Chapter Thirty Two
The weather outside matched his mood perfectly. It was gray and stormy, the sound of thunder crashing and the rain falling reaching his ears. He was sitting on the couch, bent forward, head perched on his hands as he stared blankly at the TV.
“Hey, you okay?” A voice called, interrupting him from his own self pity. He looked up and offered her a weak smile, patting the spot beside him on the couch. Once she took the offered seat, he draped his arm around her shoulders, drawing her in closer.
“Where’d I go wrong, Kel?” Joey asked, sighing softly. The events of the last few months weighed heavily on his mind as he tried and tried again to figure out what he’d screwed up in order for his daughter to act as she did.
“Don’t you blame yourself Joey,” Kelly admonished. “I don’t understand what’s wrong with Brianna, myself. We gave her everything she could ever want, we gave her all the attention she could ever need, and there wasn’t a child that was more loved than she was,” she reminded him.
“I know that,” he said softly. “But don’t you think that’s where we went wrong? Surely it wasn’t good to give her everything she wanted. Now if she doesn’t get something, she just takes it, you know?”
Kelly shrugged. “There have been plenty of children who were treated the same and they act nothing like Brianna, Joey. Some kids are just different than others, you know? Maybe this is just a stage she”“
“I’m ashamed of my daughter. I’m ashamed and I’m embarrassed. How many fathers do you know that say that about their children?” Joey asked, sounding like a broken man. “It kills me to hear the things she’s done. Absolutely kills me. I try so hard not to believe the nasty things I hear but deep in my heart, I know they’re true.”
With a soft sigh, Kelly nodded. She was feeling much the same way. News of their daughter’s er… extra-curricular activities had reached their ears, as news often did. While choosing to believe at first that the stories had been false, it wasn’t long before they could no longer deny it.
“I don’t know what to do anymore, Kel. I just don’t know what to do,” he told her, dropping his head to his hands once more. “I just don’t know what to do.”
~*~
It was much later that afternoon when Abbi trudged down the stairs sadly. Although she’d been awake for some time, she was too upset with her mother to come down at the time. She thought it was unfair that she had been admonished so harshly for the events that had panned out the previous night. After all, she wasn’t the one who threw the punches, now was she?
She stepped into the living room, frowning when she saw her father with her stupid old brother. “Where is mommy?” She asked.
Looking up from the TV, JC offered Abbi a sweet smile. He’d been wondering where she was, though had been warned by Jen before she left that Abbi was NOT a happy camper.
“She took Julie somewhere. To get new shows, I think.”
“She didn’t ask me to go,” she scowled, hopping onto the couch beside him, inwardly seething.
“Well, she said you were too busy pouting.”
“I was not pouting!” She said, a distinct pout on her lips.
“I don’t know… sure looks like you’re pouting now,” he told her, hard pressed not to smile. She simply glared up at him.
“Daddy… I want to sit on your lap,” she informed him suddenly, moving to push Jack out of the way.
“Hey, hey! Not right now, baby. I’m holding your brother.”
“No,” she pouted. “Daddy… I want to sit in your lap,” she whined. Stupid old Jack. He was always getting in the way!
“You heard me, Abbi. You’re going to hurt Jack. Keep it up and you’re going to have to take yourself upstairs for the rest of the afternoon,” he told her seriously. Getting off of the couch, she stomped out of the room angrily.
“I’ll go upstairs anyway! I don’t wanna be around you an’ that dumb old baby anyway!” She told him haughtily before heading up the stairs. With a shake of his head, JC turned his attention back to the TV. No use in arguing with her now.
~*~
When Jen got home later that afternoon with Julie, she hurried straight to Jack. She hadn’t wanted to leave her son, but she knew Julie could probably use some time away. “How was he?” She asked, lifting Jack from her husband’s arms, leaving him to scowl at her.
“Don’t you trust me alone with my son?”
“Not really, no. How was he?” She repeated, cooing over her little boy. She gave him a smile when he opened his big blue eyes.
“He was fine! Abbi, on the other hand…”
She looked over at the sound of her daughter’s name. “Abbi? Is she okay?”
“She’s jealous,” he told her. She got angry because I was holding Jack and not her and then she stomped upstairs. I’ve not been up to talk to her yet,” he told her.
“I should probably go ta”“
“No, I’ll do it,” Julie offered. “I’ve been in her situation, I can relate. I’ll go talk to her,” she said, and with that, she was heading up the stairs to sort things out with her sister.
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