20. Will
20
WILL
I poured myself a drink when I got home from work and sat on the couch waiting for Abby to get home from school. I never came home this early and I knew she would be shocked to see me at home, but I had to speak with her immediately. What she did was just wrong. Using her social media platform, and the reach of her friends' platforms to make a big deal out of me dating Beth was immature.
While I completely understood that she was just a teenager and that her emotions were probably so big she didn't know how to deal with them, I was still upset. The way teens today handled things was so different from the way I was raised, and I didn't approve of it. I just wished she would talk to me instead of smearing Beth's name.
I sat there brooding, angry about the pressure Carl and the board were putting on me to terminate Beth. I hoped my mention of her public retaliation against the company for wrongful termination might dissuade them, but I couldn't guarantee it. I knew Beth wasn't selling our information but without proof of it, I couldn't shake their suspicion. Thankfully though, it meant without proof, they wouldn't move forward either. At least not quickly.
I heard the door click open and then closed, and I waited for Abby to walk around the corner and set her backpack down. My temper was in check right now, but only because I'd put some distance between myself and the situation. I shut my apps, and the past twenty minutes I spent thinking of Beth's reaction if she saw things. Placing my thoughts on how Beth would feel had given me a moment to feel compassion instead of anger, but now knowing Abby was right around the corner had me feeling tense again.
"Dad?" she said, as a question. I sat facing forward, staring at the dark television screen mounted on the wall near the hallway that led to her room. My jaw was clenched, my empty whiskey tumbler in my hand. I blinked a few times and tried to release the tension from my shoulders, but it didn't work. "What are you doing home? You're never home early?"
Abby sounded happy, almost as if she was pleased we'd get time together, and any other day under any other circumstances, I'd have been thrilled to have time to take off work and be with her. But today I wasn't happy at all. Today I felt like I had to deal with her causing trouble she never should have caused. She should have spoken to me, not resorted to this.
"Abigail, I'd like you to sit down please," I told her, and her gait slowed. The backpack dropped from her shoulder to her hand and she grasped the strap and dragged it across the floor on her way to the white leather armchair across the coffee table from me.
"Is everything okay?" she asked as she slowly lowered onto the chair, and I realized she had no idea I'd seen the posts on her socials. Or if she did, she really thought it was okay or that I wouldn't be upset by it. She blinked a few times, looking like a deer caught in headlights, and I sat up and placed the glass on the table in front of me gently.
"I'd like you to think about why I might be upset with you, and then you tell me if everything is okay." Leaning forward, I pressed my fingertips together as I rested my elbows on my knees and stared at her. She looked around and I watched her swallow hard as she dropped her backpack strap and put her hands on her knees. She sat straighter and shook her head.
"I don't know, Dad. I'm sorry? Did I do something wrong?" Abby licked her bottom lip and then bit it and blinked a few times. She wasn't playing dumb, and she wasn't acting innocent. It angered me that she really didn't understand this. That her generation truly thought defaming someone on social media was nothing to balk at.
I reached into my pocket and pulled out my phone, and risking triggering my rage again, I opened my socials and scrolled to her post, then held my phone up and showed her. Her eyes narrowed as she focused on the screen, and then I watched annoyance and anger flash through them.
She sat back and crossed her arms over her chest as she rolled her eyes and looked away. "You're upset about that?" she scoffed and I noticed the way she shook her head slightly. She could tell I was really angry, and I knew this response of hers was tempered too, so I did my best not to lash out.
"Yes, I'm upset about this." I locked my phone and put it back in my pocket, too upset to see the hateful words she put on her post.
"I don't see why. That's exactly what she's doing."
Her attitude was so brutal I almost lost control for a second. I clenched my jaw and bit back my response again, and I too, looked away. Kate would have known how to handle this. She was the master at this sort of thing, and here I was feeling helpless. Abigail had really crossed a line, and I felt powerless to correct her without shouting.
"You don't know her, and if you did, you'd know she would never do that." I turned back to her as she scoffed and half laughed.
"You're so blind, Dad. She's a horrible person. Elijah said he saw her in a tabloid and?—"
"I told you that kid was bad news." I shot to my feet, unable to stop the outburst. "That Sullivan boy doesn't know what he's talking about. He should know firsthand because tabloids talk about his father all the time. Do you think they always publish the truth? Do you think his father got three women pregnant at once?"
I was out of control and I knew it. Abby's head hung and she crossed one arm across her chest while the other hung at her side. I could see tears welling up in her eyes as she looked away, but she didn't speak. She knew I was right, that tabloids could be wrong, but that wasn't what we were fighting about.
"Abby, I want you to take them down now. Open your phone and take the posts down." Planting my hands on my hips, I glared at her and relented, letting all my anger surface. I was done trying to be the nice father. She had done the wrong thing, the most reprehensible thing I could imagine, and she needed to fix it—now.
"It's not like it didn't go viral. It has twenty thousand likes already." She stood too, rolling her eyes. "And I won't take it down. She can't just come in here and?—"
"Abigail!" I shouted, and she jumped. The minute I saw the fear in her eyes I felt like a horrible father. Tears streaked down her cheeks and she shook her head. She wasn't afraid of me, but I had startled her.
"I want to go stay with Uncle Alex over Christmas…" Her teary eyes and the hurt way she said that just upset me more. I knew we had plans to go to Boston and it gutted me that I'd upset her so much that she'd rather stay with my brother than be with me, but I was so angry I knew things would go really wrong between us if she stayed around here. "In fact, I want to go now. I can do my school online."
"Fine, go," I told her, "but take down the post first."
I watched her walk away feeling really guilty and upset. She shut herself into her room and I paced until I knew she'd had enough time to remove her post. Then I pulled out my phone and checked my socials to make sure she'd done what I told her. She had, but I had a strong sense that the damage was already done.
My heart ached for the two women I loved, and I felt desperate to find a way for them to get along. I knew Beth would have no problem seeing eye to eye with Abby, even give her more space if need be, but I didn't think Abby would ever come around.
Still I had to try. I dialed Beth's number and waited for it to ring. I held the phone to my ear as I paced, but she never picked up. It disappointed me, but I wasn't going to be too discouraged. I knew she was working, so I left a voicemail.
"Hey Beth…" I sighed. "I was thinking maybe you could come over for dinner tonight. I'd like to have a talk with Abby, and I thought maybe you'd join me and the two of you could get to know each other a little…let me know."
Frustrated, I locked my phone and walked back to the table, collected my glass, then headed for the bottle of whiskey I left sitting on the kitchen counter. One more glass wouldn't hurt, but what I really needed was to sit and process my thoughts and think about a way to reach my daughter.
As I sipped my second glass of whiskey my phone chimed. I wasn't expecting Beth to respond so quickly, but she sent a text. I swiped to answer it only for my heart to feel even more crushed.
Beth 3:15 PM: Hey Will. I'm sorry…I'm just frustrated. I think maybe we need to apply the brakes for now. Especially after what happened on social media. Please don't be upset…I just need space.
Rage surged in my chest and I wanted to scream at Abby but I couldn't. I knew she was just going through something. She wasn't handling it the right way, but she was hurting too. She was my first priority though, and while hurting Beth made me so angry with my daughter, I had to make sure she was okay first. We had to talk, because right now Beth was just asking for a break, and some space, but it could turn into something worse, something I didn't even want to think about.