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🔒[This is a private post. Only friends can see it]
Obviously I miss how things used to be but if I’m being honest even before she went missing things were getting…weird.
Dess was getting more and more distant, even from me and she would get really upset really randomly.
One day, she came home and she STOMPED all the way into her bedroom and I heard a huge slam. I was in my bedroom. I don’t remember what I was doing, probably playing Cat Petters (thanks sis, you ruined my high score XP) but I remember getting up to check on her. Dad had already come down to calm her so I just stood at the age of my door to calm her.
“Whatever it is bothering you, you’ll get to resolving it if you use words.”
“SHUT UP. I didn’t ask for your help. I don’t want your help. I just want to be left alone!” She kicked what I think was her flute.
Mom came down at this point. “Is that any way of talking to your father?”
I used to think when Mom came into a situation it was over but lately Dess had been challenging that assumption. I admired her for it, was envious of it, but also…I hate saying this but I wish she had just shut up.
“I said what I said! He should leave me alone! And you should definitely leave me alone!”
“This whole world will freeze over before I let you get away with that attitude. I don’t know what’s gotten into you but it ends now. I didn’t raise this disrespectful heathen as my daughter.” She grabbed the flute and waved it at Dess. “Like this, you don’t treat the gifts we gave you like they’re trash. You’re even more disrespectful to what we’ve given you than you are to us.”
Dess smirked and patted the flute like it was a puppy. “I’m sowwy Mr Flute I didn’t mean to hurt your pwecious feelings.” She said in this nonsense baby voice.
“DECEMBER!” Mom yells in this weird way. It’s not even like she’s yelling, she's just making her voice boom. She’s rarely used it with me but thinking of how she said December still gives me chills. “If you aren’t going to show the barest amount of respect then you can just lose your right to use it.”
“TAKE IT! TAKE ALL OF IT! I DON’T GIVE A SHIT ABOUT THE SHIT YOU GIVE ME!”
“Then I’ll take it. All of your stuff goes down in your basement tonight. All of it. Your cds, your computer, your equipment, your guitar.”
“Don’t-don’t take the guitar.”
“If you’re going to get upset about it you should’ve reconsidered your behavior beforehand.”
“Don’t take it. I’m not staying in this room if you take it. I’m not staying in this house if you take it.”
“Fine. Sleep on the porch if it matters so much to you.”
“I will!” She yelled as she stormed downstairs.
I think my dad was starting to get nervous because he called down to her, “Dess, honey, don’t. It’s freezing.”
“I don’t care.”
He turned to my mom. “You have to stop her.”
Mom doesn’t even look up as she starts gathering all her things. “Please Rudy, she’s just being dramatic. She’ll come back inside after a few minutes.”
“No, I won’t!” Dess yelled.
Dad looks really nervous. “Please honey, you know how she is. She wants to prove a point. You’re the only one she sometimes listens to, and you can’t let her do this.”
“If she only listens to me that means you have been doing something wrong.”
I don’t blame Dad for being so scared. I also wasn’t really sure Dess would come back inside even if it was really freezing. He walked downstairs and met Dess at the doorway and then with all the authority I think he could muster he said, “December Holiday, I demand you come inside!”
Dad doesn’t really yell. He rarely even raises his voice. He doesn’t sound like mom, all cool and authoritative. He just sounded worried.
I couldn’t see Dess too well from where I was peaking but it looked like she just laughed at him. Oh my god. I know Dad must have come off a little silly like that but she laughed.
Then he just hugged her. He hugged her for a really long time, he didn’t let go even when she tried to pull away. Something must have shifted because Dess walked back upstairs. Mom was standing at her doorframe with a trash bag full of her things and the two just glared at each other.
Dess walked into her room and I didn’t hear from her again for the rest of the night. When Dad came upstairs it looked like he had been crying (also I’m pretty sure he noticed me peaking oops). But no one talked to each other for the rest of the night or really much the next morning.
I was never scared of Dess because I knew she would never hurt me. She went out of her way not to. It hurts to say it but Dess was scary sometimes. Mostly I think I was just scared for her.
In a way I was right to be.