After the Logan incident, Rae's parents delivered their pots of food to the kitchen, Phil and Ariel went to 'hang out' in the bathroom, and Rae and I sat on the couch — my head rested on her shoulder, her head resting on my head, and holding hands. I never wanted to have a 'dinner' or whatever they were calling it in the first place and, funnily enough, having that happen in front of an audience didn't sweeten the deal. At least Rae's dad felt awkward enough to leave us alone for two seconds.

"I like your suit," Rae said. I did have a nice suit on. A white blouse, black pants, the tie from cousin Alice's third wedding, and a black blazer with an abundance of sequin.

"Thanks. I Don Johnson-ed it," I said. "I like your outfit, too."

"Thanks," she said. She was examining my palm like she was a fortune-teller. "My mum protested so hard. It'll be funny in a few years." She laughed beautifully, troubled. "Hey, was that Ariel? That girl from the old man's neighbourhood?"

"Yeah," I said, and an airy non-laugh escaped my lips. "She's Phil's girlfriend. You should have seen my face when she walked in the door."

"I bet it was adorable."

"She referred to you as 'the hot one,'" I said, Rae scoffed. "I couldn't control myself. I just blurted out 'we're dating now.'" I immediately regretted what I said. "We are... like, dating — o-or something, right?"

"What do you think?"

I thought about it. "I think you're the most amazing person I've ever met."

Rae smiled. I smiled.

My mom came hopping down the stairs, hair blow-dried and nails painted. I considered scooting away from Rae, but I realized I didn't need to.

"Oh, god, you're already here!" Mom said. "Hi, Rae. So great to see you. I'm gonna go see your mom and dad, huh? Have fun, girls." She turned around and walking to the kitchen. I almost felt embarrassed, but I generally felt embarrassed, so, I guess it didn't really matter.

I tapped a rhythm on her knuckles.

"Your mom is so nice," Rae said. I didn't say anything. "Jack, I don't mean to be rude, and please don't take this the wrong way, but if my parents come into the room, do you think we could just... like, move apart a little?"

"Of course," I said. "That's fine. Thanks for telling me."

As if on cue, my mom, Rae's mom and dad, plus Phil and Ariel, walked into the room. We nimbly hopped to opposite sides of the couch. I pretended to look at a bird again.

"Jacky, Rae, we're gonna dance!" my mom said, taking our hands and standing us up. She did the same little dance she had that day at the airport. "We thought we would listen to a CD in the CD player I didn't know we had" — she shot Phil a dirty look, and he smiled sheepishly — "and then we'll have some dinner. That sound good?"

"Sounds good, Mom," I said. Rae smiled.

My mom walked over to Phil and handed him Amy Winehouse - Frank. He looked at her, as if to say "really?" Mom gestured angrily — and he put it in the tray.

As Stronger Than Me began to play, I saw everyone partnering up: Phil pulled Ariel's head out of her phone, and my mom and Rae's mom started salsa dancing in a very mom-ish way. Rae and I made eye contact for half-a-millisecond and looked away quickly. There was a foot between us, and I could feel my hand slowly gravitating towards hers, and her hand toward mine. Like a magnetic pull.

In a perfect world, I would have stolen her hand and pulled her into an awkward, swaying teenage dance. But, in the real world, where sadly we are all situated indefinitely, her authoritarian (i.e asshole) father was watching us like a hawk. Our hands slowly gravitated towards each others still, and I wasn't trying to fight it as hard as I should have been.

Suddenly her father was standing before me, and I flinched backward startled.

"May I have this dance, Jacquelyn?" he asked.

I was about to decline his offer to do literally anything else when he took my hand and lead me to the dance floor/living room floor. He made sure to block my view of Rae — who must have been cringing harder than I ever had.

Gary Watters was like the normal protective sit-com dad, except add a surplus of prejudices and a general lack of common sense. Not to mention there was a 'not all men' hashtag where his heart should have been.

"I'm not threatening you," he said, threateningly. I waited for what he was going to say, but he didn't speak until he couldn't be heard by The Moms or Phil and Ariel, who, sadly, were all oblivious. "I love my daughter. I do what's best for her. I'm trying to keep her safe, and I gave you and her plenty of time to stop doing what you're doing, but you didn't, so I'm politely asking you to not bother her anymore."

I was rendered speechless by the colossal douchebag in front of me, but, luckily, I had time to gather myself as the others smiled at us as if everything was okay. I saw Rae, who had sat down on the couch again, and I smiled at her as platonically as possible. She watched us intently, and it comforted me knowing that she was watching over us like a guardian spirit.

