“Your mother is very excited about your visit,
Cassie.” Oh! Goody. It was time for, my don’t-hurtyour-mother’s-feelings lecture.
but he was ignoring me. I couldn’t blame him. He
probably had to put up with this mood for the past
week.
“Does that mean you’re not excited to see me?”
Dad parked right in front of her so I couldn’t avoid
the hug. Her mouth was moving before I even
opened my door. “You are an evil man.” He just
smiled.
He winced. “Why must you always be a smart-ass?”
“I get it from my father.”
He grinned, but kept looking at the road. That was
what I liked about my dad; he could take a joke. He
was turning fifty this year. It looked good on him. He
was a health nut, so he stayed trim and his hair only
had a fine spray of grey peppered through it. On the
whole, he was a lot easier to take than Mom; she was
just too emotional.
“I suppose you do get it from me. Just don’t tell your
mother I admitted to it.” He turned to me to make
sure I was paying attention. “My point is that you
know how your mother is. She gets all these ideas in
her head about how it is going to be when you come
home, not taking into account reality, and then when
things fall apart, so does she. I’m only asking for you
to give me one night of peace with no fighting. You
can break her heart tomorrow.”
“Oh, I was worried. I thought you guys got lost or
something.” She grappled onto me like I might float
away.
Don’t use sarcasm as your first words. 1, 2, 3,
ahhhhhh! “Hey, Mom, long time, no see.”
“Oh, Cassie, we are going to have so much fun this
weekend. I am so glad you decided to spend the
holidays with us.”
Yeah, like I had a choice. “I wouldn’t miss turkey day
with the family.” See, Dad, I can play nice.
“I wasn’t sure. You haven’t visited for so long.”
Come on, I am only human. “Well, you do come into
the city every day, Mom. You can visit me, you
know.”
“Yeah, ‘cause Mom never starts anything.”
The muscles in his jaw tightened. He was pissed
already and we weren’t even home. “I never said your
mother was a saint, Cassandra; I am just asking you to
rise above and bite your tongue.”
“Can’t; my piercing is in the way.” I stuck my tongue
out at him, displaying the shiny stud that pierced my
tongue.
This had to be a record; we hadn’t even left the
driveway and we were already fighting. “Cassandra
Elaine, you know how I feel about that school. You
just don’t understand.” She looked hurt, but I knew
better. A good defense was Mom’s motto and she was
a champion at it.
“I understand that I am going to be a witch for the
rest of my life so you better get used to it.”
He didn’t say anything, just gripped the steering wheel
a little harder. I actually hadn’t wanted the tongue
piercing. Lena talked me into it. I had all these
nightmares of infection and sepsis spreading to my
brain. The look on my dad’s face was worth every
minute. I thought about telling him about my other
piercings, but I had to save something for Mom.
When we finally pulled into the driveway, Mom was
outside waving like a mad woman. Dad had not been
exaggerating. In fact, I think he undersold her mood a
little bit. I looked to my father for a little bit of help,
She started to tear up. I wanted to roll my eyes, but I
caught my father glaring at me. “You can really be
ugly sometimes, Cassandra.”
“Look, Mom, I don’t want to fight with you. Let’s just
drop it.”
“I can’t. I know I should come see you, but those
kinds