Rebellion Project (3 page)

I’d never been more disgusted with someone in my life.

I hadn’t realized I was shaking with anger until I glanced at the woman, now fully dressed, waiting for the fight to be over so she could leave. “You’re both awful people!” I cried, snapping. A tear slipped down my cheek, but I ignored it. I noticed the woman cringed, as did my father, so I continued. “You’re cheating on Mom; the woman you made a promise to in your vows, and pledged to love. You’re shacking it up with some…some—” I bit my tongue, not wanting to say the word, but it slipped out due to my anger “—whore.”

“Lauren, watch your tongue!” Dad warned.

“Don’t turn this on me. I should be telling you to watch out for diseases, and that would only come out of the love I
had
for you. Maybe you should go to a doctor and make sure everything is in order before you try to get with another woman when Mom leaves you and this one does too.” I glanced at the woman again. She had a blank stare, as if unmoved by anything I said. Not even by me calling her a whore. “She looks like she’s done this before, judging from how comfortable she is waiting for our fight to be over.”

His eyes grew wide in shock. I had much more to say, but I didn’t want her to suffer through it all. I barely knew her, or what he told her. Maybe she didn’t even know he was married, or had a kid, much less one who would suddenly snap in front of her. I just wanted to make sure she never came back. A cruel smile curved at the edge of my lips before I turned to the woman he was having the affair with. Suddenly, she didn’t seem so comfortable.

I don’t know what came over me, other than anger, as I walked up to her. I had never been this outspoken before and I could tell it was only going to become more common. I knew that I had opened a flood gate, and no matter what I did I wasn’t going to be able to stop it now.

“Do I need to walk you out or do you have enough common courtesy to leave and never come back?” She hung her head low and walked past me. I watched her leave, but interrupted her when she stopped to say something to my father. “When I say leave and never come back, I mean for you to get out of our home and never talk to him again!” I screamed as I shooed the woman out of the house. I followed her down the stairs, even though my father was ordering me to stop, and slammed the door behind her when she finally left.

Now all that was left was confronting my father about his lies and broken rules. How ironic.

Chapter 4

Take Responsibility

I tried to control my anger while my father attempted to talk his way out of what he did, but the more he explained the more upset I became. He met the woman at an office function, who was someone else’s wife at the time. They were divorced now, but that didn’t make it any better, in my opinion. I bet it had nothing to do with the fact that she is comfortable sleeping with married men.

It was at that point he realized no matter what he said I wouldn’t listen. So he let me get everything off my chest. Little did he know, talking about it was only going to make it worse. Once he let me start questioning and pushing for information, I wasn’t going to stop. I wanted to know how he could tell me every day to follow the rules and always keep my promises to others when he was lying to me and breaking his own promise to Mom.

He didn’t seem upset that Parker and I caught him, either. He kept a deadpan look on his face, and a bored gleam in his eyes. I couldn’t be sure if it was because he thought I wouldn’t actually tell Mom, or he just didn’t feel guilty.

“How could you do this to Mom, to our family?” I spat angrily. I felt disgusted that he had done this. He lied, cheated, and tried to worm his way out. It’s sick. I glanced at Parker to see if she had anything to say, but she seemed more in shock than me.

She awkwardly stood around because she didn’t have a place to sit other than the bed, and she didn’t want to sit there because of what we walked in on. I think she was afraid of any fluids that could have ended up on the bed, or she was trying to find a nice way to leave. She had enough fighting to deal with at home between her parents and siblings. I’m sure standing here and watching my father and I have it out wasn’t how she wanted to spend her afternoon.

“Lauren, there are things you don’t understand,” he repeated. He had gotten dressed in a pair of jeans and a black shirt after I showed his
mistress
to the door. At first he demanded to know why I reacted the way I did. According to him it was out of character, and completely out of line, which sent him into another attempt to blame me for finding out about his affair. “Better yet, why are you home? You said you’d be at the library. I raised you better than to lie, Lauren,” he pointed out.

“You can’t change this topic, Dad. You cheated on Mom. You had the affair. You lied to us. How can you sit there and honestly expect me to let
you
yell at me when I did nothing wrong? You’re the liar here,” I blurted out, completely surprising my father, Parker, and me with my bluntness. I never would have spoken to my father like this before today. He would have only needed to say how he’s disappointed in me for my actions, and I would have lost my fire in an instant. Hearing that I’ve disappointed someone always makes me feel guilty. No matter what it was for or who it was. It’s the worst thing to hear, especially when I would’ve done anything to stay in my father’s good graces, but not anymore. He couldn’t guilt trip me. He couldn’t sweep this under the rug. Did he think he could get away with this? I’m sure for a while he thought he would. I could only imagine how many other times he had her over while Mom and I were out. Another wave of disgust washed over me.

