It's been hard to talk to my dad lately, he is barely ever home these days and when he is, he acts as if he's on cloud nine. I know I should be happy for him, and I am — I'm happy that he's happy but... how do I tell him that his relationship might ruin mine? It would definitely come out as selfish.

It's been roughly a week since Daniella and I found out who Denise is and I still haven't talked to my dad about it, and now it might be a bit too late to do so — he has finally decided to introduce me to her, which means they are taking a step further into their relationship.

"Everything is going to be fine," Soph says, trying to reassure me as she locks the door to the store. "Maybe she's not what people think she is, you know how people like to make up rumors about others."

"I know, I've been trying not to think too much about it but Daniella is restless, and you can't really blame her — her job is at stake, again... and it's because of me, again," I sigh, resting my butt on the hood of my car.

"Anna, don't say that, it's not your fault," she says, giving my shoulder a light squeeze. "Has Dani gotten any luck finding new schools?"

"Not anywhere nearby," I answer, the dreadful feeling of having no escape crashing back in. "I feel terrible, she keeps sacrificing for the both of us and I can't even go up to my dad and tell him his new girlfriend is probably a homophobic bitch."

Soph furrows her eyebrows, trying to come up with a solution. "We can hide drugs in her bag—"

"Soph," I laugh, running a hand through my hair. "Let's not do that, I have to meet her first... then we think of something."

"Fine, but you better come back on Monday with all the juicy details... and let me know beforehand if we do need the— you know what," she says winking at me, very indiscreetly, as someone walks past us.

I simply roll my eyes, bidding her a quick goodbye before going on my way. I'd hate to be late for such an awaited moment — even though I'm no longer so excited about meeting her, if anything, I want to hide in my room and not have to face the possibility of losing Dani.

The table was already set when I came in, and I'm sure I've never seen this house so clean, not saying that it's dirty most of the time but living with a cat that thinks she's a Queen makes it hard to keep things on top of tables. At least for longer than 5 minutes.

"Where's Potato?" I ask, stopping at the kitchen door, watching him attempting to clean the mess he has made on the counter.

"Hello to you too," he raises his eyebrows.

"Hello, where's Potato?"

"She's upstairs, it's best if she stays there throughout the dinner, Denise has allergies," he says, glancing at the chicken inside the oven. "I spent a whole hour just vacuuming her fur off the couch."

I just stand there not really knowing what to say. "Is she on her way over? I'll go up and shower really quick."

"Go on, don't worry... Oh, Anna," He calls before I turn to leave. "Denise happens to work at Daniella's school, maybe it's best if we don't mention her for now."

"Oh," I say, pretending to be surprised by this new piece of information. "Do you think she'll get bothered by it?"

"Don't worry about that, go now before she comes," he says, playfully shooing me off, not really giving me a concrete answer to my question — which probably means Daniella is right.

The door to my room is closed when I go upstairs and I nearly have to throw myself to the ground to catch Potato before she runs away as I open the door. "I'm sorry baby, I don't like this either but it's only for tonight," I mumble as I hold her in my arms.

She meows back, rubbing her head on my chin before I drop her down on my bed, Potato is both lazy and active — if that makes sense. She loves her morning and afternoon naps on her favorite spot on the couch but she also loves her zoomies around the house, so I can only imagine how stressful it is for her to spend all this time in such a confined space. But at least my dad remembered to bring her water and food as well as her litter box upstairs, which makes it nearly impossible to walk in my already small bathroom but at least it's better than having it in the middle of my room.

I showered quickly but to little use, given the time I spent trying to pick up an outfit that would seem appropriate to a woman whose main job is bitching about how girls wear their uniforms... only to settle with jeans and a sweatshirt at the end.

I hear the doorbell going off just as I was finishing up my hair, and now more than ever I want to jump out the window and maybe pretend my death, Dani can pretend her death too and both of us can run away to a remote place, like one of those small towns in Texas that look like they've stopped in time — or maybe we should avoid those exact places altogether if the goal is to not get hate-crimed.

I slowly went down the stairs, my anxiety growing with each step. And even though I've sort of seen her before — when we were investigating the whereabouts of my father — looking at her up close still came as a shock.

