Ways to Live Forever

Dead Beat

Nikki heads into the kitchen after coming down from having a shower now dressed in her pyjamas, She looks at Jack who is sat in the armchair on his iPad clearly looking up the football results, "So has Emily come out her room yet?" Nikki asks and as she looks over at Jack and he shakes his head. "Oh," She replies as she notices Emily's dinner still sat on the table untouched. "Do you think I was a bit too hard on her?" Nikki asks Jack as she makes herself a cup of tea.

Jack sighs and places his iPad down, "Yes. The poor kid is having a rough time at school, she really isn't settling. She told me she got into a fight today, she won, but I wanted to show her that you don't have to beat someone up to let your frustrations out" Jack replies.

"She's a 14-year-old child for god sake!" Nikki replies in a raised tone.
"Yes, and she clearly has issues Nikki, Issues that you haven't picked up on!" Jack replies and Nikki is stunned to silence as she picks up Emily's untouched dinner plate and scrapes the food into the bin, "Why did you do that Nik?" He adds as he walks over to her.

"Because she is clearly not coming for it... thanks for picking up on my shit parenting Jack... that's really a mood lifter, It's not my fault if I failed to bond with her when she was a baby, it's not my fucking fault my brain didn't want me to bond with my baby, I pity this child of ours... It's going to happen again I just know it!" Nikki snaps and Jack looks at Nikki completely shocked.

He steps in front of her and sees the tears threatening to spill, He grabs her face and makes her look at him, "Don't you dare say that... look at me, don't you ever say that again. Our baby is going brilliant and you're going to be amazing with her." Jack smiles and kisses her forehead.

Nikki leans forward into his chest and hugs him tightly, "I should go apologies" Nikki speaks and pulls away from the hug, Jack smiles and kisses her cheek again before allowing her to go upstairs.

She heads upstairs and comes to Emily's room door and knocks it gently and waits for a reply, "Em... Come on darling, we need to talk" Nikki speaks softly through the door in hope that Emily will reply.

"Go away!" is all she gets in reply but Nikki doesn't back down and becomes more persistent.
"I'm not going anywhere!" Nikki replies.

Nikki then opens the bedroom door and peers in to see Emily curled up on the bed with her back to the door. "I told you to go away!" Emily mutters into the pillow.
Nikki sighs and walks over to the bed and sits down placing her hand gently on Emily's back. "Emily... Look I'm sorry" Nikki speaks and strokes Emily's back gently. "I just don't want you getting hurt" Nikki smiles and Emily continues to lie with her back to Nikki.

"Oh you'll always say that because you feel guilty... you're only 14 years too late Nikki, everyone apologizes to me, 'oh sorry your Mum is such a screw-up' and you know what they were right!" She mocks as she looks at Nikki with the tears streaming down her face.

Nikki is taken back by her 14-year-old's reply and sits on the bed in silence, "I'm sorry okay, What else can I say, I know I messed up" She speaks.
"Yeah and it messed me up too, do you know how many girlfriends Dad has had? too many, I'm so messed up I might as well die, no one will care!" She cries and rolls back onto her side and continues to cry into her pillow.

Nikki sighs and looks up to see Jack stood in the doorway with a sympathetic look on his face, Nikki bites her lip in a fight to stop her hormones get the better of her, although she sympathises with her own daughter as she felt that very same way when she had lost her mother and had to rely on a dead beat father.