“Sir,” Levi said, putting his hands up in surrender, but Dad didn’t care.

“Get in the damn car, Aria,” he ordered, wrapping his hand around my forearm, yanking me toward him.

“Ow, Dad! Let go!” I screamed. Levi stepped forward out of reflex, and Dad dropped his hold.

“Take one more step and you’ll regret it, boy. Aria, car. NOW!” He swung the passenger door open and forced me to climb inside. Within seconds he was in the driver’s seat, speeding off down the road, leaving Levi behind.

“What’s wrong with you?!” I cried, slamming my hands against his stiff arm. “I can’t believe you did that!”

“You can’t believe I did that?! Watch it, Aria, because you are this close to—”

“To what?! Pissing you off? Having you ignore me? Having you hate me? Because I’m pretty sure you’ve already done all of those things. I made one mistake, the first mistake I’ve ever made, and you decide to pretty much disown me?!”

His fingers were still gripping the steering wheel tight. “So this is your reasoning? This is why you’re skipping school, running around town with a delinquent, and acting like a goddamned five-year-old? Because I haven’t been speaking to you?! Jesus, Aria. Grow up.”

Tears streamed down my face, and I shouted, “He’s not a delinquent!”

“Bullshit, I know his father. I know the shit that goes on in Kent Myers’ house. Plus, James told me how the kid’s been harassing you at school!” What?! “They are dirt bags, and I don’t want to see you anywhere near that boy again. And, if it wasn’t already clear as fucking day, you are not allowed to date, Aria!”

He went silent and stayed that way for the rest of the ride as tears fell from my eyes.

When we pulled into our driveway, I rushed out of the truck. “I hate you!” I cried, rushing into the house past a confused Mom.

“What the heck is going on?” she asked, holding KitKat in her arms. “Aria, what are you doing here?”

I ignored her and ran to my room, slamming the door shut. I hurried to text Levi to make sure he was okay, but he didn’t reply. Even with the door shut and my own sobbing, I could still hear Mom and Dad fighting.

“What’s going on, Adam? What are you doing with Aria?”

“I found her running around town with that kid.”

“What kid?”

“Kent Myers’ son! I swear to God, I’m going to kill them both.”

They began fighting—again: Mom telling Dad that he needed to calm down, and Dad shouting that she needed to stop babying me.

“If I catch Myers’ kid anywhere near Aria again so help me—”

“You’re acting ridiculous, Adam!”

“No, Camila. You need to stop with this whole thing. You already know my thoughts on that piece of shit over there, and I am sick and tired of you acting like it’s not a big deal that our daughter is pregnant!”

“I know it’s a big deal. I’ve been dealing with the big deal while you’ve been making up excuses to never come home and reasons to never look her way. You didn’t even come home for her birthday.”

They didn’t stop for an hour. I was surprised they even still had voices.

“Whatever. I have to take Aria to her therapy appointment before I go back to work.”

“Yeah, because those are working out great. Who’s going to watch KitKat while you’re gone? I have to go back to work, too. This shit made me run hours behind schedule.”

“I’ll take her with me, okay? You just do what you do best: go away.”

The front door slammed and the house went silent.

“Aria, I’m putting KitKat in the car, meet us out there.”

After wiping my eyes, I hurried outside to the car. “Mom, I’m sorry. I can explain…”

She wasn’t interested. “We have to hurry home after your therapy appointment today, Aria,” she said as I climbed inside and buckled my seatbelt. “I’m on call at the hospital tonight and your father said he’s working late again, so I need you to watch your sisters since Mike’s at football practice.” She kept going on and on about why I had to watch Grace and KitKat, but that didn’t matter much to me. I knew she was on the edge of falling apart because she kept tugging on her ear, and I knew it was my fault. “I really didn’t want you to have to deal with watching over your sisters because I’m sure you’re so tired, but there’s just so much going on and your father isn’t making this any easier on anyone. And skipping school, Aria? Really? It’s just not…it’s not good. Plus, I need to finish the paperwork for you to be homeschooled next semester, I need to go shopping and bake cookies for Grace’s class, I need to make sure you have a way to get to your next doctor’s appointment, and, and, and—”

She took a breath before her hands flew to her face and she began to sob uncontrollably. I’d never seen Mom cry. There was something so scary and heartbreaking about watching your lifetime Superwoman fall apart in front of you. I unbuckled my seatbelt and edged closer to her, wrapping my arms around her.

Sometimes it was so easy to forget that adults were just kids in bigger bodies, and their hearts broke just like ours.

23 Levi

I was warming up some soup for Dad when there was banging on the door. When I walked into the living room, I saw Dad opening the door to Mr. Watson. Hastily, I approached the two of them.

“Keep that shit kid of yours away from my daughter,” Mr. Watson scolded.

Dad turned toward me, confusion in his stare before he blinked and a sly smile crept across his face. “Adam, it might be best if you get the hell off of my property.”

“I mean it, Kent. I know the kind of life you live over here and the last thing I need is for my daughter to get involved in this kind of thing.”

“You mean your pregnant daughter?” Dad smirked. “It seems that she’s plenty capable of getting into enough trouble without the help of my son. Now get the fuck off my property.”

Mr. Watson’s chest was rising and falling hard, his heavy breaths releasing through his mouth. His eyes moved to me standing behind Dad. “I mean it. Stay away from my daughter.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah.” Dad chuckled. “Tell Camila I said hi.”