SUNNY DEE | JAEDEN LIEBERHER

NINETEEN

REAL LIFE CHAPTER WOW WE LOVE AN ACTUAL BOOK™

"Why do you even care?" Dee yelled, her hands gripping the back of one of the dining room chairs tightly.

"Because this is our house, young lady!" her father fought back, looking at the girl with disgust in his eyes, "And we don't tolerate seven random children in our house"

"They're not random, they're my friends!" she could feel tears stinging the back of her eyes as she made wild, big gestures with her hands, "How can you even call if your house if you barely even live in it?"

"Excuse me?" her mother spat, just as much hatred written on her face as her husbands.

"You're never home!" Dee's voice cracked and wavered as she tried to keep yelling, "You leave! I grew up without parents, because you can't parent a child from a different continent, mother! The only reason your home right now is because you assumed I would still be filming!"

Her parents stayed quiet, their faces stone in their remorseful expressions. Silently agreeing with their daughters statements.

"Some people should be allowed to have kids," Dee shook her head as a spiteful laugh left her lips.

"You drop that tone, Missy," her fathers hands gripped the edge of the table as he stood up, the chair scraping against the hardwood floor.

"What tone?" Dee sighed, her grip on the chair loosening as she backed away, "Its not like I'm lying, dad. People who hate kids, shouldn't have kids. And you do don't you? You hate me"

There was a split second of regret on her mother's face, but it washes away as soon as it had showed up. They stayed quiet, yet again silently agreeing. Her father slowly sat back down.

"Right," Dee choked out, tears falling down her cheeks now, "Well I'll make sure I tell you when I'm gonna be home from
now on, I'm sorry. I'm gonna go to my room"

She watched as her mother almost said something, her maternal instincts almost kicking in. Almost. But they didn't.

Dee turned on her heel, making a b-line for the stairs and jogging her way up to her room, closing her door as softly as she could.

She finally choked out the sob she'd been holding in, moving to her bed and grabbing her phone from the table next to it. She sat down, leaning her back agains the wall and hugging a pillow to her chest as she scrolled through her contacts, her finger hovering over Bill's.

But then she scrolled back up to the J's, her finger shakily pressing down and waiting as it rang.

Finally his face popped up on her screen, smiling, "Hey Dee, I literally just got home from your house," he laughed.

He took on her silence before he actually looked at his phone, his smile dropping off his face, "Hey, are you okay?"

She started rambling, telling him everything. Things that only Bill knew about her, about her parents and about life. About how she had a therapist she spoke to weekly, even when she was away filming something. She would just call for her weekly hour.

She just sat and talked for an almost an hour, some of it Jaeden barely understood over how much she was crying. But he got the just of it.

They sat in silence for a minute before he finally guessed he was done, "I'm so sorry, Dee. You don't deserve that"

"I kinda do," she laughed bitterly, wiping her eyes off with the heel of her hands, "I mean, I'm a shit head. I'm a terrible daughter, no wonder they hate me. All I do is make smart ass comments and talk back to people"

"You are not a terrible person, Dee," he replied, "They she no reason to treat you like that, your attitude is a reflection of how they parent you. Not the other way around"

"Wow," she said, sniffling, "Such wise words from a 14 year old, I'm impressed"

"I try," he laughs lightly, smiling at her.

"Thanks for listening to me be annoying and cry," she sighed, smiling back, "It means a lot"

"You're not annoying, Dee," he said, "I like listening to you talk. And I like learning stuff about you, it makes us better friends"

"Yeah,"

"Hey, I do have a question though," he mumbled, "I've asked everyone and they don't know either, is Dee your real name or does it stand for something?"

"Oh God," she laughed, her face turning a shade of red, "I've gone so long without someone asking me that"

"Obviously," Jaeden said, rolling his eyes, "We even googled it, we got nothing"

"You have to promise you won't tell anyone," she held her pinky up to the camera.

"I promise," he said, holding his up too.

"Seriously, no one. Not even Bill knows this, okay, I'm trusting you"

"Alright, I said I promise"

"It's short for Dorothy Jane," she sighed, resting her head on her palm, "Another example of my parents hating me"

"Dorothy?" he choked out a laugh, "That's so cute"

"Shut up, no it isn't," she sighed, her face flushing even more, "It's so disgusting, I hate it so much"

"It's cute," he insisted, "Dorothy Jane Reeves, a legend if I've ever seen one"

"Stop it,"

"A beautiful legend, sorry, had to correct myself," he said, taking pride in the small smile he saw spread across her lips.

"Well, I gotta go to bed," she said, scratching her head and looking around her room, "Thanks again for listening to me and not making fun of my stupid name"

"Anytime," he smiled.

"Goodnight, Jae"

"Goodnight, Sunny Dee"