Destined

Thirty

Alex

Yesterday, after Evelyn woke up, I had to face off with her all day. Every turn I made, every word I said - everything I did was being ridiculed for no reason. It didn't make much sense since we've been getting along but at some point she told me that all I do is make wrong and bad decisions over and over again. I tried asking her what she meant but she would only look at me as if I had lost my mind and occasionally call me an idiot. So an hour after we had finished eating dinner, we sat together in the living room as if we hadn't spent the last twenty-four hours arguing with each other. I said nothing but type away on my laptop when she scoffed, causing my fingers to freeze and my eyes to reach her's whose were already glaring at me. She rolls her eyes, going back to her screen and I don't hesitate putting my laptop to the side to reach over and take her phone from her hands. "I'm confiscating this until you can learn to respect me." Her eyes now run wild, clearly not liking that idea whatsoever but I simply don't care what she likes or doesn't like in this moment.
"You can't take my stuff. Give it back," she demands of me.
"No. Not until you respect me first."
"I am never going to respect you with your continuous idiotic choices so you might as well just give up now and hand me my phone back." I say nothing back to her. I grab my laptop, stand and turn my back from her walking to the the spare bedroom where I'm staying. "My daddy won't like this." She says, following me into my quiet space.
I set my laptop onto the desk against the wall and watch her cross her arms. "He'll understand."
"Just give it back!" I don't know what came over me but it took less than three seconds before her back was against the wall as I hover over her. "What are you doing?" I couldn't hear her breathing and I can only assume it was because of me.
"I'm showing you that I don't follow your orders. You can yell at me and follow me around all you want but that won't get you what you want, especially not with me. You should know that by now. When your parents aren't around that means I'm the boss of you, you've got to get it through your thick skull. If I take your things, it's because you have done something to deserve it; you have to earn it back because I will not hand it to you when you should be disciplined for your actions." I take a few steps away from her, cutting her off when I notice she's about to speak, "you can leave now."
"I hate you," she mutters, leaving my room making sure she slams the door behind her.
"Yeah, tell me something I don't know." I say to myself more defeated than I've felt in a few weeks.
The night dragged on with Evelyn and myself keeping to ourselves. I don't know what she expects from me - well besides her phone of course but that's another story. Things would be much easier if she was more upfront with what she wanted and the things she felt instead of going around pulling this irritating act because this isn't who she is. "Alex," Andrew greets me seconds after walking through the front door simultaneously breaking me out of my focus. He sets down his suitcase as I stand from the steps. Jolene walks in, smiling my way but continuing through to find her room. It's late though so I don't blame her for not wanting to engage in much conversation. "How was the last few days?"
"It went well until-"
"Until what Alex, what happened now?"
"I took Evelyn's phone today because she had been acting poorly yesterday and I wasn't having it anymore. I told her she would get it back when she earned it back."
"Sounds fair to me."
"Daddy," Evelyn exclaims, appearing at the top of the steps but stops when she sees me beating her to the punch.
"He's keeping your phone until you can earn it back." Her eyes widen and jaw falls open.
"You can't be serious."
"Oh, I'm dead serious. This is so unlike you to be acting this way, even after all this time, and I won't have it. When he feels you deserve to get the phone back, it'll be right in your hands and I hope you will have learned something from this."
"Daddy this isn't fair."
"Yes it is, so you better deal with it." Andrew walks off towards his room without another and the same for Evelyn, leaving me to stand alone in the foyer once more. I'm really starting to hate being alone and that's something I haven't felt in a long time.
I've been laying on my bed for hours and for the past fifteen minutes all I've been hearing is Evelyn's phone buzzing on top of my desk. God, it's so irritating. I jump off of the bed on a mission to stop the buzz. Picking up the small box, I turn it every which way trying to find a button to silence the blasted noise but I come up short; there's one option left. I turn on the screen, seeing all the notifications that were surprisingly mostly texts from Lia. Without thinking, my finger begins to scroll and stops abruptly when I catch glimpse of my name but as I was about to continue, the screen shuts off from inactivity. I know it's wrong but, I need to see what's being said about me. No longer does it seem my mission is turning off the buzzing, it's become finding out why the two young girls are spending their time in conversation speaking about me. I turn on the screen again and swipe, hoping she doesn't have a password and am thrilled when it unlocks. I find my way into the text messages and click on Lia's name at the top and although it brings me up to her top text, that's not enough, I need context so I scroll up a little farther.