studied eye is hanging out.

" He flicked it with finger and it waved back anf forth

like a pendulum. I gasped and ran over, plucking Tim out of his destructive hands.
"That's Tim and I've had him since I was two years old." I held Tim to my chest
in protective instinct. Dex stared at me with utter amusement.
"So I have stuffed animals, so what?" I asked defensively. I thought my Alice in
Chains and Melvins posters made up for that fact. He smiled, shrugged. I put Tim
back down in the pile with the rest of his friends. "So?" I asked, turning around
to face
him, feeling all nervy again. He was looking over my walls. " So what?" he repeated
blankly. I reached over and smacked him lightly on his shoulder so his focus was on
me.
"Dex. What are you doing here?" He frowned. "You're not happy to see me?"
My head craned back on my neck, caught off guard. "Well, yeah, but... I mean..."
"It's OK, I won't hold it against you. Unless you want me to." I raised my brow.
He grinned, a very quick flash, before he wiped it off with back of his hand. Then
he
was all serious, his lips in a tight line. "I couldn't let you back out of the
show," he admitted
"I knew if you talked to your parents you'd just fuck it all up even more."
I wincced. That wasn't very nice. But Dex was nothing if not brutally honest at
times.
It's just a two-hour drive," he continued, ablivious. "I've done more for a lot
less."
"You should have told me," I said. "Yeah? And have you freaking out for the next
two hours? Come on, kiddo, I think I know you by now. This way was easier.
And it workecd. You can thank me , by the way." "What do you mean, it worked?"
He walked over to my bed, humming some sang to himself. He lied down on it, putting
his hands behind his head and kicked the mattress with the back oh his heel. "Not
bad,not bad.
Could be a bit bigger, though. How do you fit your boyfriends on here?"
As annoying as he was being, it was a nice change to see him being a little more
playful
than the last time I saw him. Still, I didn't want him to get the wrong idea and I
wanted to be a little bit serious about the situation. I went over to my chair,
pulled it
over to him and sat down. "Dex. What did you talk about with my parents?
What was the business?" "Oh," he said as if he was surprised. "I just told your
father that
you'd be in some legal trouble if you broke your contract." My jaw opened a little
bit.
"Uh, you have some balls, you know that?" "Oh, I know." He grinned to himself.
"I'm serious. That's like... that's like threatening my father. My father does not
take
threats well. Believe me." Dex looked at me, turning his head to the side. "You
give your
parents too much credit. Your dad is just a dude. He may be your big, scary father
but to
me he's just a man who likes his wine, indulges in hypocrisy on a daily basis, and
does what
he can to be the main provider of the house. He responded just like I thought he
would,
like any man would. To reason. To logic. If you backed out of the contract, Show
Net
would take action. You can't break it without just cause and the facct that you
haven't
figured out how to have a proper relationship with your parents is not just cause.
Sometimes you need someone on the outside to point out common sense."
I mulled that over with a mix of emotions. I didn't like how Dex assumed he knew my
parents better than I did, and I didn't appreciate his condescending opinion on our
relationship. He knew nothing about me and my parents- he hadn't been here, growing
up in this house, dealing with all the shit we had to deal with. But on the other
hand...
it worked. I didn't feel like giving him credit though,"And then..." I coaxed
him...
"What? He agreed. He gave me some big long spiel about how disappointed he was in
you
and how he raised you better than that, which I tried not to laugh at, and how this
show
was not a proper career and blah,blah,blah -" "Yeah, I've heard enough of that
today,
thank you." "But then he came around and said it was only professional to do the
right thing.
Which is to keep doing the show. But you're going to have to start paying rent
here.