Chapter 2

“Where is he? I told him to be here for six, and it’s twenty past! He always has to defy everything we ask of him.” My mom snaps, slamming her fork down on the table by her plate, making everything rattle despite being solid oak and everyone sits tensely as her voice echoes around the giant dining room. “I am so sick of this.”

My mum's shoulder-length blonde highlighted hair falls gracefully over her right eye, so she flicks it back with manicured nails. She still looks like a woman in her young thirties and not her mid-forties. Barely has a wrinkle or blemish on her delicate face. Her cheekbones are rosier than normal, even on her sallow skin, and I watch my mom's beauty and elegance with awe, impressed by it even when she’s pissed off.

Elisa withdraws further into her hair, so her fork seems to be delivering food into a veil where food disappears, and my stepfather sighs at the head of the table and checks his watch for the fifth time. It’s only the four of us as we wait for Dane. Supposed to be a cozy small celebration, yet this room suddenly feels crazily claustrophobic even though our table seats eight.

“Mom…. ignore it and eat. It’s Bryan’s birthday dinner. Dane will show up. You know he will…. late because it’s what he does, but he will still come home.” I try to soothe her with soft words and some logic, but we all know Dane will show up when he feels like it, regardless of the date. “He does this to annoy you, and it’s working.” Anytime she gives him a set time, he ignores it. I sigh and push my food around, hating that he has ruined yet another family meal.

“The food is really good, Mrs. Masterson. You should eat it before it gets cold.” Elise pipes up shyly, her sweet voice coming out from the hunched-up figure as she aids in smoothing my mom’s ruffled feathers. She’s been an extension of our family for years, as she lives two houses away and practically grew up with me since I moved in here. My mom loves having her around and always invites her to family-related events. I think she felt Elisa was a sibling I needed because I was an only child, and Dane hated coming here for visitation, so he would dodge it.

“Honey. It’s fine. He’ll show up when he’s hungry, and I told you I didn’t need anything special today. I’m happy to spend time with my family at any time. It’s just another year of reminding me I am old.” My stepfather gives mom a tight smile, trying for light-hearted warmth, but her grip on her water glass tightens, and she sits up straight, tenser.

Bryan is nothing like his son. He’s handsome in that mature guy kind of a way and fit because my mom is a stickler for health. He compliments my mom with their good looks – the typical Florida, wealthy, good-looking couple.

Where Dane is tanned, with pale eyes and black hair, Bryan is pale naturally, a little freckled in places with light brown hair and smiley hazel eyes. Dane’s all angles and smoldering gazes, while Bryan's happy face always seems approachable. The only thing Dane seemed to get from his DNA was their height. Tall and stocky as though they were meant for the sports field.

She furrows her already frowning brow further. Her happy mood of a half hour ago has been dying by the second.

“I’m so tired of dealing with this. Anything I say, he ignores. Anything I do, he throws back in my face…. what am I supposed to do with him?” She exhales heavily, eyes misting over as though this is the worst stress of her life, and sometimes I don’t get why she tries so hard. She wouldn't always be at his throat if she let him be and didn’t demand anything. She can’t change him. Since he moved in, it’s like she tries so hard to be his mother, whereas before, she didn’t give him the time of day.

“Stop expecting…. It only sets you up for disappointment. You know how he feels.” Bryan reaches out his hand and covers the one beside my mother’s discarded fork, squeezing her, and I try to focus on my food. The steak is getting cold as I am picking at it, but I have no appetite thanks to the tension of the atmosphere once again caused by Dane.

There’s a clatter out in the main hall that sounds like the front door swinging shut, and then minor scuffing and the squeak of boots on the marble floor. Low voices follow it, and I stiffen, knowing what’s coming. It sounds like Dane brought Tyler with him, and my mom is already in the worst mood over his being late. Even though she asked Elisa, she never asked any of Dane’s friends. She never does.

“Listen, honey… he’s here. Relax, eat. Let’s enjoy this. Let it go and have a nice dinner for once.” Bryan lets her go and sits back to pick up his cutlery again, but my mother does not move. I catch her in the corner of my eye, pushing her shoulders back and raising her chin, and I inwardly deflate. Mom is moving into battle mode, and I know she will go off at him when he comes in here.

“Sorry, we’re late, Mr. and Mrs. Masterson… we had a delay with school things,” Tyler mumbles, coming in first, looking sheepish and giving a quick head bow in apology as he eyes up the table and tries to figure out where to sit. He’s still in the uniform of earlier and looks more wrinkled than when we left school a couple of hours ago. God knows where they have been or what they have been doing.

