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Sixteen

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The air grew chillier by the second, and April couldn't get warm, no matter how tightly she held Shawn's hand.

After Malia's remark, she'd taken the high road through a deep sigh, and replied with a simple 'mind your business'.

Paige and Amanda were pulling a playlist together, and Hannah was talking to Shawn in hushed tones.

She wasn't hearing their words, as they just seemed to bounce of her ears. She might've been looking at them, but her mind was elsewhere.

Javier had seemed closer to his dad that afternoon. Did that possibly mean he'd finally given in? At that point, the situation involving Shawn, herself and Javier didn't even seem relevant– not as relevant as what she'd almost seen flash through his eyes as he looked at her. Her eyes may have been blurry but she still knew what she'd seen.

He was throwing his dream away. He'd said it before and she'd laughed at him...now she regretted that, wishing she'd asked him to explain what he meant by he didn't want to carry on the name.

And it just had to happen at the exact same period she was trying to get her own life on track.

What an absolute mess.

"We're done!" Paige announced.

Hannah squealed in excitement. "Great! Who wants to go first?" She asked, picking up the mic. "How does this work again?"

"You start a song, pass the mic and we all carry it as far as we can. First one to mess the tune up loses and misses the next round."

April's eyes wandered toward Malia for reasons only they knew. She wasn't questioning that for long after, however, because Malia's eyes seemed to have found her too.

"Fuck you," they mouthed at the exact same time, then April laughed at the coincidence. Who would've thought?

"What's funny?" Hannah asked.

"Nothing, but I think Shawn should go first," she replied, hoping it would help reduce their contact, even if it was a little bit. He'd been holding her hand for what felt like forever.

"Would you want to?"

"Nah, I think–"

The shrill ting of what must've been the bicycle bell that Nathan had been holding sounded, cutting him off.

"The bell means they need something. Manda go get it," Paige said, reaching behind her to grab a stick.

"Why me?"

"The bell was your idea," Paige shrugged without looking back at her.

When April did look, all she got from Amanda was a stoic roll of her eyes as if to say 'that's all I'm here for'.

She swiftly rose from her seat, almost losing her footing due to both her state of sobriety and the rush in which she'd gotten up. She was only lucky to have Shawn steady her in time.

"Thanks," she smiled at him. "What do they need?" She asked Hannah.

"Anything. We told them to ring if they needed anything, but it's most likely just beer reloads."

She nodded, straightened her shirt and went inside through the back door which led to the quiet kitchen–in fact the whole house was quiet.

Was chess this intense?

She pushed the double doors open the slightest bit and poked her head through. Sure enough, they were all seated as an audience, and half of them were watching Javier play opposite his father.

From what she could see, majority of his black pieces were off the board already, and his father kept muttering words like 'focus', 'planning', 'think' and 'wrong move'.

Nathan was playing checkers, opposite another staunch man, with the other half as audience. He, unlike Javier, seemed to be enjoying himself–smiling while Javier was clearly working his nerves out there.

She shook her head and pulled back into the kitchen to find the bucket of beers and get the job over with. She opened the refrigerator, finding a few bottles of beer which she grabbed and stuffed into a metal bucket as carefully as she could without breaking them.

He shouldn't have been facing that, he didn't even like chess, and his father could've been doing a much better job teaching him if he wasn't such an asshole.

Before she knew it, bartender April had marched to the core of the male gathering.

"Who wanted a refill?" She asked, earning a hiss and a 'quiet'. She nodded and turned around, only to meet her father's eyes.

"Was it you, dad?" She asked him.

He nodded slowly, motioning to his empty glass. She nodded again and walked toward it as loudly as she could.

Maybe Javier would see and stop stressing himself over something that's just a game. Maybe he would finally be distracted from focusing his entire energy on pleasing his master like a house elf.

"You okay, April?"

She smiled, then nodded. "Peachy."
To prove it, the bottle slipped out of her grasp, and she was lucky her dad caught it before she could.

He took the bottle off her hands before she could do anything else. "Careful, you seem clumsy."

"Thanks," she smiled and waited for him to finish pouring himself the drink.

"Since you seem chatty, have you figured out what you want to do with your life yet?"

Again, she was near-drunk, not stupid. Watch this, Javier.

"Yes, actually. I want to dance," she answered.

That sigh crossed Patrick's face, and she saw him look down in what might have been either embarrassment or disappointment, or a mixture of both.

"She's joking, Dad," Nathan pitched from his seat.

She shook her head. "I'm not. I actually feel like that's the only thing–"

"If you make decisions based on feelings, princess, you are going to end up regretting it," her father said with his head still looking down between his feet.

"That right there is a lesson for everyone," Mr Klein said. "Feelings get you no where career wise."

She turned to his table. How dare he judge her when he couldn't parent his own son any better?

"But what if your feelings are real? Like based on things you've always wanted, and things you're sure your heart wants?" She asked, hoping her brain didn't mess it up now. "What if you've only ever told two people about your plans, and one of them can't do anything, while the other wants the same?"

Javier was now looking at her too, and she hoped deep down it was for the right reasons.

She shrugged. "What if?"

"Is there something else you want to say, April?" Mr Klein asked her. "If there is, you don't mind speaking out, do you?"

She shook her head and soon could swear she saw Nathan face palm behind her. She ignored him, however and faced her own father.

"It's our lives, and I think we should at least get a shot at the steering wheel, because one day, you're gonna be too old to control it."

"I want the best for you. Tell me what you would do without a college degree, April. Tell me one, reasonable white collar job that doesn't require at least a bachelor's degree."

"We can make it work, don't worry about us! We've always dreamed of–"

"Who's we?" Mr Klein asked, making her pause mid sentence. "Anyone else notice her pronouns?"

She blinked once, then twice.
Stupid alcoholic smoothies!

"We? No, I meant me. I can make it work."

"Like who? What idol taught you that?"

"Mark Zuckerberg."

"And he founded the most toxic of internet spaces," Mr Klein said.

"Zhou Qunfei, Alicia Keys, Beyonce, Rihanna, Jay Z, Brittany Spears –"

"They don't matter in the real world, honey, whether you like it or not."

She swallowed hard and released the tiny sliver of hope she still had for him by stealing a glance at Javier, just to see if he would join, but when he turned away, she shrugged.

Fine, every man for himself.

"Dad, I think you've also forgotten someone," she said, drawing the card that applied to just her.

"Who's that?"

She gave a wry smile. "Mom."

He scoffed. "What are you talking about? Of course Hannah went to college, she's an economist."

Of course he'd think she was talking about Hannah, she thought. Feeling her eyes well up but still keeping the smile, she nodded. "I know, Dad, I know...but I wasn't talking about Hannah."

She saw his eyebrows knit, then separate and go up as he apparently realised who she was talking about. He didn't say anything, and she was glad he didn't, because now she now had the perfect exit scenario.

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