Free Old Wounds by N.K. Smith Page A

watched his jaw clench. His voice was tight when he spoke. “Listen to me, Sophie. I wish like hell I’d been there for you more when you were growing up, but there wasn’t a choice.”
    What the hell ever. He was deluded if he thought he didn’t have a choice. Everyone always had a choice. He just couldn’t admit that his choice didn’t include me.
    “But I am your father, and I will not have you disrespecting me like this.”
    I cruelly laughed in his face. “Tom, you’re not my father. You’re not a parent. You’re just the witless sperm donor Helen duped seventeen years ago.”
    I ignored his hurt look and realized that it didn’t matter what I thought; I’d be forced to do something I didn’t want to do.
    “Let’s get this over with, shall we?” I said as I opened the car door, incredibly ready to be away from him.
    I walked quickly up the front steps and banged on the door. Internally, I was in a rage, but there wasn’t anything I could do in this situation. Therapy it was. Just like all of the other things I’d been forced to do throughout my life I would just close my eyes, be a good girl, and wait until it was over.
    The door opened and I couldn’t help but mutter, “Shit.” It was the goddamned Pinny Dalton who was in my Photography class. I knew her name was Jane or something boring like that, but the chick had lots of piercings, so in my mind, I dubbed her “Pinny,” as in “pincushion.” It wasn’t exactly nice, but I wasn’t a nice person, and I’d learned long ago it was better to objectify a person by giving them meaningless nicknames based on their random physical traits, than it was to call them by name.
    So, great. I couldn’t have been more thrilled that not only was there some kind of therapy going on inside this house, but now at least this girl was going to know I “needed” it.
    “Hi, Sophie!” she said, entirely too chipper for my taste.
    I wouldn’t have thought it possible, but my spirits fell even more when I heard voices coming from behind her. Too many voices. So now it was therapy with lots of kids, presumably from my school. That was just great. I could feel Tom coming up behind me, so I pointed inside. “I’m supposed to be in there.”
    Pinny Dalton smiled and nodded, opening up the door wider. “Hello, Mr. Young. Robin and Stephen are upstairs in the study. They want to talk to you.” Pinny snuck her arm through mine and dragged me farther into the house. “I’ll keep Sophie company.”
    Tom moved to the steps as if he knew where he was going and I scanned the chaotic scene before me. Holy shit. It looked like all of the perfect Daltons were here, along with their significant others too. I only recognized two other kids. Andrea, sitting on the couch with her hands folded in her lap, and this girl who looked like someone just shit on her birthday cake. There were other kids as well. Some looked young, like freshmen, and others were closer to my age, but I hadn’t seen them before. Maybe they were from other schools, but this was a really small town, so it seemed unlikely.
    “What the hell, Sophie?”
    I turned to my left and saw Jason coming closer. Pinny Dalton’s grip tightened as he approached, but I pulled myself free. “Jason, watch your language, please.” She shot him an annoyed look.
    I rolled my eyes at Pinny Dalton and went over to Jason. “This was your thing ?”
    He shrugged. “Every Friday night. Just enough shit to totally fuck up the weekend.” He leaned in close, the smile evident on his face as he lowered his voice. “But don’t forget about me banging you in the forest tomorrow. Just keep that in mind while you’re enduring the pain that is group therapy.”
    “ Group therapy?” Therapy was one thing. Sharing things, private and embarrassing things, with other kids was something else completely. “You could’ve warned me, Jason. If I’d known this was what my Friday was going to look like, I would have smoked a bowl