Didn't Know It Before( An EJ Caswell/HSMTMTS Fanfiction)

Chapter Eighteen: Be My Parents

"I thought you guys were supposed to be gone for another three days, what are you doing home?" I asked.

"Well, we were having meetings with a potential client when you called having a full-on breakdown." Mom answered, arms crossed. "We hopped on a plane as soon as we could." I sighed.

"Let me guess, no technology for three months and my bank account is off limits?" I asked. My parents not knowing anything about me also meant they didn't know how to punish me either, on the rare occasion they noticed I did something bad.

"You're not in trouble, Meg." Dad said, putting the bags down. I furrowed my eyebrows.

"I'm not?" I asked. "But I interrupted a meeting. You left a business trip early, that's like, 'cause for execution in this family."

"We clearly have some things we need to talk about." Mom told me. I shook my head.

"We don't talk about anything. Ever." I told them. "You guys don't talk to me."

"That's not true." Dad said. "We talk all of the time." I nodded.

"See, now that is about as far from the truth as you can get," I told him, "because if we talked, ever, you might actually know things about me."

"We know you." Mom denied. I raised my eyebrows.

"Where have I been going after school every day?" I asked. They didn't answer. "What are my friends' names?" Silence again. This made tears well up in my eyes. "What do I like to do for fun?"

"You like..." Dad trailed off and I nodded.

"Answers: Instead of being the stage manager for the school musical, like I am every year, I decided to audition and I got the part. I've been at play rehearsal. My favorite thing to do in the entire world, is write music, and one day I think I'd like to be a singer songwriter, and before the musical, I didn't have any friends, because I thought that if I was inconsequential enough that my own parents didn't care to get to know me, why would anyone else?" I asked. Neither of them said anything. "You guys use the money you've made to by me these expensive gifts for Christmases, and Birthdays, and as an apology, and I don't think that you have ever once gotten me something that you chose because you knew that I would enjoy it."

"Well, we didn't...I didn't..." Mom trailed off. "Well what do you want us to get you-"

"I don't want you to get me anything, Mom!" I shouted. "I want you to be my parents! I won't you to care less about work than you do about me, I want to know that if something happened to me, you would actually notice if I was gone, that's what I want from you!" 

They didn't respond to this.

We all stood there in silence, for a very long time, until I eventually just gave up, shaking my head, grabbing my phone, and going to leave.

"Megan." I paused, sighing and turning to face them again. "We don't care more about work than you. You have to know that." I shook my head.

"No, I don't. I can't know that because actions speak louder than words." I said.  

Truer words couldn't have been spoken in that moment, because the action that came next...spoke multitudes.

My mom began to cry.

My eyes widened, as I had never seen my Mom cry in my entire life. Not once. She was the toughest person I knew, and here she was, bawling, with mascara running down her face.

"We're sorry, Megan." She cried. "We're so, so sorry."

Now it was my turn to start crying.

"You...you are?" I asked.