Chapter 15
Every muscle in my body seemed to tense and freeze as my father’s words sunk in. It wasn’t just the fact that he obviously knew who Parker was that was scaring me, it was the immense amount of judgment and disbelief that came with it.
“Dad,” I started slowly and carefully, not knowing exactly how to approach this conversation, “What are you talking about?”
“I’ll ask you once again Jillian, when did you start hanging out with Parker Collins?”
“I don’t know, a week or two after we moved here he started tutoring me in history, and since then we’ve been around each other a lot.” I replied honestly, still not understanding where this conversation was headed. “Why dad? It’s not like he’s a bad person.”
It seemed as though my reasoning was a bucket of cold water that had just doused my dad, as he stood stock still, staring at me with wide eyes that were full of disbelief.
“Not a… not a bad person Jillian!” he replied, directing his anger towards me as he raised his voice. “How much do you even know about this boy? How do you know that he isn’t a bad person?”
“Dad!” I screamed, not understanding where his anger and sudden judgment was coming from. “What are you talking about? Of course he’s not a bad person, where are you getting any of this from?”
However, as soon as I asked the question and my dad’s face flashed with guilt and stress, my whole stopped spinning for a second, as I immediately knew the answer.
“That case,” I whispered in shock as a feeling of dread washed over me, “The case you’ve been working on for months, the one that was unresolved, it’s about Parker, isn’t it?”
“How do you…” he started, but I shook my head and cut him off.
“Parker told me that people blame him for his sister’s death.”
“Did he also mention that, when the police that were called that night, he was the main suspect in the investigation?”
“No, but...” I tried, only to be interrupted.
“Exactly, and that’s not even the half of it Jillian!” he replied, reverting back to his tactic of yelling at me. “I’m sorry, but even if he’s innocent in this whole mess, he still as so many things in his past that you don’t need right now.”
“If he’s innocent?” I restated, “Of course he’s innocent dad! He didn’t kill his own sister, and even if the evidence doesn’t show it, I’ve seen him crying at his sister’s grave, I know he didn’t do anything!”
As I saw him shake his head, I felt dozens of emotions run through me at once. I felt the guilt start to seep in for riling my dad up like this, I felt angry as I thought of what he was accusing Parker of, and I felt like I could pull my hair out with the amount of frustration that was building up inside of me.
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Defending Parker
Teen FictionJillian's senior year was supposed to be easy, but when her father's job causes the two of them to uproot their life and move to Byrendale, it doesn't take long to realize that the small town is still mourning a tragedy. Meeting Parker was somethin...
