Incandescent Meetings | T.S.

2.) Tolerate It

Taylor had gone home to visit her parents for two weeks. It was the worst two weeks of her life so far. Austin was only there for a week before leaving early to fly to LA with his girlfriend, and then they left with a group of friends for Europe.

The first week seemed decently okay. Her parents didn't bicker or fight too much... at least not in front of her and Austin. But when the night came, and everyone was off to their respected rooms, all you could hear was Andrea and Scott yelling at each other. One night, there was a loud slam, and the next morning, Scott was sleeping on the sofa.

But the second week came quicker than Taylor was hoping for. It was like a switch flipped as soon as Austin left. As soon as Andrea walked inside after making sure her son was safe, she completely ignored Scott for the day.

When dinner time rolled around, Scott walked downstairs, and when nothing was prepared, he grabbed his keys and left. Taylor was sitting in the living room on her phone, texting Selena and Ashley when the front door slammed, followed by Scott's truck speeding off. She let out a heavy sigh before getting up and walking into the kitchen. Her mother was nowhere to be seen, so she grabbed a fresh bottle of wine from the wine rack and poured two glasses.

"Mom?" she called out from the hallway.

"I'm outside!" Andrea yelled back.

Taylor headed outside, seeing her mother sitting on the patio with a book next to her and her phone in her hand. She sighed as she walked over to Andrea and set both glasses of wine on the small, glass table. "Why do you two even try anymore? Why don't you just sell the house and move already?" she asked as she sat down on the seat next to her mom.

Andrea grabbed the tennis ball that the dog, Bruce, brought to her and tossed it into the yard again. "I've said the same thing," she said as she grabbed one of the wine glasses. She took a long sip of the white liquor before setting the glass back down. "Before you came to visit, we talked about it."

"And?" Taylor asked as she grabbed her glass, took a sip, and stared at her mother.

"We're working with lawyers to divide everything equally. We'll sell the house, and divide the money equally." Andrea explained before tossing the tennis ball into the yard again. "It's just a long mess."

"I can imagine," Taylor sighed softly. "Where did Dad even go?"

"Probably to his girlfriend's place across town."

Taylor's eyes grew wide. "What? H-he has a girlfriend already?"

Andrea looked back over at her daughter. "I thought he told you..."

"No, he didn't... did he say he did?"

"Yes. Before you came up here, he said that he had told you and Austin everything."

"Everything?" Taylor raised a brow.

The mother sighed. She grabbed her drink to take another sip. "The whole reason why we're getting divorced, what started it, all that."

Taylor shook her head. "He didn't tell me anything of the sorts."

"Of course he didn't."

It was silent for a moment besides Bruce barking at the neighbor's dog.

Eventually Taylor looked at her mother again. "Tell me everything."

Andrea kept her gaze on the dog running around the yard after the ball. "I don't want to taint the way you see your father."

"I could care less about that, Mom. I'm not a daddy's girl anymore, after everything that happened with Diana and Karlie... it ruined the relationship we had. I'm not sure it'll ever be the same again, so just tell me."