She isn't extremely ugly, quite the contrary, Denise is pretty for her age and it makes sense why my father would fall for her even though she looks at least 10 years older than him.

"You must be Anna," she gives me a big smile that honestly just seemed forced. "My name is Denise, but I'm sure you already know that," she says, pulling me in for a quick hug, if you can call it that.

"Hey," I say simply, glancing at my dad, mostly as a call for help.

"Well, let's sit down at the table before the food gets cold," he says, taking Denise's hand and leading her down the hall. And I can't help but notice he isn't wearing his kippah, he was just half an hour ago when I came home but now it's gone, and I have a feeling it didn't just fall off without him noticing it.

The amount of food on the table is impressive, a little bit of an overkill but I'd be lying if I said it didn't look delicious. He's really trying to impress her and I can't be mad at that.

"Sit down, I'll bring the wine," he says, helping her sit down before leaving for the kitchen.

"Did you take my suggestion?"

"I bought three of them," he chuckles, coming back to the dining room, two bottles in each hand and somehow I can already predict how this will end.

"I take you're too young to drink?" Denise asks, directing her attention to me.

"I'm 19."

"Oh, I suppose you can drink a cup, I won't tell anyone."

"I'm good, actually," I mumble back, feeling extremely uncomfortable under her gaze.

"How come? This is the first time I'm seeing a youngster denying a drink," she says, raising her tin eyebrows — seems like even a woman like herself didn't miss on the 2000s trend, and I bet they're tattooed too.

"I'm not the wine type."

"I see, cheap beer is what does it, right?" she says in a joking manner but I have a feeling she really isn't.

"I'm actually more of an orange juice type of girl, you know? It really gives me a kick in the morning," I say with a straight face, confusion clear on her face — perfect.

"Is that vernacular for some type of drug?" she asks, looking at me with a mortified expression and then at my dad who immediately shakes his head.

"Gosh, no— she just really likes her orange juice," he says quickly, giving me a side-eye glance.

"Jeez, why would you even think that?" I say, shaking my head, feigning innocence. But honestly, what a jump, I was aiming it at her thinking I'm stupid or something, not a druggie.

My dad clears his throat before anything else could be said, giving me another 'behave' look — very unfairly, might I add, I didn't even say anything wrong. If anything, she's the one with the rotten mind — before redirecting his attention to Denise. "Let me serve you."

The dinner was absolutely dreadful, even though the conversation was kept mainly between the two, sometimes Denise would turn to me to ask incredibly intrusive questions.

"How did you two meet?" I ask, not really all that interested but I'd rather hear a sappy love story than answer more accusatory questions.

"My son is an intern at the office, it was fate," she says, putting a hand over his, yuck. "He saw Mr. Krause here was single and so was I so he sort of set us up."

"Is your son called fate?" I ask, making my dad squint his eyes at me again but I honestly don't think she picked up.

"Oh no, his name is Jake, you two will meet soon," she says, giving me another fake smile. "I've always wanted a girl, I thought it wasn't fate but turns out it was, just in a different way — even though you're not very girly for a girl now, are you?"

"No."

"I've always wanted a girly girl."

"Hum."

"I'm not here to replace your mother but—"

"I know, you won't," I say simply, cutting her off.

"Did you two have a close relationship?"

"Yeah," I say vaguely, even though I was pretty much a child back then. I just really don't want to get into this conversation, especially with her out of all people.

"She's watching over you in heaven," she says, which I simply hum. "With Jesus."

"I doubt that."

"I'm sorry?" she asks, raising her eyebrows.

"We're Jewish—"

"Well, we are not religiously Jewish," he says quickly before I could respectfully finish what I was going to say.

"Wait, wha—"

"I can't remember the last time we attended a synagogue service."

"How does that make a difference? We're still—"

"My great-grandfather was Jewish, my mom used to tell me, but he found his path," Denise says, interrupting me.

I look at her, too stunned to even formulate words, and honestly, I don't think my dad would appreciate the words I have in store for her. I glance at him, trying to silently confront him but his eyes are stuck on her, like a magic spell.

