Chapter 4
LOVE OR FAMILLY
ZANDER
Being back in my hometown has been welcoming, familiar, warm in a soul-touching way. Right now, as I walk the front pathway to my childhood home, less pleasant feelings are awakening.
Dread taints the happiness in my heart. I love my parents and seeing them, but they’re not as open-minded as me. My friendship with Blair—and indirectly, Briar—is something they’ve been okay with, but never entirely supportive of.
While we live in a pretty monster-friendly town, though some of the generation before me still struggles with complete acceptance. Unfortunately, my parents are part of that group.
They’re kind people, they just think that monsters and humans are simply meant to coexist, not…do more than that. While I’ve always denied having feelings for either of the banshee twins, I think my parents have seen through the lies my whole life.
Hence, why they wanted me to go to a college in a different city. A faraway city.
I knock, and a few seconds go by before the door cracks open warily. As my mom spots me, her eyes widen, and she throws the door open, tossing her arms around me and pulling me into a tight hug.
“Zander, you didn’t tell us you were coming to visit,” she exclaims as she loosens her arms and steps back, waving me into the house.
As I step inside, I reveal my news. “I’m not here to visit—I’m actually here to stay.”
Her extended hands freeze for a second, accompanied by a brief narrowing of her eyes. I stop moving, not fully removing my jacket from my shoulders. When she gestures with her hands for me to pass her my jacket, I continue taking it off.
“Why?” she bluntly asks, hustling to put the jacket in the closet. “You still have one more year to do.”
I shake my head. “No, I graduated early, Mom. I took classes throughout the summer to fast-track the program.”
Her eyebrows rise all the way up her face, and she tilts her chin downward. “You didn’t want one more year of the college experience? You only get the opportunity once. Weren’t you having fun?”
The answer is no, I don’t want to spend any more time away at a school where I don’t care about anyone. I was not having fun. I was missing this little town. I was missing my friends.
Most of all, I was aching for Briar.
The distance only made me realize just how deeply rooted my feelings are. They have instilled themselves into my very veins. I don’t want the adventures; I have zero desire for them.
I only want them if I can experience them with Briar.
“I enjoyed the learning part more.”
Her lips thin and she takes a deep breath, shaking her head as she releases a grumbly sigh. “And you didn’t want to stay in the city?”
I follow her into the living room, where my dad sits in his usual old green armchair. He has one ankle resting across his opposite knee, a newspaper between his hands. His glasses have slid down his nose, and his gaze darts above the thin silver frames to look at me.
“So, you finished college early and moved back here for what, that banshee girl?”
He’s always seen right through me. We were inseparable until my teens—father-son fishing trips, camping weekends away, random onetime classes.
When I was fifteen, he asked me straight up if I had feelings for Briar. I remember it perfectly. You don’t like that banshee girl, do you? The monster girl?
We were in a city four hours away for a weekend convention. There was no way for me to avoid answering. His voice lacked any of his regular enthusiastic peaks and valleys. I knew he didn’t approve. Monsters can be friends, but humans should stay with humans.
I didn’t answer him then. We stood there staring at each other, the silence speaking volumes. Now, though, I’ll answer him.
“Yes. Wherever she is, that’s where I want to be.”
My mother lets out a sigh behind me. “I always hoped you would end up with a human girl and lose the monster fascination.”
“We let you hang around that Blair too much. Maybe less time would’ve made you less curious.” My dad’s dissatisfaction rests in the now-folded newspaper in his lap.
To say my blood is boiling would be an understatement. This is the reaction I expected, though, so I’m also weirdly reassured. I know my parents well, and while I’m disappointed, I’m not surprised.
With no waver in my voice, I say, “I hope you’ll come around one day so that you can meet her. She’s the most wonderful woman I’ve ever met.” I turn around, ready to leave without saying one word more.
My dad isn’t done, though, of course not. There’s always more to say. Ever since that damned convention in Bresburrow.
He’s never spoken to me the same. That weekend was the last time I heard any enjoyment in his tone…at least toward me.
When I look over my shoulder, he’s actually gotten out of his chair. “Zander, you would really damage your relationship with us over a monster?”
“If you would let your son finding happiness damage your relationship with him, then yes, I guess I would. But I’m not the one doing any damage here—you are.
Both of you.” My jaw feels so tight from clenching that each word hurts on a different level as they come out. “And she’s a woman, not a monster.”
He continues to spout off whatever nonsense, but not a single word registers in my brain as my feet lead me out the door. Damage has definitely been done to my relationship with them—more so my father—but it wasn’t damage at my hands.
It was his.
Damage that I doubt he’ll ever take responsibility for.
They may be stuck in the past, but I’m not. I can see my future very brightly, and her name is Briar.
I just hope that eventually, even if it’s years down the line, that they come around. It would be a real shame if we were to have kids and they let their outdated opinions keep them from seeing their grandchildren.
It’s tragic that they won’t even be meeting Briar anytime soon. Oh well, there’s no sense in worrying about something I can’t change. They have to want to.
And all I want to do is tell Briar my feelings.
Now, how will I make this the shortest game of pretend ever?