Break 1.1

I felt numb. Dad had tried talking to me during the drive home, but I only made halfhearted attempts to respond, and he could tell. He quickly stopped trying to talk to me and retreated into himself, slightly hunching his back. I felt terrible for making him feel worse, but I couldn't handle conversation right now. I was desperately trying to avoid thinking about...

I shook my head, and blinked back the tears threatening to well up in my eyes. No, I wasn't going to let them get to me! I wasn't! I felt the car pull to a stop, and opened my eyes. We were in the driveway. Wow, I was out of it if I hadn't noticed how close we were to our neighborhood before this. I yanked the handle of the car door, and pushed it open, eliciting a concerned glance from my Dad. I ignored it for now, and shambled quickly to the door, leaving it open behind me as I entered the house. My dad scrambled out of the car behind me, dashing up the walk behind me. As I moved to ascend the stairs to my room, he called out to me.

"Taylor! Wait-I, I would like to talk to you!" He pleaded. I paused at the foot of the stairs, before turning my head to look at him. This proved to be a mistake, as when I saw the anguished look on his face, I had to choke back a sob of my own. He continued, apparently sensing my hesitation. "Please, Taylor, I... I just want to help you." He said, looking miserable.

I swallowed, my mouth suddenly feeling very dry. I felt my hands shaking, and folded my arms to prevent it from showing. I tried to speak, but my voice suddenly failed me. I just nodded, before walking over to the couch and falling into it. My Dad sat next to me, and wrapped one of his arms around me and squeezed me to his side.

I opened and closed my mouth a few more times, trying and failing to find where to even begin to describe my past year and a half of school, and what exactly the Trio had done.

My dad seemingly received some measure of my unspoken measure, as he hugged me with both arms this time. "Taylor, I'm here for you. No matter what, I'm here." He stated firmly, though I noted some tears in his eye.

As though a dam had broken, I began to recount the last year and a half of school, starting with Emma's sudden betrayal, and culminating in my being shoved into a waste-filled locker.

OoOoO

At some point during my exposition, my dad had given me a mug of hot chocolate. I sipped at it between particularly depressing points in my tale, as I watched my Dad's hand that wasn't holding me clench and unclench on the armrest. He was doing an incredible job of not expressing his simmering anger in any other way, unless how tightly he was holding me was unintentional.

After I finished regaling him of everything, I fell silent, save for an occasional shuddering gasp as I tried to hold in my tears. Once he was sure that I was done, he spoke up.

"Taylor, where do you want us to go with this? The principal? The police? Straight to the media? I can't believe Alan would just let this happen-!" He began a diatribe on his, probably now former, best friend, when I stopped him.

"Dad, I doubt that he knew. He was like an uncle to me, you know that. If he knew about this, he would have put a stop to it himself." I stated uncertainly. I wasn't too sure of this, actually, but I needed to cool my Dad's anger before it reached volcanic levels. "But we can't just tell him about it, either. Why would he believe us just like that? I'm sure that Emma has been keeping a charade going throughout this whole... thing. She's probably been giving him the impression that everything's been just peachy between us, and if it comes down to you versus her, in his mind, she wins." At that thought, I doubled over, but not in pain.

In anger. The tears that flowed from me now were tears of rage. "She ALWAYS wins." I said bitterly. My hands clenched around the mug I was holding. Why? Why couldn't I get a break anywhere? I just got home from the hospital, and I was already dreading my return to school, knowing that all that I had waiting for me there was more tortorous days from Emma and company. I wanted to punch something, kick something, ANYTHING to channel the rage suffusing my entire being, but most of all, I wanted to hurt EMMA like she had hurt me-

CRACK

The mug I was holding shattered into pieces, and I gasped in shock, jerking my hands away. My lap was now covered in shards of ceramic, though I had fortunately avoided cutting myself on any of them.

"Taylor! Are you alright?" My dad said worriedly. He leapt to his feet, and leaned down to examine my hands.

"I-I'm fine dad. Really. Sorry about the mug, it's just, it all makes me so angry-" I babbled, ashamed of myself. He gave me a bit of a sad look, though I knew it wasn't directed towards me, it was aimed at everything that had happened to me. He wasn't angry about the mug.

"It's fine Taylor, we have more mugs, I'll go grab a dustpan." He puttered off to search for the dustpan and a brush, while I glanced back down at my hands.

I hadn't held it that tightly, had I? I'm sure that the pressure that would have been needed to break the mug like that is greater than the amount I would have been capable of channeling unconsciously, or even intentionally. Those were some thick mugs.

...So how did it break?

OoOoO

Two plates and another mug later, my dad and I had come to a realization.

"Taylor... are you thinking what I'm thinking?" My dad said, eyes sparkling. I looked at him incredulously. I could definitely see what this looked like, and I didn't understand how my dad could possibly be excited about it.

"I'm a parahuman," I said bluntly. "And it looks like my power is breaking things. How is this good? How could you possibly think this is good?" I was beginning to get hysterical. "All I've wanted to do is fix my life, make things better, and suddenly I have a power that breaks things around me, and I can't control it!" I was crying again.

My dad's grin dropped off his face as he pulled me into another hug. "No! Taylor, no! Don't think about it that way! You have a power now, and while you may not be able to control it yet, I believe that you will be able to! I believe in you!" He said, and I could tell that he was trying his best to console me. I just hugged him back, trying to stop my tears.

He started speaking again. "Taylor, whatever happens now, remember. You are not powerless. They tried to break you down and make you weak, and you came out stronger for it. You are stronger than them, not because you can defeat them, but because you have taken the worst they could dish out, and you stood firm. They have never had to endure the things you've had to, and that means that you're stronger than they are."

He took my chin in his hand and forced me to look him in the eyes. "Taylor Anne Hebert. You are stronger than you think."

I simply buried my head in the hug, unable to give voice to the gratitude I felt to my father for helping me when I was at my lowest point.

He knew anyways.