118: Leaving the Nest (Marie)

       "Don't let him in, Mom!" I exclaim as I enter the house.

       "Who?" she asks, looking worried at my devastated face.

       "Any of them!" I scream back as I head to my room. It's then I remember my 'room' is now in the detached part of the house. I don't want to go out there even to dash to my room. 

       I run to all the outside doors and lock them. Andy was hot on my tail after I took the rowboat by myself to get to the river's edge. He'll be here any second.

       He's no better than his lousy brother! I'm sure he knew good and damn well the likelihood that we'd find what we ended up finding at the ruins. I wouldn't be too shocked to find that he orchestrated the whole thing. He saw how serious Dawson and I were getting.

       Sure enough, Andy knocks on the front door. I walk over to talk to him through the window. Well, yell actually. "Go away!"

         His voice sounds muffled as he says, "What did I do?"

        "You knew what we'd find!" I yell again as I feel the curiosity oozing out of my mother. "Yet you still brought me out there!"

        "Marie, let me in so we can talk about this like sensible adults." he says calmly.

        Oooo, you bastard! "I'm not feeling very 'sensible' at the moment! I'm too busy being totally pissed off!"

         "Fine then!" he yells back, and a passerby starts and turns to look at him before quickly getting that 'this is none of my business' look to them. In my peripheral vision I see Dad walk down the staircase. "But you know that I tried to stop you!"

        "Oh yeah right! You came over to tell me about it, you know me, you knew I'd immediately go and investigate!"

         "You would've found out anyway!" he yells back. Then his voice is quieter as he says, "Marie, please come out here and talk to me if you won't let me come in there. I could hardly sleep last night for worry about what he was up to." He leans against the window and looks me in the eye.

        "Go home, Andy." I say, shaking my head no. "I don't want to talk to anybody right now." I feel my lower lip trembling as I stand here and try not to cry.

        Dad has walked over now. He asks, "What is it, Baby? What's going on?" He eyes Andy suspiciously. Andy takes a step back. 

         Yeah, you'd better run if you get my Daddy pissed off, asshole! For the millionth time in my life, I wish my dad was really my dad in truth.

        "It's a long story, and I'll tell you when I've calmed down, but for now, he needs to leave." I say, pointing to Andy.

         "I think you'd better do as the lady requests, young man." Dad says with his arms folded in a commanding stance. Andy turns around and leaves.

         I wilt visibly and throw myself on the couch in tears. Mom is on me in seconds, and she pulls me into a hug as I continue to cry. I know they're both dying to know what is going on, but they don't want to force anything out of me either.

        I realize I'm not going to stop crying any time soon, so I decide to just tell them as well as I'm able.

         "Dawson is... was cheating on me... with Cristina... right in front of me... at the ruins. I beat the crap out of her, but it was her that Dawson comforted after the fight. Of course, I also gave him a hard right hook as well." I pause as I catch my breath a little. "I don't want anything to do with any of them any more! No more! Not Armand the Ass. Not Andy the Asshole, nor Dawson the Dickhead!" Mom hugs me tightly, and I know she understands completely. Dad does too, in a way, but Mom has seen all sides of this situation. "What should I do, Mom?" I turn my tear-stained face to her.

         "Well, if you think you can successfully push them away, I say do it. Unless, Marie, do you love any of them? I mean really love them." she answers and asks.

        I sniff and say, "I can imagine my life without all of them. Dawson hurts the worst though."

        Dad speaks up as he asks, "What exactly happened?"

        I explain to him about Andy coming over and telling me about Dawson and Cristina getting more-than-friendly at a family dinner last night --  a family dinner that I wasn't invited to, and he'd been worried. Then I tell them how we went to the ruins on the island and I heard the two of them talking before Cristina threw herself at him and he didn't do much to try and stop her. "In fact, he was enjoying it." I say, and we hear a knock at the door.

         It's Ben. Dad gets up and lets him in.

        "Hey, what gives? Why was I locked out?" he asks, sounding hurt.

