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warning: emotional abuse in this chapter
REAL LIFE
Marissa stood in front of her dad's restaurant, wishing she had Nikki, Mitchell, James, or even Cleo by her side. Instead, she had her hands balled into tight fists, her nails digging into her palm to try and get her to stop from having a panic attack. She always felt this way going to see her dad after everything that happened in her childhood, the years of emotional abuse she had to endure from him. That she didn't know she was enduring until she was fifteen and the curtain had been removed from in front of her eyes.
Taking a deep breath, Marissa walked forward and entered the building, giving a smile to the hostess, Julian, who immediately recognized her. Leading her to the usual table that Marissa, her dad, and her family ate at when they were bothered enough to come see the older man.
When she sat in front of him, he was doing paper work. Even then, it was awkward and she had to sit in silence as she waited for her father to be done with whatever he was doing. And Vincent took awhile, squinting at the papers when he couldn't exactly read what they said and complaining under his breath about some stupid code the restaurant had to abide by.
When he was finally done, Marissa had the server refilling the Coke that she had ordered. He motioned for the waiter to come back, ordered their usual as Marissa smiled awkwardly around the straw she was drinking from. As they waited, they filled the silence with small talk, mostly about the restaurant and how he was doing. Vincent also hitched about how the hospital wasn't giving Marissa's grandmother the best care, though the young woman knows that's not true. She had talked to her grandmother just the other day on the phone and she had said everything was fine.
When their food arrived, Marissa picked at it as Vincent asked her basic life questions. How are you doing financially? Fine, hairdressing keeps me afloat. Your landlord kick you out for screaming so much? Fortunately no. And I don't scream that much. Thinking about opening up your own salon with Cleo? I could help manage for a bit. We're happy where we are right now. Mitchell and Nikki doing okay? I think so. So is James, thanks for asking. Your mom still with her new husband? They're still happy after ten years, you can stop asking just because it's her third marriage.
She picked at the jalapeno mac and cheese noodle with her fork, shifting it around before finally stabbing it. Marissa chewed, realizing that her father had stopped talking, and looked at him. He had set his cutlery down on either side of his plate and had his hands folded under his chin, regarding her. There was a pregnant pause as Marissa finished chewing, swallowing her food. "What?"
"Harriet - you know Harriet, that girl from that one site - she's a huge fan of that show you like so much," he took a minute to think of the show. Marissa probably would have offered up suggestions if she hadn't frozen in her chair. She didn't like the way this conversation was going, but knew that if her dad had anything bad to say, she would take the hits. Probably cry about it later, but she would try to mask her feelings in front of her father. Vincent snapped his fingers as the word came to him, "Supernatural. Anyway, she was scrolling through news pertaining the actors of the show, before she saw something interesting."
