The Story of Tonight

Chapter Twenty Eight

When Lia finally reached her apartment, it was over an hour later. Besides the fact that she had left Ayden's car on a random block, she didn't have her phone to help her navigate.

Although normally the time to herself would offer her some clarity, this time had the exact opposite effect. Without her phone to distract her, she was left with her thoughts and the accompanying New Yorkers also on the bus. Lia was grateful she had brought a pair of sunglasses with her and had maintained her composure since leaving Ayden. The last thing she needed were anymore unflattering images of herself out in the media.

The more she thought about everything Ayden had said, the more angry she became. Angry at him for lying to her and dismissively hurting her. Angry at her so called friends for using her. Angry at herself for being stupid enough to let it all happen.

Most of all, though, she found herself angry at Lin. It didn't help her emotions subside when she walked through her front door and Lin and Vanessa were on the living room couch making out.

"Great, you're here," Lia said in a disgusted tone, pushing the door behind her and shrugging off her coat as Lin and Vanessa quickly pushed themselves off of each other with mortified smiles in their faces.

"Hey," Vanessa said as she smoothed out the wrinkles of her shirt and got up off the couch to give their daughter a hug, "You're getting back late. And we have something exciting to tell you," She was as giddy as a kid in a candy store to tell Lia she'd be gaining two siblings in a few months' time.

"Well, that's what happens when you have to take three buses to get back to Brooklyn." Lia responded dryly, disregarding whatever news her mother wanted to share.

"You okay, Lia?" Lin asked cautiously, aware of the scowl on Lia's face and the slight falter of Vanessa's smile.

"If I had my phone, I could have just gotten a taxi or gotten the subway schedule,"

"Now you can say you got the real New York experience!" Lin joked, trying to lighten the mood.
"And you'll get your phone back next week."

"That's not the point," Lia replied with a scowl.

"Then what is the point?" Vanessa interjected, crossing her arms. She knew there was something up with Lia. She had never been one to hold a grudge for too long; especially not over something as menial as not having her phone.

"The point is that if it wasn't for Lin I wouldn't have just wasted the past hour of my life trying to get back here,"

"You know that's not fair Lia," Lin spoke up, a slight frown on his face.

"And why did you run into so much trouble? You've taken the subway from school countless times," Vanessa added, trying to figure out the full story.

"Because my boyfriend was driving me home because we both got detention and then I got out of the car when we broke up," Lia admitted, as the tears she had been holding in made their way to the surface, "Because of him!"

Vanessa looked at Lin with a confused look, in part because of the revelation that their daughter had somehow landed in detention, gotten it with her boyfriend and then broke up with said boyfriend all in a day, and somehow Lin had something to do with that.
She didn't know if she felt relieved or not when Lin looked just as perplexed. "What are you talking about?"

"If it hadn't been for Lin, I wouldn't have spent half the day arguing with my boyfriend over a drunk video of me that's everywhere!"

"What video?" Lin asked. He hadn't checked his phone since Vanessa and him had gotten back from their appointment. He immediately pulled it out of his pocket and saw the abundant amount of notifications he had. Before his mind could even go down the rabbit hole of possibilities of what a drunk video of his fourteen year old daughter meant, Lia continued.