"I'm tired, I'll go up to my room if you'd excuse me," I mumble, getting up before getting so much as a response, which is met with a dismissive OK.

What the actual... Heck?

I've been trying not to curse a lot, Daniella's wishes, even though she probably curses more than me, apparently it's only ok if it's under your breath and your name is Daniella Evans. But I digress. The point is that this bitch is a bitch.

I close the door to my room feeling revolted, but more than anything, I feel cheated. And honestly, I don't even care about Denise and what she thinks of me. What truly angers me is the way my dad is acting, it's as if he's no longer the same person.

I sit down next to Potato on my bed, scratching behind her ears. "Poor thing, there's no telling when that witch will leave, she might even spend the night by the amount of wine they're having," I sigh, laying on my back, prompting her to lay down on top of my belly. "Would they notice if I leave?"

I ponder it for a while, what if I jump out the window? What are the chances of me breaking something? Seems like a pretty big fall but I've also seen people do it and be completely fine. I'm not that lucky though, I'd definitely break a bone, probably multiple bones.

Would they even notice if I just walk out the front door?

I get up quickly, packing some of my clothes, even though I'm pretty sure I have more than enough for the weekend at Daniella's house, I just like the thought of running away with a backpack. And I should warn her that I'm coming over but the element of surprise also seems more inciting.

"Wanna go with me?" I ask potato, eyeing him with raised eyebrows, to which she simply replies with a lazy meow. A yes in my book. It's set then.

I secure the bag on my back, grabbing Potato while making sure she's in a comfortable position, can't have her jumping off in the middle of the mission. I open the door slowly, trying not to make too much noise but I'm sure if I did make any noise it'd be muffled by all the laughter coming from the living room. I'm extra careful going down the stairs and down the hall, the scariest thing is definitely the front door — it's huge and makes a lot of noise when it closes but I've already made it this far.

I slowly open the door, quickly stepping outside and standing there with the door just an inch away from the strike plate, waiting for Denise to start laughing like a goat again before closing it. It did make a pretty loud sound but no one came over to check so I'm guessing her laugh did a pretty good job at muffling it.

Potato meows in my arms, making me look down at her, for some reason I had completely forgotten I had her with me. "If you'd have meowed just a few seconds ago, we'd be doomed." Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to bring her, but I wouldn't be able to stand the thought of leaving her in that small room all alone, all night.

It was around 10 PM when I made it to Dani's house, I can see the living room light is on as well as her room so I'm sure she's well awake. Lucia was the one that opened the door however, her face was a mix of surprise and amusement.

"Oh dear," she gasps, finally noticing the cat in my arms. "Are you finally moving in? You even brought your cat."

"I was just planning on spending the night actually," I say, sitting down on the sofa next to Slippers who was completely passed out. "Is he ok with cats?"

"Don't worry, he's a gentleman." In any normal circumstance, Potato would jump out of my arms to explore but the sight of Slippers made her slump deeper into my embrace. "Did something happen?"

"No... I mean, kinda?" I sigh.

"Tell me everything."

"It's complicated, but I'm guessing Daniella has already told you about my dad's new girlfriend."

"She did, so she's not a good one... if it prompted you to come here late at night, cat and everything."

"It's not so much about her, it's just... my dad—"

"Anna?" I'm interrupted by Dani coming down the stairs, worry fills her face as she makes eye contact with me but then they fall on Potato and I swear I have never seen such a loving expression coming out of her... I clear my throat driving her to refocus her attention on me. "Baby, what's wrong?" she asks, giving me a quick kiss before sitting down beside me, trying to snatch Potato out of my arms.

I quickly slap her hands away. "Are you asking me or her?"

"Both?"

I squint my eyes at her before looking back at Lucia. "As I was saying... My dad is acting like a completely new person, it seems like he'd do anything to please her," I mumble, locking my eyes with Daniella's. "He locked Potato in my room because Denise is allergic, he even denounced his own faith — now I don't know if Denise would tell on us but after today, I do know for sure that my dad wouldn't go against her if she did."

The atmosphere in the room is thick as we fall into silence. Daniella keeps her eyes on me as I look away, unable to maintain eye contact. I know that she wants to say something but nothing comes out of her mouth.

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