Chapter Text
Hank was late picking me up for school again.
It was such a common occurrence that I don’t know what I was thinking, waiting out on the front steps like this. Even with my hood pulled up, the light drizzle still found a way to gather directly onto my hair, which I had actually left loose around my shoulders for once. So much for that. With one more look both ways down the quiet street, I hefted my backpack onto one shoulder before turning to go back into the townhouse. I stopped at the mirror just inside the foyer, so I could keep one eye out front in case he pulled up, then scraped my hair back into its usual bun.
I didn’t waste a lot of time looking at my reflection, just long enough to make sure I didn’t leave any stray pieces of hair on the nape of my neck and that I left all my fringe out to (hopefully) cover up some unfortunate forehead acne. My mother always scolded me that having bangs in my face was the cause of the acne in the first place, usually following it up by trying to push a headband or barrettes on me.
Thoughts of Giselle so early in the morning wasn’t a good sign for the rest of the day, so I pushed it down inside my mind and tried to distract myself by glancing at what I could see of the kitchen from my lookout spot by the door. It was filthy. Somehow I hadn’t noticed that until now, but then again I tend not to notice a lot of glaringly obvious stuff that early in the morning. Hank must had gotten home from the gym so late that he hadn’t wanted to wake me with cleaning sounds. It was sweet of him, until I realized that meant it would all still be there for me when I got home from school. There was literally zero chance that he would stop back at the house after dropping me off at school before going back to work, probably until the late hours of the evening. Again. This was in addition to leaving before I woke up so he could work for a couple hours before taking a break to give me a ride. I take the bus home in the afternoon, and I’m pretty sure he only picks me up in the mornings so he could confirm that his offspring was indeed still alive before he continued on ignoring me. It walked the line of bare minimum parenting effort, but there was food in the fridge when I needed it and none of my tuition checks had bounced yet, so altogether CPS wouldn’t be breaking down the door anytime soon.
Two short honks startled me out of my thoughts, and I jerked my head towards the window to see a familiar car out front. I gave a stiff wave to acknowledge that I’d seen him, before pulling up my hood again to prepare for the elements. Carefully locking the door behind me (Hank never remembered, and I was pretty sure we were both going to die in our sleep some day,) I made my way down the front steps and slid into the front seat of the vehicle. My father turned his tired face towards me and smiled.
“Is this a shuttle service?” I deadpanned. “My father was supposed to pick me up, but I’ve never seen you before in my life.” In truth, I hadn’t seen him since Saturday evening, and it was now Tuesday morning. He laughed at the joke, but it was a little too close to home to be entirely without bite.
“It’s nice to see you too, kiddo”, he chuckled, reaching out with one hand to ruffle the top of my hair, while the other flicked on the turn single to pull away from the curb.
“How are you, Dad?”, I asked as the car started moving again. The word Dad felt awkward and clumsy as I said it, he was always just Hank to me. Hank and I had never had a very nurturing relationship, but sentiment was in short supply these days and I thought we could both use some in light of recent events.
He sighed. “Good, fine,” he muttered as he checked his blind spot. “Busy as usual.” I zoned out as he droned on about the logistics involved with running a gym almost single handedly. Hank had plenty of help, from my perspective. The problem was letting go of the reigns a little bit to actually let someone else do something. I understood though, I was a perfectionist too. You could never guarantee that something was done to your standards unless you did the damn thing yourself. Hank ran a pretty popular local gym called Titans, a stereotypical bodybuilder hangout. He was looking to expand to some fitness classes too, and had hired a young twenty something named Petra to handle what he called the “chick stuff”. The business was doing well, but Hank was never going to be a rich man. That’s why he had gotten in the habit of working such long hours, so every possible penny could be returned to his family. Now that our expenses had decreased dramatically, I couldn’t tell if he kept working them out of habit, or just to avoid being in a home that must still seem unfamiliar to him after all these years.
A hand being waved in front of my face brought me back into the conversation. “Annie,” my father repeated, “I’ll probably be late again tonight kiddo. Do you want me to bring home anything for you to eat?”
I sank back into my seat. “I’ll be asleep, Dad. I have school tomorrow, I try to go to bed at 10.” I said flatly. I knew I was being unfair, how would Hank know what time I normally went to bed. The odds of us spending more than six hours under the same roof on any given day were very low.
“Alright,” he nodded, “I’ll just put something in the fridge for you. Maybe you can eat it tomorrow. Do you need anything so you can get your own dinner tonight? I can always call and have a pizza ready for you when you get home. Or do you want cash? You could go out, grab a friend and get a bite to eat?”
What I really wanted was for this conversation to be over. “I had pizza yesterday.” I said, as the school came into view. “If you leave me twenty bucks, I can stop at the store on the way back to the house and get groceries for a few days.”
I busied myself unzipping my backpack and shuffling around papers that I already knew were perfectly organized. What I didn’t want to say was that I had no one to eat with, and no idea even where to go. The last time I had been out to a restaurant was beginning of May, and now it was two weeks into September. Mom had taken me out for sushi after shopping for my prom dress. I didn’t remember how it tasted, only how disappointed Giselle had been that no one had asked me yet.
The lump was rising in my throat again, so I kept my hand trained over the door handle, ready to jump out as soon as the car stopped moving. Hell, maybe before it stopped moving. I probably wouldn’t even need to tuck and roll at two miles per hour. Freedom was almost at hand when I felt a hand rest on my shoulder, holding me in place. “Annie.”
When I turned, I was surprised at the hurt look in my father’s eyes. I didn’t think I had been that surly on the drive, maybe his feelings had been hurt by my daydreaming while he was speaking to me. That didn’t usually bother him though, he knew I liked to be alone with my thoughts most of the time and was good about giving me space. “Annie, “ he said again, “ Are you...is everything okay? I know you’re not in as many activities this year, but it’s not too late to get back into something. If you’re bored at home, we can always find a dance class, or maybe another music lesson? The money isn’t a problem..” I tried pulling the handle of the door, but the car was still locked.
“It’s fine.” I interrupted. “I’m fine. I don’t mind being alone after scho-”
The loud sound of my father smacking the steering wheel, which inadvertently honked the horn, stopped me from whatever I had been saying. Hank Leonhart was not a very intimidating man, of average height and build, but right now his presence filled the whole car. “Dammit Annie!” he cursed, but I got the feeling it wasn’t directed entirely at me. “You’ve moped around all summer and I let it slide because...but now you’ve dropped almost all your after school activities so you can just go home and shut yourself away. It would be one thing if you had quit dance and tennis to spend more time with your friends, but you never bring anyone around. You’re sixteen, you deserve to have a life!”
I didn’t have anything to say after Hank’s outburst, and just let the silence settle back around us. Twenty dollars was gently tucked into the hand I had clenched around my seat belt, an unspoken apology for what had just happened. I kept my eyes straight ahead and whispered “I’m going to be late.”, as I hit the power unlock and freed myself from the car. My desire to avoid confrontation was almost strong enough to slink away like this conversation never happened, but not quite. So before closing the door I spun around and spat out “See you when we do this again in 24 hours.”
I didn’t turn quick enough to miss the sadness in my father’s eyes, and I dwelled on it all the way into the building.