"I... don't know what you mean by 'doing', but I swear I value my friendship with your daughter immensely. And that's all it is — friendship," I said, pouring on the Thesaurus-knowledge and hoping I made the right call to claim friendship.

"Hmm," he muttered, and then didn't say anything for an awkward amount of time. "I just don't want to see her get hurt."

The irony and absurdity was to much to bear — I had to say something snarky. "Then maybe you should consider not hurting her."

His grip constricted on my hand as he grunted through his teeth. I inhaled in pain. I heard the clip clop of Rae's fancy clunky shoes walking with urgency.

"Dad, may I have this dance?" Rae asked promptly, taking his hand and prying it off mine. I put my aching hand behind my back and smiled like I was having a good time, though my eyes were misty with fright. I walked towards the stairs. I just wanted to stare in the mirror for a few minutes. With a lifetime of social anxiety, I was pretty experienced in the wonders on just sitting on the floor, in a fancy outfit, with red eyes and a red face, talking to yourself and procrastinating going back into the fray.

My mom stopped me. "Jacky, where ya goin?" she asked.

"Bathroom," I snapped. I hopped up the stairs, down the hall, and slammed my door closed behind me. I sat on my ottoman and held my face up with one fisted hand. I stared at the other — it had a reddish hue and throbbed slightly. I couldn't believe that Rae had to live with that monster.

But then I realized that I was leaving her down there with him. She came to my rescue a few minutes earlier, and now it was my turn. I stood up and wiped under my eyes with my sleeves, and it hurt thanks to the sequin. I bolted down the stairs. Everything was the same, except the song had changed to What is it About Men?

Yup, that's about right.

I sat on the couch and crossed my legs, pretended to listen to the music attentively. Every once in a while, I would glance at Rae and her father as they danced tensely. Her father circled around to me, and glared at me unblinkingly. I smiled, just to psyche him out. He didn't stop leering and it came to the point when he was just being reckless with his antagonism.

Rae noticed his dry eyeballs and turned her head. I waved as unromantically as I could muster, trying to keep up the ruse. She looked back at her father, a spark of rage quarrelled within her iris.

"Dad? Are you staring at her?" Rae asked, looking exceptionally unamused.

"What? I'm not staring. What are you talking about, sweetheart — you look mad," he said.

"I am mad," Rae said. She yanked her limbs away and looked up at him with fifteen-years worth of anger and pain. "I've been mad for so long... Why don't you like me?"

"Like you?" he asked, obviously uncomfortable with the rest of us watching. Even Ariel put her phone down to see what was going on.

"You've never accepted me, my true self, long before it was anything important like who I choose to love. What is your" — something snapped in her —"what is your fucking problem? I want to know why you've always done this to me!"

"I want what's best for you. In the long run," he said, a faux soothing nature to his voice. "Teenagers never think about what they'll come to regret in ten/twenty years." He spoke as if he was addressing the entire room, when he should have been apologizing directly to Rae, but that wasn't going to happen anyway.

"This isn't what's best for me!" Rae said, shaking her head manically. "I'm not the crazy-wrong one here!"

"I ask one thing of you, Raegan," Rae's mom joined the argument. "Save all this disrespect for your dad for when we're not someone else's houseguests, yes?" Rae's mom looked apologetically at my mom.

"Mom, I'm not disrespecting dad. I'm disrespecting both of you! You two aren't the ones in charge here! I've always been afraid to step out of my comfort zone just in case you wouldn't approve! You taught me to never stray from the original formula of what a girl should be! To care more about what others want from me than what I need to be! To fit into a mold that I don't fit into! You taught me to be normal, to be common, to blend into the crowd without question... to be usual. I-I'm not usual. I'm beyond unusual. I'm preternatural — not your pet!"

There was a long silence.

"So," Ariel broke the dead air. "Rae, was gonna ask this later, but do you wanna get a drink sometime?"

"Shhhhhh," I shushed her.

Gary advanced, Rae backed up and I stood. We instinctively joined hands as we waited for what he would do next. He stomped towards us and tried to separate our hands. He wasn't trying to keep Rae safe or happy anymore, now he was just acting on his misguided beliefs.

"Gary, stop!" my mom said, pulling him away from us. "Leave now or I call the cops." Gary looked at her. Then he looked at his wife, then at me, then at Rae — who held her forearm, trembling. She lifted her other hand and a drop of blood dripped onto the floor. He had scratched Rae's arm and broken the skin when he charged at us in a frenzy. I cupped my hand around Rae's wound. She was speechless, staring at her father, cloudy-eyed.

He looked at his hands, which had done so much wrong, and slowly stumbled out the front door and into the night ahead.

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Hello lovey human beans!!

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