Make Love, Make War (Tayley) |

PARENTS

(Hi. Yes, I know that it's Saturday, for me at least. I didn't want to wait another week to publish this, since I've been taking so long. I swear, I'm usually much more organized. This is my only update that isn't on Thursday in the future, hopefully. Chapters every week coming forth. I swear.)

Hayley loved the Parading Hippies. They supported her. She thought they would be even harder than who she'd have to talk to next.

Zac would talk to his own parents and support her, Hayley knew that. But she had to confront her own parents.

Joey and Cristi Williams divorced 6 years earlier, when Hayley was 13. Her father didn't live near, so she was going to take a bus to him and explain in person. She didn't have the heart to send a letter. But her mother was close by.

Hayley borrowed Jordan's bike and took an hour to get to her mothers house, nervously knocking on the door, her face white with the whiteness of what is dead. Her mother opened the door, happily seeing her daughter, and pulled Hayley in for a tight hug. Hayley immediately started sobbing into Cristi's shoulder.

"Hayley, what's wrong?" She pulled Hayley into the house, and put a kettle on the stove. Hayley shakily sat down on the kitchen, staring blankly at the wall until Cristi sat across from her.

"Hayley?"

The 19 year old sniffed, wiping away tears with te back of her hand. She thought about everything in her life taking her to this moment. She barely knew Taylor. Was he really worth putting her life at risk? She could bail out now and her mother wouldn't have to know.

"Mom, I'm gonna enlist as a nurse in Vietnam."

It was worth it.

Cristi's eyes widened, and she sat, her mouth gasped open, in shock of her daughter. "Vietnam? What about your future? Your hopes and aspirations?"

"I don't have a plan in life. This could help so many soldiers, it's a new life."

"But don't you want to be a singer?"

"Elvis was in 'Nam too, mom."

"Okay. That's a justified example, I guess," Cristi responded, looking down. "If you're sure you want to do this, I'm going to support you. I need you to know that."

Hayley softly smiled, making eye contact.

Next stop, Hayley needed to get on the train.

She boarded and looked out the window blissfully, watching as the landscape of the busy city changed to green pastures, to farmlands, to wastelands.

Soon, she was in front of her fathers house. She softly rapped on the door, and her half-sister—Erica—answered, calling for Joey and letting her in. She was only 12. She didn't know shit about the military except from a educational perspective.

Joey greeted Hayley, pulling two beers from the fridge and handing one to her as they went outside, especially away from his other daughter. She wasn't even old enough to know what the military is.

Hayley explained everything, and Joey accepted the same way Cristi did. 

"Did you already send in an appication or whatever the hell they make you do?"

"I'm starting the boot camp thing in two weeks."

"Can you stay here the night? Explain where you'll be to the girls? If we lose you, which I pray we won't, sorry to psych you out, I want them to know why."