STAR STRUCK: epilogue continues (book 2)

Chapter 5

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Chapter 5

Tying up loose ends (#2)

still 20 days before take-off

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To most people who don't like their family, holidays must be torture. You tolerate each other's guts for the rest of the celebration. You try to pretend that you like each other for the sake of appearances and maybe because you would hate to be the center of the nasty talk after the gathering. 

I agree with most people. I am most people. Holidays are the worst. 

But today's not a holiday. It's just your regular everyday family dinner. 

Worse than the worst then.

"Can you pass the gravy," Dad said. He was probably talking to Mellisa given our no-talking state. Being a father and daughter meant sharing the same hint of stubbornness in our blood. A painful reminder of how I am a copy of his genes and perhaps nothing else. 

Spoons on plates clank in a way that makes everyone cringe in silence. Everyone except for Beth. She was busy munching on a chicken leg and didn't bother to use the fork. I wish I could be that carefree. 

Perhaps a smile was evident on my face because Melissa giggled and I had to force myself out of the clouds.

"What's wrong?" I asked. 

"Nothing," she said. "It's just that it's rare for you to smile in front of the dining table. I have never seen it, not even once. I'd like to have it more often."

I felt myself blush as Melissa continued to giggle on her own. Beth still had a mouthful of chicken and a face covered in gravy. Dad was... being like he always was, staring at me like I was something worth scrutinizing. 

Dinner ended soon after, much to my relief. That meant going our separate ways inside the house for the time being and a chance to calm down my nerves. 

Melissa took the time to clean the table as she always does and I volunteered to help. 

"Rebecca," my Dad called as he stood from his chair. I flinched, more to the way he called me than from the sound of his voice. "We need to talk."

Clearly, we did. But what of it?

You told yourself you'd be up to this, my brain decided to reply to my stubborn silent defiance of the man. 

Melissa took one look between us and it was all it took for her to understand what was happening to me. "You should go."

I nodded, grateful for the encouragement of someone who wasn't me. 

I did try to bring all the dishes to the sink first before going to the place where Dad was waiting. He was probably at his study looking out the window right about now.  Wouldn't hurt for him to wait a bit more, right?

Dabbing my hands onto a towel after washing them over the tap, I gingerly went upstairs with a sense of unease at every step. I fought the urge to turn back with every passing minute and so I stared at the walls and the doors of the rooms I had passed to keep myself entertained out of the notion that I would soon have the long overdue talk with the man who I was supposed to call Dad. 

But the walls were too bare to distract me and the rooms too empty to have any sort of meaning left to them. I didn't know if the furniture was sold because we lacked the money or because a certain someone just didn't want to see the items Mom hoarded over the years.