School things, my ass.

Seeing only one place set, he turns to the side and gives Dane a glaring look as he strolls in casually beside him. It looks like Dane told him he was invited when my mother never agreed. Dane shrugs back and smirks, that wicked gleam in his eye that he knows this will be something else to piss my mom off.

“Yeah, soz…. we had stuff going on. I’m starving. Smells good.” Dane walks up, eyes up the vacant seat next to me that sits between his father and me and the place setting clearly for him, then at Elisa beside my mother on the opposite side. He seems to do a mental calculation as to where he should put Tyler.

“Monique, can you set another place, please,” Bryan calls out to the housekeeper, who is never far from earshot, and motions towards Tyler with a polite finger wave. Gesturing towards the seat facing Elisa, right beside me on the other side. “The more, the merrier. Nice to see you again, Tyler.”

Bryan has always been a polite, calm peacekeeper who never gets riled at anything his son does. Not the tattoos, the piercings, the motorbike… the times he has had to bail him out of the sheriff's office, or the number of times he’s scraped his drunk ass off the driveway at four am. Just thinking about it causes a ball of rage in my lower stomach; in return, all he gets is a bad attitude and hate for something that happened ten years ago.

He was not the only kid who had their family ripped apart.

Dane ushers Tyler to the seat before sauntering on past behind me and hauls out the chair to plank himself heavily down. He exudes this overly confident and casual vibe no matter what he’s doing, and that alone makes me grit my teeth. Nothing ever gets through that outer ‘who cares’ attitude. He pulls his glass towards him, takes a sip, and then peruses the table with a lazy glance, seemingly unimpressed with us all.

“Are you not going to wish your father a happy birthday?”

And so it begins.

I hate conflict like this. My mom doesn’t even give him a second to settle, tension crackling in the air around her with her snappy tone, and the steak in my mouth suddenly feels like I’m chewing ash. Churning up my stomach as my nerves tighten, and for once, I wish my mom would leave it alone.

“Yeah…. happy getting older…. power to you,” Dane smirks his dad’s way, with no sincerity, and Bryan nods with a half-smile as if to say thank you. Dane waits until he sees Tyler being served food before he starts to dig in, obviously done with his well wishes. I shake my head at his lack of effort, praying my mom lets it go and stuff food in my mouth to curb the need to call him an asshole.

“Can’t you do something properly and respectfully for once?”

I sigh inwardly at her voice.

My mom could never back down and let it go where he’s concerned, just had to bite.

“He’s your father….. don't you have a gift? Something more meaningful to say?” She sits rigid, facing him and not moving to pick up her cutlery as the rest of us have. Bringing the black cloud firmly over our heads, I know there’s no rescuing this now. She’s only getting warmed up, and Dane will only get riled.

“Honey… leave it. Let’s just..” Bryan interjects but is immediately cut off.

“The gift is my presence….. you want me to say something heartfelt… I’m not sure you would like what I have to say.” Dane snorts and doesn’t look her way but leans in and stuffs food in his mouth, unphased by the audience, the bad atmosphere, or the way my mother is scowling like he’s a demon child sent from hell to make her life miserable. He chews loudly.

“No… please… let's hear it. I really want to know what you have to say to your father on his birthday.” My mother snaps, tone frosty and eyes glued to Dane. “Waiting with bated breath for your words of wisdom at the ripe old age of seventeen.”

My food becomes a lump in my throat, and I stare down at my lap to count to ten, so I keep my mouth shut. Anger is growing, and that inner ache of utter contempt that I carry with me whenever I share air space with this idiot. I curse the day he moved in here and made this my everyday life. The past six months have felt like six years.

I am also mortified that my mom is doing this in front of Tyler and Elisa when she doesn’t even know Tyler at all. That Dane is being this shitty once more.

My mom is normally a stable and warm person who has been my rock my whole life, but he brings out the absolute worst in her. I never thought my mom could hate a person, given she’s a doctor and people lover, yet Dane is the exception. From the second he walked in here with cases in tow, they have butted heads.

“Maybe I should go and take Ummm…….” Tyler interrupts and glances across at Elisa, who has further sunk into her hair because she is awful with drama. “Cousin It, with me.” He frowns, seemingly confused about her name or maybe even her identity, and I glare at him with a snapping head turn.

