Inferno

~16~ Too Nice

Luke's POV

After Sasha's friends storm off, dad is still furious. I look over at Emma, and she feels horrible. She hates when people are mad at her. She would rather give up her bed then make Sasha's evil friends mad.

Dad looks up at her and sees her face too. "This was me, Emma girl, not you. Hear me?" He asks seriously.

She just nods quietly.

"Do you hear me?" He asks, looking at Sasha this time.

She just nods, but says nothing. She's furious.

Dad gets the rest of the fish cleaned, and with Greene's help they do it pretty quickly. They have the mess all cleaned up when mom comes back downstairs.

"What's wrong?" She asks as soon as she sees dad's face.

He just shakes his head.

"Later" he says quietly.

Mom drops it.

Greene leaves right after, and says bye to Trace. "I'll be back by 10 tomorrow. Be good" he says as he gives him a hug.

Once Wes leaves, I look at Trace. He feels just as bad as I do.

"Wanna play Monopoly?" I ask her, trying to get her mind off of it. Monopoly is her favorite.

She smiles and shakes her head. "I'm actually going to go upstairs for a while. I want to read" she says as she gets up and leaves.

The room is quiet for a couple of minutes.

Dad finally looks at Sasha and he's fuming.

"Don't you ever do that to her again" he says darkly.

"I wasn't trying to be mean" she tries to reason with him.

"Which part of that wasn't mean?" He asks, raising his voice a little. He's still trying to be quiet so Emma can't hear.

"It just made sense. She was willing to do it" she argues.

"Of course she was willing to do it, Sasha. Your mom would have been willing to clean those damn fish, because that's who she is. She will do anything for anybody. Emma is the same way. Did you see me asking mom to clean the fish?" He snaps.

She just shakes her head.

"You all act like she's made of glass. She's fine" Sasha says, with less attitude this time.

Dad says nothing; He just shakes his head and let's out a sigh.

"Sasha, I'm trying really hard to talk myself out of spanking you right now. After the one you just got yesterday, I'm sure you're still hurting. Go upstairs, before I change my mind" he says, glaring at her.

She says nothing as she spins around, making her long curls bounce.

Trace and I just look at each other. He's had a crush on her for forever, but even he's disgusted by her right now.

I can see mom looking at dad from where I'm sitting on the couch. They are still in the kitchen, but dad knocked out a wall when he renovated when they first moved in. It's almost an open concept kitchen now.

I hear dad quietly telling mom what happened. Normally they keep things like this extremely private, but I guess they figured we already heard all of it anyways.

"What are we going to do, Tay?" She asks in a heartbroken tone.

"I don't know, Ellie" he says, equally upset.

"Luke, is Sasha nice to her at school?" Mom asks, as she comes into the family room and sits down next to me. Dad follows behind.

I just nod. "If by nice you mean, does she make fun of her? No. But she doesn't go out of her way to talk to her, either" I admit.