Firefly

51: search parties

Chapter 51: search parties.

Elena

10:00 pm. 

I've been out for 20 hours. 

I gear down to neutral, kill the ignition, kick the stand and park my mother's bike right in front of the garage. Twirling the ring of the key in my hand, I walk inside the already unlatched door of my house. 

Both Dylan and my father's heads snap in my direction. "Don't bother, she returned," Dylan says into the phone he has pinned to his ear. He hangs up, throws his phone on the coffee table, and strides to me after jumping off the couch. Before I escape, he catches me and pinches my cheeks as he takes a sniff. "No alcohol. Saved yourself some respect." 

"Dylan." 

My father's voice comes in a flying warning as I shove my brother's chest away from me. 

I hear the front door shut. My father locks it and stands with crossed arms. "Where were you?" He asks me in the same low voice. 

"Riding around," I answer without meeting his gaze. 

Dylan insultingly laughs. "Be vaguer. It's not like we've spent the last 20 fucking hours searching for you." 

I throw him a grimace. "I didn't want to be found." 

He returns the grimace. "Well, you did a pretty good job at it then." 

I scoff turning to him. "Gee, I was about to take a DNA test but look, we're both so good at running away from our homes, I don't think I need proof anymore. You are my so-called brother."

Before Dylan reacts, my father clears his throat. He loses the contact he made with my gaze when his eyes turn judgy. He takes steps closer to us. But the nearer he comes, the faster I lose hope. 

"I do not want to come in the middle of your fight but this is getting out of hand." He pulls a chair from the dining table, turns it around, and sits facing my brother and me. "I expect the two of you to behave as the adults you rightfully look like, but at this point, it's embarrassing. Even for me." 

His hands cross in front of his chest. He sits maintaining a straight posture. Straight back, straight jaw, and a straight face. His legs cross with each other as he exchanges glance between Dylan and me.  

"Why is this not being solved?" My father demands. 

"She likes sympathizing with her misery." Dylan mocks me. 

I eye him before my face turns to dad with the this-is-exactly-why look. "The misery he put me in." 

He coughs. "Correction. The misery that she put herself in." When I turn to him, he's eyeing me with a tightened jaw. "You need to stop blaming me and let this go." 

"Let this go?" I reconfirm as I take steps toward him. "You just erased a person from my life without my consent. If you knew how it felt, you'd have never said that. You don't know what it feels like when someone snatches away an important person from your life, and you lie there, helpless and vulnerable because you can't do anything about it." 

His pursed lips tug higher. "As a matter of fact, I know exactly what it feels like to have the most important person snatched away from me. I have you to thank." 

My eyes widen in terror as I stumble back taking the hit of the blame he dropped on me. Guilt reddens his face before my father slaps him across his cheek. 

Dylan adds space between my father and himself as he holds his cheek. "Repeat your words and I won't hold back from hitting you again." My father rolls back the sleeves of his shirt to his elbows. "You're my son but don't ever think I'm going to let you talk to my daughter like that."