BENNETT
I stand,shell-shocked and swimming in a sea of terror, as the door slams shut behind Maggie.
She can’t leave, not like this, notagain. I thought she’d understand, or at least give me a second to explain myself before flat out refusing. This was just supposed to make everything easier to accept for our parents, I never meant for it to be arealproposal.
The proposal I want to give her is extravagant: flowers and a gorgeous ring and a perfect date night before dropping down onto one knee. I wanted to tell her I love her, that I want to give her everything, and this is the only way I know how to. But all she heard was what I said to our parents, and she didn’t want anything to do with it. All I can do now is stand in utter terror, frozen at the thought of a life without her.
David and Hailey push out of their seats only moments after Maggie storms out, both of them rushing after their daughter without a word of goodbye.
Is that how this is going to be? They all just… leave?
I can’t lose my chance to make this right, to give Maggie what she deserves, to?—
“Good fucking riddance,” Pa spits, his voice pulling me out of my spiraling thoughts.
His temper has been bubbling beneath the surface this whole time, only showing itself for a moment when he and David were screaming at each other. He lets go of the leash now, pacing back and forth with furious, booming steps that echo off the cabinets and make the room feel so much smaller than it is.
Or maybe it’s my skin that feels like it’s shrinking down on me.
Whatever it is, I feel like I can’t fucking breathe.
“Really, with friends like that, who the hell needs enemies?” he rants, anger mounting with every step he takes. “I’ve done nothing but good for that man, tried to help him since the day I met him, and this is the thanks I get? I can’t believe that conniving son of a bitch!”
I flinch, not because I’m scared of him, but just because I’m scared in general. Everything feels like too much right now, the lights too bright, every noise too loud, my lungs aching with every breath I draw in.
“Joseph, take a second,” Ma says, firm but adoring, as she reaches out and places a hand on his shoulder. “You need to cool off.”
He stops his pacing, not pulling away from her touch, but it doesn’t seem to do much to quell his rage.
“I’m plenty cool,” he grits out. “If David wants to act like this, fine! We’ll find a new supplier, there’s plenty out there. I’ll cancel our contract with Branson, too, find another transport company. If he wants to treat me like this, treat our boy like this, I’m not giving him or his family another fucking penny!”
He continues spewing vitriol, but my heartbeat drowns out the sound of his words. I feel like I’m drowning, guilt and fearclogging my lungs and making my vision blur as I collapse into a seat at the table. I can hardly feel my lungs, and my fingers tingle with every heavy pulse of my heart.
I don’t know how long it goes on like that, Pa’s voice muffled in my ears as I try desperately to keep myself from breaking down entirely. It feels like days. It feels like seconds.
“Joseph!” Ma’s voice rings out in the kitchen, bringing me back to the present. “You need to go blow off some steam, don’t you think?”
It’s a rather loving way of telling him to fuck off for now, but it gets the job done.
His tirade comes to a screeching halt, and he looks between the two of us in frustration, nostrils flaring wide. It’s obvious he has more he wants to say, but he snaps his mouth shut at the look Ma gives him.
“We’ll sort through this and look back on this and laugh one day,” she says, which is a rather loving way of saying that we’re both being ridiculous. “Go tire yourself out, sweetheart.”
Pa snorts, but there’s no ire in it. “I doubt that, Soph. But fine, I’ll go. I’ve got plenty of work to do.”
He stomps out of the back of the house, grumbling under his breath, leaving the two of us alone. Ma doesn’t break the silence until I start fidgeting, the anxiety ramping up inside me needing somewhere to go.
“Spill.”
The single word is enough to shatter the tension in the room, somehow both fond and demanding, and I let out a broken laugh.
“I thought it was supposed to be easy,” I say, not looking up at her.
She’s quiet for long enough that I have to glance at her face. When we lock eyes, she just raises a brow at me, a silent cue to carry on.
“Not… not everything. I just—you and Pa have always made loving each other look so natural, like you couldn’t do anything else if you tried. I always wanted someone to love me like that, always wanted to love someone else like that.” I sound just as miserable as I feel, and I frown down at my hands where they rest on the table, still shaking with unease. “It feels like that with her, like she already knows everything before I even tell her, like she’s already accepted me. She’s everything I ever wanted, and I fucked it up so badly, Ma.”
Tears blur my vision again, and I clench my fingers down on the edge of the table until the wood creaks to ground myself. Ma walks over to rub a hand down my back, soothing me just like she used to when I was a kid.
