Rebel Wrong

Chapter Six: Grounded, What's That?

It was early enough that Cade was hoping everyone would still be in bed. She was wrong. Her father was sitting in the front living area, just off of the main entrance, when she walked in. He stood up as soon as he heard the door open.

Cade tried her hardest to avoid him. She bowed her head, pretending she didn't see him, and walked a little bit faster towards the staircase. It was to no avail, of course. He came after her.

"Cadence, where the hell have you been all night?" he demanded of her, stopping her before she could ascend the staircase.

"Wesley took me to a party and ditched me!" she exclaimed. It wasn't entirely a lie. He had left her. She just left out the part where she refused to go with him.

"That's not what Wesley said. He said you hounded him about the party scene and decided to chaperone you when you said you'd go by yourself anyways," her father retorted.

"What!?" Cade sputtered. She was at a loss for words. All she could do was make weird strangling noises as she tried to form a coherent sentence.

"I know you didn't have any supervision with your mother and she let you do whatever you wanted-" he began, going into a full on lecture mode.

"Whoa, whoa, hold on a minute!" Cade waved her hands in front of her face, motioning for him to stop talking. "You think I was the one who came up with the party idea?"

"That's what Wesley-"

"So you just automatically believe him over me?" she demanded.

Henry Quinn wasn't a stupid man. He'd been dealing with women for most of his life. He knew there was no right answer to that question. There was a brief pause as he thought of an appropriate response that wouldn't get him into hot water.

"It's no secret that you aren't happy being here. I don't blame you for that, Cadey. A little acting out and rebellion is to be expected, but that doesn't mean I'm going to let you do whatever you want," he told her.

"I didn't want to go there! Wesley was the one who dragged me along and then left me," she growled out.

"Wesley wouldn't do that. He's very responsible," Henry defended the little asshole. Cade let out a snort of laughter. "Cadence," he warned.

Cade wanted to tell him about Wesley's behavior, but that would be admitting that they had kissed. She didn't want him to know that. It was embarrassing and she was ashamed that she had let herself be put in that position. So, probably for the first time in her entire life, she kept her mouth shut and didn't say anything.

Her dad took advantage of her silence and continued with his lecture. "I hope you know this means you're grounded."

"What are you going to do? Keep me away from my friends? Oh, you already did that," she snapped at him.

"No leaving the house for anything other than school," he started, choosing to ignore her comment. "If you take another step out of line I'll take your car away and make you ride the bus."

He was threatening her with the bus? Did he not realize that Melanie hadn't had a car for the last two years? Cade had been taking the bus to and from school and all across town since the first day of her sophomore year.

"Fine," she agreed. She honestly couldn't think of anything to say. She wanted to laugh in his face, but knew that would probably get her into more trouble. So she just accepted it.

She had suspected she'd be in some sort of trouble, but she also hadn't given up hope that her dad might possibly take her side. There was no way that Wesley could hide that shitty personality from everyone.

Cade stormed upstairs to her room. Grounded. She'd never been grounded in her life, and it wasn't just because Melanie Quinn had been a lax parent. It was because she'd never done anything to deserve being grounded. She was actually the good kid and her father should have remembered that. It hadn't been that long since he'd lived with her.

As young kids, Axel had had plenty of behavioral issues. He acted out in school and refused to do his homework. There had been two or three meetings with teachers about possibly expelling him. He'd been grounded off and on until he got into high school and both of their parents just gave up on him. He'd gotten to do whatever he wanted.

Bianca was a little bit better as a kid, but as a teenager she was a holy terror. She was drinking, smoking, and having s*x from almost the first day of high school. Cade couldn't count the number of times that she had snuck out of their room in the middle of the night to go hook up with a guy. By that time their mother had been pretty heavy into the drugs and drinking and was pretty much oblivious to it all. Their dad, not wanting to think about his daughter having s*x just ignored it all.

Now Cade, she was the boring one. The one who got so tired out from watching her parents fight with her siblings that she just wanted to stay at home and rest. She kept to herself and made no waves. It wasn't worth it. Her parents did enough screaming at her siblings to completely cover anything she might do wrong. She had actually learned from her siblings' mistakes.

After losing their house and comfort, Cade wanted to get it back. She didn't like crashing on people's couches. She didn't like not having a place to call her own. That's why she worked her butt off to make sure she'd never have to be put in that situation again. But here she was, at a new place and at the mercy of someone else's rules.

The mini-mansion could never be compared to the couch of one of her mom's druggie friends, but it still wasn't her home. Her home had been ripped away from her and that was both of her parents' faults. She would probably never forgive them for that and that's why she was having a hard time dealing with her dad.

She made the long walk up the stairs and to her room. There wasn't a lot that could be done and she was tired anyways. It was hard to get any sleep when there were two teenage boys snoring in the same room.

"Look who finally came home," Wesley snickered from across the hall.

Pulled from her thoughts she turned to glare at him. He was wearing a pair of plain black boxers and a white undershirt. His hair was slightly disheveled and eyes a little red. He looked to be only mildly hungover.

"What the hell did you tell my dad?" she demanded, stomping up to him.

"The truth, of course," he said. His words were so sickly sweet that she just wanted to punch him in the face.

"The truth? Funny that you didn't tell him how you left me!" she accused him. She was yelling in a whisper now. She was angry and wanted to get her point across, but she didn't want to wake up the whole house.

"Hey, I didn't leave you anywhere," he fired back at her. "You're the one that refused to come home with me because you were being a baby. I made it home just fine."

Unfortunately, he had made it home okay. She liked to think she wasn't a mean person, but a little part of her had hoped that he would have wrapped his car around a telephone pole.

"Yeah, well, I had a great time after you finally left," she smirked, folding her arms across her chest.

"Oh, really?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah, I had a great time with that college guy. He's a way better kisser than you are," she told him.

His dark eyes were piercing as he glared at her. For a moment she felt a little bit of fear. He was bigger than her and she knew that he wasn't afraid to force himself on someone.

"What else did you do with him?" he demanded of her.

"That's none of your business," she said. Who the hell did this guy think he was?

"Everything about you is my business," he all but growled. His anger was getting the best of him and she was just egging him on.

"You're not the boss of me," she let out a snort of laughter. That just seemed to make him more angry.

"I don't want someone else's dirty leftovers," he said.

"Good thing you'll never have me then," she replied to him.

"Oh, I'll have you. I always get what I want," he threatened her. Now she really was scared. He didn't look like he was kidding.

"No, you won't. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to sleep. I had a busy night," she backtracked, trying to get out of this conversation and away from Wesley.

She didn't wait to hear a response from him and just went into her room, which was not far enough away from his. If it was in another state it still wouldn't be far enough away.

She didn't know what she was going to do about Wesley. Her dad wasn't going to believe her if she said anything and it wasn't like she could call the cops for such a silly reason. The only thing she did know was that she would be buying a deadbolt for her bedroom door as soon as she got some money.