Family Ties (Rewritten)

Family Dinner

Emily:

The school day was swiftly coming to an end, and not a moment too soon, since my students were no longer interested in my lesson on Jezebel.  Most of them had their faces buried in their cellphones, while the others were talking about their weekend plans.  Only two students were paying attention, so I decided to conclude my lesson with a question.

"So, what's the moral of the Jezebel's story?"

The first hand that was raised belonged to a boy named Avery.  "The moral is, don't be a psychotic bitch, or your corpse will be trampled on by horses and eaten and shit out by stray dogs."

The classroom roared with laughter.

My lips curled into a smile.  "In essence, yes."

The bell rang, dismissing the students and leaving me alone to grade papers. I didn't often get alone time, save for these moments at work, so I usually savored them by turning on some soothing music and sipping on coffee from the teacher's lounge.

I spent the next three hours at my desk, looking over some of the most dreadful reports I have ever laid my eyes on.  My students clearly weren't interested in Middle Eastern history, because all of their words were stolen straight from Wikipedia. 

My bosses were going to be pissed.

"Good evening, Mrs. Reed." A voice said from the doorway, averting my eyes from the failure. I smiled when I saw James standing there. He had a bouquet of flowers in one hand, and a box of Chinese take out in the other. "I thought you could use some dinner, and maybe some company."

"Come on in."  I stood from my chair and gave him a long hug.  As rare as it was for me to be alone, it was even more rare for James and I to be alone.  It had been like that since we got married, five years ago.

"How goes the grading?"

"It could definitely be better."

He looked down at the pile.  "Dumb ass kids, huh?"

"I wouldn't go that far.  They just lack motivation."

"Those horrible grades should motivate them."

"Never mind them.  Who's watching Cora?"

"Your mom.  She was thrilled to have her over."

"Yes, it has been a while since I've taken her to see them, hasn't it?"

"You've been busy."

"That's no excuse.  I can't become so buried in my work that I neglect my own parents."

"They understand, Emily."

I glanced over at my pile of papers, then shoved them into my leather tote bag.  "I have all weekend to grade these papers.  Let's go see my parents."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

I locked up my classroom and said my goodbyes to some of the other teachers before following him out to the parking lot. We had to take separate cars, but it was still nice knowing that we were both driving to the same place. It really had been far too long since I've visited with my parents, though we only lived ten minutes away from them.

Part of me wanted to leave town after everything that happened with Vincent, but I decided that I wasn't going to allow his actions to drive me away from my family.

We arrived at their house a few minutes later. Their front door opened before I could even turn my car off, and Cora came running to me with her arms spread wide. "Mommy! I missed you!"