“Her name is Elisa, don’t be a jerk.” I huff at him, incensed at the Addams family reference.

Dane snort laughs under his breath at Tyler’s insult to my friend, so the impulse to use my fork to stab him in the leg becomes almost unbearable.

“It’s fine, eat. We will be going soon as we’re done.” Dane waves at him to pick his cutlery back up, uncaring about this train wreck atmosphere or my mom’s sarcasm, and my mom explodes. Like a time bomb that’s been ticking away since he walked in the door.

“Why are you like this? Why do you always make things this way? Do you enjoy seeing me angry and causing all of this? I have tried to include you ever since I brought you into my home and …….” Her voice raises higher with every word.

“YOUR HOME??” Dane’s head snaps up, cutting her off with a violent response which is new for him, as he meets her focus head-on. His face falls from that smug and casual look he always wears to instant anger and despisal. Energy vibrates around him that feels like aggressive hostility, and it has the power to make me go quiet. He’s normally full of smart-ass responses and smirks, not outright yelling venom.

“This was MY home long before it was yours. My mom’s home before my father found his way into your bed….. Don’t you fucking dare sit there and act like you’re doing me any fucking favors by having me come back to my own home! I have more right to be here than you.” His voice rasps, and the tone stays loud and threatening.

“Dane. Enough!” Bryan slams his hand on the table even though his voice is calm and level, and we all jump in fright at the sudden bang. I drop my fork on the floor and tense hard, so I end up sitting stiffly and gripping the edge of my seat.

“ME? Maybe tell your wife to stop always looking for a reason to pick fights. Did I ask to come here? No…. Did I want to be forced home for dinner to pretend we all get along and play happy fucking families? NO! I did not!..... Maybe if you all butted out of my life and left me alone to get through the remainder of school, we wouldn’t have this bullshit every fucking day.” As he stands up, Dane scrapes his chair back with rage, banging the table with his fist and disrupting all the water glasses.

“Sit down, stop swearing… this is not how I raised you to handle disputes….” Bryan is trying and failing to cage his fiery son, like always. The rest of us are sitting staring at our hands with clamped shut mouths, except my mom, who is openly glaring and shaking her head at the stepson she never wanted to deal with.

“Don’t make me laugh. You didn’t raise me. Mom did. Ten years on her own while you were over here playing daddy to little miss straight A’s over here. Don’t start acting like a father now.”

I’ve had enough and know from experience that this is only starting to heat up. They will rage and row while he sasses them, and it will turn nastier once tempers fully kick in. My mom doesn’t know how to back down, and Dane is not the type to storm out of a fight. He takes it head-on and has to have the last word. Bryan won’t diffuse anything, and as usual, I will end up in my room listening to it for the next hour. I don’t need an audience for that.

“Mom, I’m taking them to the door, and I’ll eat when this is done.” It’s my turn to butt in, sliding back my chair, heart hammering in my chest like a war drum. Embarrassed to the core over this showdown. “Elisa, come on.”

I get up, gesturing to her, and then shove Tyler on the shoulder.

“You too.” I slide past him to walk them out, keeping my expression blank and holding back the tears that start swirling down in my stomach. Right now, I want to talk to my dad more than ever because living here has become so shitty I would even consider staying with him for a little while in New York. Even if he works all day and I only got to see him on weekends and was alone in his apartment most of the time. It’s got to be better than this day in and out.

I’m sick of this every time we are all in one place. I don’t need this stress in my life, or I’ll end up with a stomach ulcer.

“I know the way. I’ll take him. Go get your food and go upstairs. When you don’t eat, you get faint… your blood sugar.” Elisa rubs my arm as she moves close to whisper at me as we march out of the dining room and head for the hall without looking back. She is trying to be my little emotional support, and I love her for it. She knows how things are.

The three behind us at least have the grace to remain quiet while we leave, but I know it’s short-lived. I can almost taste the static in the air, and the tension is so thick I can practically see it. A storm is poised for the crescendo.

“It’s okay. I need air and will walk you home. Tyler, if you say a word to anyone…….” I start to warn him as we slide out of the room and close the door behind me. Keeping my voice hushed and wave a pointer finger at his tall frame.

“Cool it, okay. He's my best friend. Not a word will come from me.” He lifts his hand and crosses his fingers, making a juvenile promise before turning on his heel to walk ahead of us to leave

“Laters.”