By the time I got home, I felt as if a weight has been lifted off my shoulders. Since today was the last day of school, my summer is now pants optional. Since Jasper will be gone with his lacrosse buddies at the lake, I won't have to worry about him barging in on me.

Yep. This was going to be great

I set my back pack on the floor in the corner of my room, and that's where it will stay until August. I kick off my boots and crawled into my bed before turning on the television.

The Netflix screen popped up right where I left it last night. I begin scrolling through movie after movie until I decided on one.

As I watched Coraline, the storm outside started to get more intense. Rain lashed against the window, causing the sound to echo throughout the room. Dark clouds started to roll in, which caused the room to get even darker as no light came in.

I felt my eyes starting to close slowly. It wasn't surprising that I was tired. I was woken up one minute early so I didn't get my full ten hours.

As the credit started to roll, I shut off the television. Once the room was incomplete darkness, I closed my eyes and sleep came fast.

_____________________________

The sound of my bedroom door creaking open wasn't enough to wake me. Even the sound of footsteps didn't do the trick either. As I laid there, I completely ignored all the sounds happening.

"Hattie," said a voice. I groaned as I pulled my blankets closer to me. I wasn't planning on getting up for anything.

All of a sudden, the blankets that were once keeping me warm were ripped violently off my body. The cold air assaulted my arms, which caused me to shoot up straight in my bed.

"The hell," the yelled as I scrambled around looking for the blanket, but I no longer felt it on by bed.

Besides me, someone was laughing, hard. I reached over and hir the switch on my lamp. Light immediately filled the room and I could see my blanket steal.

"I told you to stay out," I say as I get out of bed and start to smack his arm.

"Hey," Jasper grunts as he grabs both my hands in mid air. "Your mom asked me to wake you up."

I mentally swore at myself. I had forgotten that we were having dinner with the Kings again. I didn't mind having dinner with Emily and Gerald, but I would prefer that the spawn of Satan didn't show. Which was unlikely.

"Fine," I huffed as a pulled my arms out of Jasper's grasp. "But the next time you enter my room, you're gonna regret it.'

"So scary," Jasper mocked as he began to walk out the door.

"I mean it," I say as I cross my arms. "I'll destroy you."

"That days never gonna happen princess," Jasper smirks as he slammed the door behind him, causing the wall to shake.

I groan as I flopped on back on my bed. First getting water dumped on my face and now having dinner with my arch nemesis. Could this day get any worse?

On my nightstand, my phone began ringing. I reach over and frowned at my phone. My dad was calling.

Yep. This day did in fact, did get worse.

I haven't spoken with him in weeks. He's called a couple times but I didn't answer. I had nothing to say, but I can't keep dodging his call. If he can't reach me, he'll go to mom, and I don't want him to talk to her.

"Hello?" I ask with the least amount of excitement I could muster.

"Hattie, sweetie," my dad gushed into the phone, which really made me want to puke. "How are you? How was the last day."

"Fine," I say. My remark answered both questions. "Why are you calling?"

"Well, I was wondering if you wanted to go on vacation during the summer," he said. I narrow my eyebrows. Vacation? Really? Like that would make up for everything.

"Vacation?" I questioned as I played along.

"Yeah. Remember that lake house we went to when you were little? Well I managed to book the same one. I figured we could all go up there for a week," he explained to me.

"We?" I ask, knowing this conversation was going down hill fast.

"You, me, Justin, Candice, and Tessa."

My hand clenched the phone as I heard that woman's name. The woman who stole my father away from me when I was a child.

"You think I want to be close to that woman?" I said through my teeth.

My dad sighed. "Tess isn't a bad person, Hattie. Besides, Justin and Candice want to see you. You are their big sister."

"Look, I don't have a problem with the kids. They didn't choose to have a homewrecker as a mom. And the answer is no. I will not be going to the place where you took me and Mom. So have fun with your recycled family vacation," I said bitterly before hitting the end call button.