There should have been tears, grief, anything else, but all I felt was anger. He had broken the rules, and clearly felt no remorse that I had caught him. Why didn’t he feel bad for what he would put Mom through? She’d be crushed.
There’s the grief.
My mom would be crushed, and there was nothing I could do to stop it.

“You can’t talk to me like that,” he stated. “I’m still your father, and you will show respect.”

“Respect?” I scoffed. “I can’t respect you after what you’ve done. I can’t believe you’ve attempted to make me feel guilty for every little thing I’ve done over the years, and then you turn around and cheat on Mom! How can you berate me for coming home early when I caught you in bed with another woman? I can’t believe you!”

“Now Lauren, calm down,” he said as he put his hands up in surrender. He offered a smile, a familiar tactic he used when I pointed out that I had done nothing wrong. He would flip it around once I was calm and say that he forgave me and we could forget about it. I never noticed until right now just how he managed to manipulate me into the daughter he wanted.

“How can you ask me to calm down? Yes, I lied, but you brought your lover here and then tried to blame it on me,” I cried as I stepped away from him. “You disgust me. How are you going to tell Mom? You can’t just hide this from her, because I sure won’t,” I stated as I placed my hands on my hips and glared at him.

“Lauren, don’t start anything you can’t control,” he warned.

“I shouldn’t lie, should I?” I questioned, silencing my father for a moment. He glared at me, and waited to see if I would say anything else. Parker stood awkwardly next to me, pulling on my shirt in an attempt to get my attention, but I wasn’t going to look away until I was sure he knew I wasn’t messing around. He was going to tell Mom, or I would.

“Lauren,” Parker said, a hint of urgency in her voice, but my father interrupted before she could tell me what she wanted to say.

“Your mother doesn’t need to know,” he stated. “You will not tell her. You’ve lied before, you can lie again.”

My jaw dropped. I stood there stunned as his words connected in my head. He wouldn’t say anything. He seemed determined to make sure I didn’t say anything either, if he could help it. I didn’t know what to say without repeating myself again, but luckily I didn’t have to because my mom’s voice broke our stare down.

“What don’t I need to know, Kyle?” I turned to see my mother turn the corner, revealing she had been listening on the other side of the wall the entire time with her arms crossed over her chest and an angry gleam in her eyes. Her usual cheerful smile had been replaced by a scowl, and from the glare she cast toward my father she already knew what he wanted to keep from her.

“Rachel,” he stated awkwardly as he tried to think of a way out of this situation. A long pause resonated through the room, which only upset my mother more, before he finally spoke again. “It’s nothing. Lauren is just overreacting.”

I turned my head so fast that my neck cracked, sending a wave of hot pain emanating from the spot. I rubbed the back of my neck in an attempt to soothe the pain as I glared at my father. He flashed me a sheepish grin when he caught my hateful glare. I couldn’t believe he lied to her face like that. If I had done that he would have grounded me.

“Lauren, tell me what happened,” my mom ordered as she shook her head in disgust at my father. She definitely already knew the truth, but had been hoping he would be honest. “Tell me the truth.”

I froze for a moment, unwilling to be in the middle of this fight, but if Dad wasn’t going to tell her, then I would. I took a deep breath to calm my nerves. I was shaking, whether from anger or fear I wasn’t sure. My mom’s eyes didn’t leave mine, and I could feel my father burning a hole in the side of my head. I was refusing to look at him. I knew I would only see him telling me once again not to tell her the truth. I warned him, and he was going to see that he couldn’t get away with this.

“Well?” she pushed, waiting for me to respond, but I was at a loss for words.

“We caught Mr. Scott and his mistress in your room, but we aren’t sure if it was before or after they did it! I’m sorry, I can’t handle it anymore. I have to go home,” Parker blurted out, giving me an apologetic look as she ran past me and out of the room. She slid past my mom, trying to avoid making eye contact with her, and quickly ran down the hall. A few seconds later the front door slammed shut. I wished I could have gone with her.

“I’m glad Parker can tell the truth. Do you want to try again, Lauren?”

“Dad is cheating on you with a woman I’ve never seen before,” I blurted out. I heard my father sigh, and saw my mom’s gaze shift to him again. “He refuses to tell you the truth because he’s trying to blame me for discovering his affair. I told him I was going to the library after school, but Parker and I really came home. We hid from him in the hall closet and then walked in on his…” I let the sentence fall, unsure whether to say girlfriend, lover, or mistress as Parker had.

