All Grown Up (Eden High)

Now she was trembling all over, and her hands shook like a tornado as she reached for her water bottle. I’m an asshole, I know, I understand what she’s been through, but I have to do this shit, have to push hard so she’d see what she did to her kid. As far as I’m concerned, there’s no excuse for what she and her husband did to my girl. There’s also a selfish reason for me coming at her like this.

“Okay, what should I do? Who is it that’s blackmailing her? Do you know?”

“I don’t need you to do anything about that; I’ll take care of things on that end. I need something else from you.”

“What is it? Tell me, if it will help my daughter, I’ll do anything.” Just what I wanted to hear!

“I’m taking Cassie away from here. I don’t want you or your husband to stand in my way. You make that happen, and I won’t tell the world what you did.” I never would for Cassie’s sake, but she doesn’t know that, and I have no qualms about using that shit to get my way. It might be different if I wasn’t so pissed at her for her part in this mess. But I am pissed at her and her husband.

They may see what they’ve done as no big deal. I mean, everyone in this town has affairs and neglects the hell out of their kids. Too bad for them they did that shit to her. I’ll never forgive them.

“Are you threatening me?”

“Yes. And I need your answer now. So what’s it going to be?”

She looked at me like I was a monster, but I don’t really care. It’s not like I plan on spending the rest of my life stepping on people to get my way. I know enough about myself and the people around me to know that that’s not who I am. But for Cassie, there’s nothing I won’t do.

“Aren’t you afraid I’d tell her?”

“You can do that, but I’ll just convince her otherwise, and then you’ll lose her, for good, I’ll make sure of it.”

“Why are you doing this to me? Why are you being so cruel?”

“Would you rather I do to you what I’m about to do to your husband?”

“What do you mean? What are you going to do to him?”

“Don’t worry, I’ll let him live, but if you don’t give me what I want, things may not work out so well for him.”

“Aren’t you a kid? How did you become so vicious?”

“Have you ever been in love? Did you know that God loved the world so much that He sent His son to die to save it? Think about that, and you’ll understand what love can do.” I got to my feet, done with the conversation. “So what’s it going to be?” My voice was cold and unemotional, and when she looked up at me, there was nothing but an empty void behind my eyes.

“What choice do I have? But where are you planning on taking my child?”

“To be with me at school, she’ll be going there next year anyway; I’m just taking her a year early.”

“I see. Does she know about this?”

“Not yet, but I plan to tell her this weekend.” She nodded her head, looking defeated.

“I have to go. By the way, I’m taking Cassie away for her birthday.” I didn’t wait around for her reply because the longer I hang around her, the more pissed off I was getting. Maybe there’s some residual animosity there that stems from my own issues with my mother.

I’m not giving dads a pass, but women carry their kids under their hearts for ten months; what the fuck! Aren’t they supposed to feel that bond for life? I’m probably looking at this shit all wrong, but I don’t have it in me to give a fuck about anyone or anything else other than my Cassie; if that makes me an asshole, well then.

MOUTH

“So, Lily’s mom, whose computer are you trying to get into?” I’m trying not to show it, but these three kids, the two in the room with me and the one on the screen, are making me nervous as heck. First of all, when and where did my kid learn to speak Mandarin? No excuse me, what they were speaking wasn’t exactly Mandarin because Google translate didn’t recognize the words. It’s like the three of them have their own language.

“What language were you kids just speaking?” The other two looked at Lyon’s kid as if waiting for the okay, and I’d be fucked if she didn’t nod her head slightly. What the…

“We made it up.”

“Come again!”

“Catalina is good with linguistics, mommy. So we thought it would be fun to make up our own language using a mix of Mandarin and English with a few other languages thrown in.”