Closer

Scraped Off My Knees

From the moment Lawrence had picked up Diana from school, he knew that something was off. Instead of rushing to the car with a bright smile, she had dismally climbed into the back seat and remained silent the entire ride home. Lawrence had asked if she was feeling alright and she had nodded her head, staring out the window drearily. When they had arrived back at the apartment, she had disappeared to her room and closed the door, not even bothering to say hello to Adam.

"She feelin' alright?" Adam asked Lawrence, casting a worried glance toward the closed bedroom door covered in butterfly stickers.

"I'm not sure," Lawrence admitted, taking a seat beside Adam. "She was quiet the whole ride home and doesn't seem to want to talk about it."

"I'll talk to her after dinner," Adam promised and Lawrence nodded, setting his arm over the back of the couch as Adam leaned against him.

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Dinner was relatively quiet, the majority of the conversation ruled by the two men. Diana remained silent, staring down at her plate with little interest and picking at her food; very little of the meal actually made it to her mouth.

"May I be excused?" she finally asked, looking up at her daddy.

"You should eat a little more," Lawrence replied, noticing the amount of food on her plate hadn't changed.

She sighed but forced herself to eat a little more before asking again.

"I suppose," Lawrence sighed, watching as his daughter pushed away from the table and hurried back to her room, closing the door behind her again.

Setting his fork on the edge of his plate, Adam stood. "I'll talk to her."

Approaching Diana's door, Adam knocked lightly. "Hey, it's Adam."

"Come in," Diana quietly said and Adam nearly missed it. Turning the knob, Adam entered the little girl's room, closing the door behind him. The aforementioned girl was sitting on the edge of her bed, kicking her shoes off.

Adam took a seat beside her, waiting until she'd removed her shoes before he asked, "Do you wanna talk about it?"

"Do I have to go to school tomorrow?" she quietly asked, giving Adam the puppy dog eyes.

"I thought you liked school," Adam stated in a questioning tone and Diana glanced off to the side. It took a few moments but she finally replied.

"The other kids have been picking on me."

Adam was filled with a mix of anger and confusion. "Why would they do that?"

Scooting back a little on her small bed, Diana finally met Adam's eyes. "We've been working on a project in class about our families. Everyone had to draw a picture of their family and write about them and then present them to the class. After I presented, everyone's been making fun of me for having two dads."

The rage that had filled Adam tripled and it took every ounce of self restraint - something he had very little of in the first place - to keep himself from breaking something or just yelling.

"Did you tell your teacher?" Adam finally asked through gritted teeth.

"Yeah," Diana sighed. "But she didn't do anything."

"Then I'll tell you what you do," Adam said. "When you go to school tomorrow, if they start picking on you, you tell them to fuck off."

The words slipped from his mouth before he had a chance to restrain himself and Diana's eyes widened.