Babysitting the Player

Chapter 19

"How was the party?" Mom asks the second she hears the front door open.

"Can I get inside first?" I laugh as I kick off my shoes and Bryce does the same.

"No. I want details."

"Okay." I start walking up the stairs. "Bryce is here too."

"Hi, Bryce!" she calls.

"Hey."

"So how was the party? Fill me in."

"Hold on." I walk down the hall and set my bag down on my bedroom floor before going back to the living room to answer her questions.

"So?" she asks. "You're still in pajamas so did you not get much sleep?"

"Eh." I sit down on the couch and Bryce sits next to me.

"Talk to me, how was it?"

"It was good," Bryce says.

"For the most part." I add.

"What does that mean?"

"There was some drama at the beginning."

"Can I have the details?"

"This one girl I used to be friends with was a little jealous." Bryce shrugs.

"She was basically trying to make me jealous so that she'd feel better."

"Did it work?"

"Unfortunately, a little bit, yeah."

"Bummer. Did she stay the night too?"

"She didn't make it to the nighttime festivities." Bryce laughs.

"She had to be asked to leave."

"Ouch. What else?"

"That was really it for the drama." I shrug. "The rest of his friends seem really nice."

"And they like you a lot."

"That's good." Mom smiles. "I can't believe everyone was willing to come up just for a party."

"I can't believe you didn't tell me about the party. You loaned Maggie some stuff so I know you knew."

"It was supposed to be a surprise and you would've told Bryce."

"Maybe." I admit.

"There's no maybe about it." She laughs. "Do you guys have plans for today?"

"No, we're just gonna hang out. Maybe watch a movie."

"You guys should do something."

"There's actually something I was hoping to talk to you about."

"What's up?"

"Please hear me out before you give me an answer."

"Okay."

"I want to meet my father. I've been angry at him my entire life and I don't even remember him and I haven't even seen pictures of him and I just need to know who I'm angry at. I don't want a relationship with him, I just want to meet him. I need to know if he's sorry because even though I could never forgive him, if he's sorry then maybe I can stop being so mad. I've just been carrying this around my whole life and it's not mine to carry. I need to at least have a face to put to the shitty actions."

"Okay."

"Okay?"

"You've clearly thought about it so if you want to meet him, I'll support that decision."

"Oh."

"Did you not want me to say yes?"

"I did, I just wasn't expecting you to."