The Lycan’s Little Rebel

Chapter 2: Adapting

Nolan’s POV

“Sooo”, my mom started as she headed into the dining room, a jug of orange juice and a glass cup in her hand. “How was Ridgewood? I haven’t been there in so long”, she chirped, setting the jug down in the middle of the table and the glass cup beside me.

She settled down on the opposite side of the six seater squared table.

I nodded once, picking up my fork from the napkin. “The same as you left it eight years ago”, I said, barely above a whisper. There was a brief moment of silence. I avoided looking up at her. Twirling some spaghetti on my fork, I took a bite, savoring the taste of it all.

“And your dad?”, she ventured, not quite looking at me but trying to busy herself with the jug of orange juice and her glass cup.

“I heard things have been a little rough on the financial side”, she added, almost like she had been expecting it.

“Yeah well”, I responded immediately, ready to defend my dad. “We hit a rough patch”

“-He hit a rough patch”, she interrupted me. “You’re a child, Nolan. You don’t have to worry about money”, she added calmly.

I rolled my eyes, the grip on my fork becoming tighter.

There it was.

“I see you haven’t stopped looking down on him”, I followed right after she ended her statement.

“He is an incompetent man who doesn’t know how to be responsible with money”, she argued back, her voice almost raised a tone higher.

I looked at her. She was breathing slightly heavy and her face was a little flushed. My mom still looked the same as she did years ago, only her hair was longer and she aged a little. She was still as beautiful as I remembered her to be. No wonder my dad fell for her. She had this charm, this look. After she left my dad was a wreck. He tried everything to get over her. Everything. He drank, he gambled, he slept around. I’m not sure what type of hold she had on him, but if it was because of her beauty, I could easily understand.

“You made him that incompetent man”, I paused, dropping my fork carefully. “You left him. You left us. You thought you were better than us”, I could feel my emotions heightening at this point.

The weight of moving.

The thought of leaving my home behind.

The realization that I had no choice.

I got up. “You were selfish. You were absent and now all of a sudden you remember you have a daughter halfway across the world that you suddenly care about?”, I could feel my eyes burning.

She looked away, her jaw tightened.

“Look I-“, she tried to explain. “No!”, I cut her off.

“You’re not explaining. Eight year old Nolan wanted your explanation, Eighteen year old Nolan couldn’t give a single f**k”, I snapped, trying to steady my breathing.

“You know what? f**k this. Enjoy your dinner”, I turned, going back up to my room.

Slamming the door shut behind me, I could feel the intense weight of rage bubbling through my veins. I beelined to my bed and plopped down on it, letting out a deep breath.

I didn’t mean to yell at her. I promised my dad that I’d be on my best behavior but I couldn’t just sit there and let her demean the man who tried his best to raise me after she decided to walk away.

I leaned forward and grabbed my phone from the bedside table. Earlier, I had canceled on Kevin. He wanted us to meet up but I thought it weird because it was my first day at my mom’s. I thought spending time with her would be nice.

I decided to text Kevin.

Me

Still down to hang?

7:45pm

He responded thirty minutes later and I sent him my address.

Finally.