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When we got home, Danielle followed me to my room.
"You're off-duty, you know," I said, my voice sounding pathetically forlorn. "You can go to bed."
"I know. But I wanted to make sure you're all right."
I was actually glad that she stayed because I really didn't want to be alone. We were interrupted by a sharp knock and then my mother calling from outside the door. "Ashten! We need to talk!"
I rolled my eyes and Danielle bit her lip so she wouldn't laugh. "Come in!" I yelled.
She came, her eyes burning with fury. "Where have you been?" She demanded.
"Out, Mother," I responded impatiently.
"With whom?!"
"I told you, Danielle and Preston. And Addie and Louis were there, too."
She grasped her chest as if she were going to have a heart attack. "I thought you were joking! What on earth were you thinking, going out in public with our servants???"
"Mom, if you hadn't noticed, Danielle is right here," I said.
"She knows her place," my mother scoffed. "And now I'd suggest that you learn yours and stop with this foolish rebellious nonsense!"
"What if I'm not being rebellious and I just happen to want to do things my own way?" I asked, my eyebrows raised.
She gawked at me, not believing what I'd just said. She was speechless, which didn't happen very often.
"I'm eighteen, almost nineteen, Mother. I should be able to make my own decisions for my life," I continued, feeling empowered by my new surge of courage. But my heart was racing frantically."When are you going to stop treating me like a child?"
She replied in a calculated tone of voice, "When you stop acting like one! Clearly, you are not ready to handle such responsibility. How dare you make a fool of yourself in public! You've made fools of your whole family!"
I just shrugged as if I didn't care.
"Don't mock me!" She screamed. "I'm going to talk to your father about this and make sure he puts you in your place!" She then left in a rage.
I broke down in a fit of laughter, both because I was happy I finally stood up to her, and because I was still a bit overwhelmed by all the intense emotions of the evening. Laughing felt wonderfully cathartic. Danielle practically fell over laughing, too.
I finally collected myself and turned to her. "You were saying...? Oh, right, you were wondering if I was okay. I'll be fine, once I stop making a mess of my life."
"I think that was a good start right there," she said, motioning to the door my mother had just slammed.
I nodded with a silly little grin. "Did you have fun tonight?" I asked.