I was breathing heavily as I paced the room. He had no right. He abandoned me, and he was not allowed to act like it never happened. My life is not a revolving door for him to come and go as he pleased.

Slowly, I took deep breaths in order to calm myself down. If I went downstairs like this I would only worry my mom. I didn't want that. After I no longer wanted to punch a hole in the wall, I went downstairs.

When I reached the bottom, I could hear laughter coming from inside the kitchen. I walk in and see that mom and Emily had found the wine.

"Oh, there you are sweetie," mom said as she saw me walk in. "What took you so long? We thought you gotten lost."

I smiled. She was already tipsy, and nothing upset her when she had alcohol in her system.

"Sorry. Someone called my phone, I had to tell them off."

Mom didn't even realize I was talking about my dad. She just nodded and went back talking to the Kings. I start to walk to the living room, but I was stopped in the hallway.

"Was it your dad on the phone?" Jasper asked as he looked down at me.

"Why do you care?" I asked as I pushed past him.

"Well, the one thing we both can agree on is that he's an ass," he says as he follows me.

"Got that right," I say as I sit on the couch.

"What did he want?" He asked as he said on the arm chair across from me.

I chuckle. "And why do you think I'll tell you that? So you can make fun of me some more?"

"No," he said. "I'm too tired to anyway."

I sigh and take a deep breath. "He wanted me to join him and his replacement family to the place we always went too when I was little."

"Wow," he whistles. "That's low. Next time I see him I'm gonna kick him in the nuts."

I look at him weirdly. "That's the nicest thing you've ever said to me. Are you sick or something?"

He chuckled. "Don't get me wrong. I still don't like you, but your mom's great and she didn't deserve what he did."

"Got that right," I say as I reach over and grab the remote off the table.

I hit the on button and the TV clicks on. The screen brightens as a familiar movie begins to play.

"Turn this crap off," Jasper orders sharply at me. Ha, as if I would ever do that. So instead, I turned up the volume.

"Seven AM the usual morning line up," boomed loudly from the TV as Rapunzel starts singing. I smiled smugly at Jasper who was frowning at me. But I didn't care. Tangled is a fantastic movie and on amount of testosterone can change that.

"I said turn it off," Jasper seethed as he got up and tried to snatch the remote out of my hands. Instead, I jumped to my feet and rushed to the opposite side of the room. "I am a guest in your house. It's common courtesy to let me control the TV."

"No, your parents are the guests. You're just the mongrel who tagged along."

"Wait, what did you call me?" He questioned as he started walking towards me. I backed up, making sure to keep a distance between us.

"A mongrel. You know what you are," I say as I turned and walked behind the loveseat.

"You're really going to regret that," he said threateningly.

"What are you going to do? Egg my car? Make sure I have no friends. Oh wait, you've already done that."

"I've got something else in mind," he said as he smirked at me. I hated his smirk. It made my stomach churn.

"Bring it asshole," I said calmly as I looked him in the eyes. I knew provoking him would land me in trouble, but on of these days, I will get him back.

"Are you two making out in there," I heard my mom yell from the kitchen. Whenever she's drunk, she gets the illusion that Jasper and I are "lovers". Her words, not mine. She had even made up couple names for us. Her favorite was Jasttie. I almost puked when I heard that.

"No," I shout in disgust. But Jasper, being the bundle of misery he his, shouted yes. His voice over powering mine.

"We're gonna have adorable grandbabies," I heard my mom and Emily squeal.

Jasper looked down at me with a victory smile. "Hear that? They want beautiful grandbabies. We better get started."

"Oh please. I have standards. And you don't pass with," I say as I motioned to his whole body. "This."

"Ouch, you're breaking my heart," he says as he held a hand where his heart should be, but the only thing there was a pit that would make even the Grinch jealous.

"Trust me. The only way I'll break your heart is with a sledgehammer," I say as I pushed past him. If I was in the kitchen with everyone else, I wouldn't have to listen to his voice. So that's what I did.

I even took the remote.