        Dad explains that we weren't locking him out, and, placated, he trots off to his room. My parents and I sit here quietly. Mom looks worried while Dad looks thoughtful.

        Dad speaks first, "Marie, you can't keep the doors locked against them forever, and I doubt we've seen the last of them."

        "I know. And I know that as soon as Armand hears about this, he'll be bothering me as well." I sigh. "If only I could just escape. I can't stand it here anymore." I say wistfully.

       Dad blinks a few times, winces, and says, "There's nothing stopping you if you really want to."

       I turn to him and say, "Dad, I have no money."

       Mom pipes up, "What good is all that money from the sale of the bar if we can't use it to help you? We can give you a hefty amount to start on -"

        "And I can search around to see if you can get a job somewhere, doing anything respectable. Let me go to the station tomorrow, and I'll see what I can find." Dad finishes and looks at Mom.

       "I don't suppose it matters, even if I wind up a maid somewhere. It'll be away from them."

       Dad nods. "It's settled. You sleep in your old room tonight, and we'll make preparations tomorrow."

       "But... who will help Mom with the baby when it gets here?" I ask.

       "Hello?" Dad asks with his arms spread and a smile on his face. "Me."

       "And I think I know how to do it alone if I have to, Marie. I've done it before." Mom says almost sarcastically, but there's a small smile on her face as well.

       "I've had enough. I'm going to bed." I eventually say, and I walk off to my old room holding my head in my hand. I cry myself to sleep.

      Daddy comes home from the station tomorrow with a smile on his face. I haven't been bothered today at all, and for that I'm grateful. I've stuck to Mom like glue, and she doesn't appear to have minded.

      "Well, I have several for you to choose from." Dad says with a very self-satisfied grin on his face.

       We go through my impressive list of choices, and my attention is drawn to the idea of living on a tropical resort island and have a job as a waitress in a bar. The owner is a friend of a lawyer friend of Rodney at the station. Somehow, it got around to even Dad that this bar owner needs a new waitress. Talk about out-sourcing! Still, that could work. Plus, Dad said I could try to start up a Sim Fu class at the local gym as well. Wow. Me a trainer? I guess I am a black belt.

       So, it's settled. I'm going to Sunlit Tides and become a waitress at a bar called The Flamingo. For a while, Dad says I'm going to live in a weekly rental place, and search for a house or apartment once I'm there. Dad offered to come with me to help, but I told him I could handle it, especially with that lawyer guy helping. I think Dad was trying to hide the fact that he started tearing up at the thought of me leaving when he said that.

      "Dad, this is a good idea." I say quietly before he pulls me into one of his papa-bear bear hugs. "I'll be okay." I say.

       So, a few days fly by. Dawson never comes to speak to me. Andy argues with me a few times, and I tell him off after getting Daddy's help to get him to leave me alone. On the night before I'm scheduled to leave, Armand comes knocking on the door. I sigh resolutely and walk out on the front porch.

       He immediately starts up. "What the hell, Marie?! You're leaving?"

       "Yes." I answer simply and fold my arms.

       Out of nowhere, his arms are on my shoulders as he looks at me desperately and says, "Please don't leave! And you were going to leave without saying goodbye? I only just heard about what happened with Dawson today.. at the same time I heard you were leaving! No!" He jerks me to him and holds me to him in a desperate fashion.

       Armand, why do you have to be this way? I firmly push off from him.

      "Where are you moving to?" he asks with that same desperate expression.

      "Sunlit Tides."

      "That far away?"

      "Yes."

      "Why?!"

      "I have to leave, Armand."

      "You have to leave... me?" he asks. "Me too?"

      "Yes."

    "Fine." he says angrily. "I'll never understand you, Marie." He walks off with a calculating expression.
       That was too easy. What is he thinking?

      "Armand?" I ask.

      He turns around with his eyebrows raised.

      "Don't do it. Whatever you're planning. Don't do it."

     "Who says I'm planning something?" he asks, looking thoroughly pissed off. Then he turns around and walks away.

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