend him." 

"Was he innocent?" I asked my mother, biting my lip. I didn't peg Jason as a killer. He was so sweet.

"Well, yes he was. His father planted all the evidence against Jason, and there was no way he could have done it because he was out of town with Nathan, anyway." She explained, sighing. 

"If hes innocent then why did dad freak out so bad?" I asked, still confused. There was another crash on the other end, and it went quiet for a bit. "Mom?"

"Kat your father is just looking out for you, he doesn't want you mixed up in anything that could hurt you. Now I have to go, I love you." Before I could say anything else, she hung up leaving me to my thoughts. I could tell that there was something she wasn't telling me. Knowing that about Jason made me feel uncomfortable, like I knew something about him that only his family and Nathan knew, and I shouldn't know. I knew not to say anything to anyone, or my mom could lose her job for giving out old client information. I sighed deeply before laying in bed and falling asleep, thinking about how hard it must have been for Jason to go through that, and what my mom could possibly be hiding from me.