SZNS SERIES 1: Summer by Maria Writes (books for men to read txt) 📗

"How was school, Chloe?" her father asked while he's driving. Her mother is sitting at the passenger seat while she is laying at the backseat.

"School's fine, dad. It was very exhausting but I'll survive. When I got back, the group will do one more rehearsal for a week then we'll rest until the play week starts. I expect you to watch, with mom. I wrote that play." She's really hoping that they will come to watch her play. The last time she wrote a play, her father made lame excuses just to miss it. And she will not let that happen again.

Her father looked at her in the rearview mirror and continued driving. "Sure, sweetie. I'll see if I have an empty schedule in my calendar" That made her eyebrows raise and made her seat from where she is laying.

"Or you could just clear your calendar to attend my play? Dad it's just a day, that's all I asked. After that you could have all the time in the world to do whatever you want."

"Chloe ---"

"No!" she cut of her mother. "No, mom. He's always like this. Every time I have a play, he always misses it. The only thing he did to support me was this year at the concert. A fund-raising concert, which will not be possible if it wasn't for him who funded everything." Now she's pissed. How dare her father not to make time for her only daughter. She gets that he's busy. But when he said that he'll check his calendar, she should have known better than to believe that.

"This is the last play that I'll be doing before I graduate. The only thing I ask is for you to be there. For some unknown reason, you're always missing my plays and I don't know why.  Why can't you just tell me straight in the face that you're not proud of me?"

Her father didn't speak. So is her mother. She looked at both of them. Waiting for them to say something. But nothing. She heard nothing. Chloe is getting frustrated by how her parents are acting. She laid back on the backseat and closed her eyes.

She'll just frustrate herself even more if she kept on talking.

She knows that her father nor her mother will answer whatever she has to say. So, it's better to just keep her mouth shut. There' nothing good that will happen if she continued talking if her parents won't say anything.

Her heart is aching every time she imagines that her father not going to her play. Is there something they are not telling her? If there is, then she has to find out.

The car stopped in front of the hotel. The same hotel where she stayed when she was here on her birthday. Great, nice plan, mom and dad! When her parents stepped out of the car she stepped out as well and followed them inside. The two of them are being all mushy together while she looked like a loner at the back.

"Chloe we already booked the rooms." her mother said.

She snorted "Of course, you did." she muttered.

"What?"

"Nothing."

"As I was saying, here's your key. Your room is at the fifth floor, while ours is the seventh. If you need anything, just give me a call." her mother told her while they wait for the elevator.

"Why can't I just stay with you in your room? Or maybe next to yours?" she asked. Her mother is really weird sometimes. Her mother didn't answer her. They just went in the elevator then pressed the buttons for their respective floors.

When the elevator doors were about to close, a hand stopped it from closing then in goes a man with a hoodie, thick glasses and a face mask. Isn't this the man on the plane? She's not really sure. Must have been a coincidence.

The elevator reached the fifth floor. She stepped out of it without saying a word to her parents. Well, what do they expect? That she'll be talking to them after their banter in the car? Hell no.

She looked for her room and luckily, she found it at the end of the hallway. Chloe quickly went in and dropped all her bags on the corner of the room. There are so many things she needs to do while she's here, but first she got to sleep.

A loud knock woke her up from her sleep and she forced herself to stand up and open the door. Of course, it's her mom. Who else does she think it would be? She went back to her bed and just let her mother enter her room.

"Chloe, you need to get up. We are going to have a dinner with the Reeds tonight. You need to get ready."

The Reeds? Why are they going to have dinner with them? She's hoping that it's only Mr. and Mrs. Reed that will be there at the dinner. But that is she's wrong? What if he's there? She is not yet ready to face him again, let alone have dinner with him. No, she cannot do it.

"My head hurts, mother. I can't come with you tonight. Just go with dad, I'll stay here."

Her mother dragged her out of the bed that made her fall on the floor. Whatever her mother does, she will never join them to dinner. It's better for her to stay in her hotel room than to have dinner with her ex and his family.

"No, mom. I'm not coming with you. I just want to sleep. So, enjoy your dinner, don't forget take-outs for me." she went back to the bed and wrapped herself with the comforter.

She felt her mother sat on the bed beside her and tried to remove the comforter around her. "Sweetie, if this is about you and Jesse, you don't have to worry. Emily told me that it's only Caroline