Everything Comes With A Price (The Grabber Fanfiction)

Gas Station

Susanna

The workings of a November breeze brushed past her. It chilled her to the bone. Her skin prickled with goose bumps. She had nothing but a knitted cardigan that she secured with the large buttons to shield her from the cold.

Ever since she was a little girl Susanna was relentless. She didn't settle. If she wasn't happy, she would let you know. If she was upset the rest of the world would share her misery.

Now it was nearing the end of November. December was just around the corner. Susanna's stubbornness was getting the better of her. When she imagined her fingers covered in black and blue frost bite she wondered if all this anger was worth it in the end. Susanna ran away earlier that week. Every day was another fight with her parents. Perhaps Susanna was sick of trying to bulldoze her way into the forefronts of their minds.

Oct 31, 1977

"Dad," Susanna called her father from across the kitchen table.

The black and white T.V in the kitchen was as loud as it could go. The news was on as it always was in their house.

Her kid brother ran into the kitchen. He came skidding in toward the table. He bumped into it. The table rattled, sloshing her bowl of soggy cheerios, and spilling a little coffee from their father's mug. Her baby sister threw a handful of Cheerios onto the floor.

"Johnny," their mother hollered. Their mother poured coffee into her father's mug. It was his second of the day. He always drank it from the same navy-blue cup that read, World's Number One Dad, across it.

Though when Susanna gifted the mug to him, she was eleven, and still believed that to be true. Well, she was twenty as of today, and the cup didn't hold up all these years later.

"Dad," she called out again.

"God damn it Susanna," her father shouted back across the table. "Can I have some peace and quiet before I go to work, please."

Susanna snapped her mouth shut; the inside was dry, even swallowing wasn't helping. Nowadays she felt like her father's patience was thinning. Especially for her, she wasn't top of his priorities anymore. He had a little boy to play catch with. And he had a new little girl to take Susanna's place. She took the back seat for the last two years, maybe even more. Susanna spent the rest of breakfast in silence.

The rest of the kitchen never simmered down. It was chaos. Today wasn't an exception. This was their morning every day. Hell, it was even their dinners too. They may be sitting around the table having a meal, but they didn't speak to one another. They didn't have a single real conversation. Not one that didn't result in a shouting match.

Before her father walked out the door, he kissed her mother goodbye. He patted Johnny's head and ruffled his curly brown hair. He kissed her baby sister, May's cheek. Lastly Susanna's father wrapped his arm around Susanna's shoulder and kissed her forehead.

"I haven't forgotten about my birthday girl."

Susanna pushed him away and rolled her eyes. She might have been twenty years old as of today, but there was still some teenage angst left in her somewhere.

"Leave me alone," she muttered.

Susanna's father looked at her mother unbeknownst to Susanna. He shrugged and gestured his confusion by throwing his two arms up in the air bent at the elbows.

"Come on bud," he ruffled Johnny's hair again, "You're going to be late for school."
"Can we ride with the sirens on," Johnny asked wide eyed. Their father responded with nothing but a laugh. Susanna missed those innocent days.