Ocean's Storm

Chapter Fifteen

         "France?" A pounding on the guest bedroom door jolts me awake from my sweet, sweet, sweet sleep.

         The heaviness of not getting enough sleep- a grand total of an hour and a half's worth- causes me to lean forward and bury my face in my hands. "Wrong continent and wrong side of the ocean." I grumble. Gross. Why does the one guy I don't care to see at the moment named after a body of water?

          My response is taken as an invitation to open the bedroom door and blind me with the bright artificial lighting of the small hallway. Callum stands in the doorway holding a cup in his hand.

           "Kyle gave me the rundown on how the morning after one of your meltdowns goes, so I'm here to make sure you stay hydrated." He walks towards the bed and places the cup on the nightstand.

"Calling what happened last night a meltdown is a bit over dramatic and highly inaccurate," I point out, as he takes a seat on the edge of the bed. "If anything, the whole storming out bit was just a statement. Have you ever heard the phrase 'the best exits to a failed outcome involve storming out of rooms and slamming the front door shut'?"

          "You just made that phrase up to justify your actions," rolling his eyes, Callum slightly grins. But, as if he has been playing the big brother role from day one, Callum's face turns serious. "I know I told you last night when you showed up at my door that I wouldn't pry, but what happened to make you so upset?"

         What happened to make me so upset? Such a funny question to ask and expect an answer for right away. I wouldn't say that I was upset by my punishment outcome, but Reggie sure does know how to ruin a person's chance at not being grounded for the rest of eternity.

     Ansel had managed to talk my dad into giving us all the same punishment of painting Kaylee's store back to its original boring brick color, but painting bricks back to their original color is easier said than done. So, my dad decided to call Kaylee right at that moment just to get her input on what should be done. And... she wants her bricks painted back to brick color. Of course, Reggie and his fat mouth had a huge problem with Kaylee's evil punishment and had no hesitation in expressing his feelings.

    Everything happened so quickly, once Reggie had started his expression of feelings. The raising of voices came first and then some heavy wooden chairs were kicked with full force. Dad threatened to call the police for trespassing and destruction of property- that was after Reggie had gotten up onto my dad's desk and started to kick picture frames and my dad's favorite mug down. Ansel was too much in shock to actually do anything about Reggie; I was a bit lost with how to appropriately react to the scene unfolding before me. The sight of Reggie going into full-on teenage meltdown and kicking items off of the desk like some bad boy out of a cheesy teen film made me want to laugh. But, if I did laugh at the fact that Reggie's meltdown looked like it was straight out of a cheesy teen film, then I would never hear the end of my mistake from my dad.

    When Reggie heard my dad threatening to call the police on him, Reggie hopped off of the desk just to have an eye-leveled stare down. He proceeded to mouth off about how putting him behind bars would only bring him closer to the man that was hardly ever in his life, so he didn't consider my dad's words as much of a threat. The final parting words of Reggie for my dad, before he had stormed out of the house, were, "you are lucky I like your daughter so much, or else you would have had another thing coming."

    I am not entirely sure what Reggie had meant, but he sure did hit even more of a nerve than before. Ansel could not have saved me from the aftermath of Reggie's parting; he could not even save himself from my dad's judgement. Dad lectured the two of us on having better judgement when it comes to who we allow into our lives and told us both to stay far away from Reggie. Of course, I couldn't hold my tongue and started to lecture him on the importance of better judgement in relationships. Lets just say that that lecture did not end well.