“She’s lying, Rachel. She’s trying to get out of trouble because I caught her in a lie. She has no proof, and her friend will defend her,” he said, thinking he had a point. Too bad Mom had proof.

“Oh really? She’s the one lying?” my mom questioned as she pointed to a pair of lace panties on the ground.
How had the woman left without those? Maybe she dressed too quickly.
“Because those don’t belong to me.”

I glanced at my father, who was looking at the floor in shame. Looks like he’d run out of lies to tell, and he couldn’t bring himself to say the truth.

Her gaze lifted from the panties onto the floor back to my father and all I could think was,
if looks could kill
.

“I want a divorce, Kyle.” Her words came out easily, as if unaffected by the news. “I had a feeling you were sneaking around and lying about it. I even gave you a chance to come clean about it months ago and you did nothing. Not that I’m surprised, since you’re trying to get our daughter to lie to me in order to cover up your infidelity.” Her voice was level, calm, as if she was talking about something as simple as the weather. She shook her head for a moment before continuing, “I’m glad it came out like this, because otherwise you would have lied to my face one last time. I’m leaving and I won’t be coming back, and if Lauren so chooses, she won’t be returning either.” She turned on her heel and walked out of the room with her head held high.

“I don’t want either of you to leave,” my father called as my mom left the room. She either didn’t hear him or ignored him entirely.

She said that I had a choice, but in what? Does that mean I can go with her? Does it mean that she’s not upset with me for lying, and that she forgives me? I couldn’t be sure, but I didn’t want to stand around with my father and let my mother walk out without me. So I followed after her, but when I got to the door, my father called me.

“Lauren, I swear it was a one-time thing.” I could hear the sorrow in his words, but they didn’t make me feel bad for him. He did it to himself.

“It didn’t look like a one-time thing to me. Even if it was, how can I trust you after you lied to her face? I’m with her,” I stated as I walked out and shut the door behind me.

I could hear my mother crying downstairs, and felt grief wash over me as I went to find her. I followed the weeping until I found her in the laundry room, packing clothes into one of the suitcases we stored in the closet. My heart broke as I watched her suffer. Her shoulders were shaking violently, and her voice cracked with each cry. No one should have to go through this pain, especially not alone.

I tentatively reached my arms out and embraced her. My presence surprised her. She jumped back instantly and her hands automatically went to her heart in shock. She let out a deep breath before turning to me. I cringed at the sight of her tear-stained face, and the bleak look in her eyes. She was hurting, and there was nothing I could do to make it stop.

“Mom, please don’t leave,” I begged. “You shouldn’t have to leave; he should.”

She offered me a forced smile as she lightly stroked my cheek. “I can’t stay here and sleep in a bed where he had another woman, Lauren,” she said, pausing to let me absorb what she said and why it had to be this way. “I’m leaving. He wouldn’t leave this house, and I can’t stay. I know this is a shock to you, but I’ve known for a while. He wouldn’t admit it. He knew what would happen, so I’m leaving and you should come with me.”

“Are you sure you want me to go with you?”

“He’s made every choice for you growing up, Lauren. I heard Parker saying you don’t have an aspiration to be a doctor anymore, and you shouldn’t feel pressured.” She paused, and I realized that even though I tried to keep Parker quiet my mom had still heard us. I should have known she would, she always knew. Parents weren’t as stupid and ridiculous as television made them out to be. “You should have spoken up about not wanting to be a doctor. I thought you wanted to become one, but it wouldn’t have mattered to me one way or another. I want you to be happy. I want you to have a good life, that’s why I push you.”

“I was happy making you both happy,” I responded without thinking. It had become so natural after a while that the line slipped out.

“I know, honey, but it’s time to make yourself happy. I’m leaving, and you’re free to come with me, but you only have a few minutes to decide. I’m going to grab the last of what I need for tonight, and then I’m going to your grandmother’s house until everything is settled.”

“I don’t know what to do, Mom. I just don’t know.” I rarely made decisions, I let others make them for me. I hated having to choose for small things, like where to go for dinner, so how could I make a big one like this on my own?

“I’m sorry, Lauren, but this is a choice I can’t, and won’t, make for you. It’s time for you to start making your own decisions, and to do that I have to make you pick. Think about what happened, how we reacted, and what was said, then decide for yourself. Just remember that no matter what you choose, neither of us will be mad at you,” she stated as she zipped up the suitcase and walked out of the room without another word.