They Call Her Love | ✔️

20: They Call Her Selfish

Shit. Shit. SHIT.

I knew it was a bad idea sleeping through the airing of the latest episode. Had I been awake, there would be a huge probability I could have been able to keep my parents from watching the party I had thrown over the weekend. I'd definitely be eating my dinner in peace instead of having to skip the meal only to be scolded.

"Love, what on EARTH were you even thinking?" Mom screams at me, flashes of pink rising to her cheeks.

"Do you know how irresponsible that was?" Dad shrieks next to her. I have never seen his age lines so well defined before this moment.

I sink further into the couch with them hovering over me, finger pointing and yelling in my face. There wasn't much I could say, without them interrupting or cutting me off at least. They hadn't even given me a chance to throw a complete sentence out before they were back to the screaming and shouting. I mean, we all knew this was going to happen. We all knew I was going to suffer the consequences.

Do not say, I told you so.

"I'm sor-"

"Don't even try to apologize for this!" Mom voices forcefully. This is the angriest I've ever seen her and quite frankly, I'm a bit terrified - despite her being in a leopard printed tracksuit. "How careless of you to throw a party in our house while we were gone! What if someone had gotten injured? Or killed?"

"Okay, that's a little bit extreme-"

"No, it's not," Dad enters in, crossing his arms. "There was underage drinking under our household. How do you think our clients are going to react to that? How do you think this will affect our family's reputation? Not to mention the fact that it's completely illegal!"

My head lowers. In hindsight, it was a bit inconsiderate of me to let this happen and not think about how it would affect everyone except myself. Had I been even the slightest bit responsible that night, I would have taken out the alcoholic beverages completely.

"And you, young lady," Mom points to Faith who is sitting right beside me. "How could you let this happen? I thought you were smarter than that?"

I have to hand it to Faith - she's got nerves of steel. For the past ten minutes of lecturing, she's been sitting upright, expression completely straight and unchanged, almost as if she's completely unaffected by this. The shouting and yelling merely deflects off her as if some invisible titanium shield is protecting her.

"I would proctor a justifiable explanation, however-"

"Don't start with the big words," Dad shakes his head at her. "Both of you were left with the responsibility of this house and threw that out the window."

"This goes beyond any horrifying thing we've only imagined of," Mom exhales out. "I don't know what to do - I really don't. You both obviously think you can do whatever you want."

"Theoretically speaking-"

"Mmmm," I reach over a hand and stop Faith, knowing she'd use her new argumentative skills to our advantage. But our parents have already gone through enough. Being outsmarted by Faith would only worsen the situation.

"Love, we're highly disappointed in you," Dad glowers at me. "We thought you'd be able to handle this money on your own. Clearly, we were wrong."

"No, I promise I am!" I talk fast before they have a chance to cut me off again. "I made a huge mistake, and I'm sorry. But teenagers throw house parties all the time, everyone had a fun time, and no one got hurt or arrested. If anything, more of my peers know about CrunchTime because of it."