Part 2:

Abby sat in a two-person sofa in her and John's living room, watching TV, or that was, not really watching. She was just using the pictures flying over the screen as an excuse to relax completely. Her eyelids felt heavy as she drew her legs up to her chin and pulled a blanket over herself.

Suddenly the distant sound of the TV was broken by a key in the lock. Abby raised her head and looked up just in time to see her husband walking in through the door.

"Hello sweety," he greeted her, walking up to the back of the couch, leaning down towards her for a kiss.

As their lips met, Abby felt an electric jolt through her whole body. She was happy that she was still capable of having these sorts of feelings, when she could have easily let the needs of her daughter Lee take over completely, and put her own aside.

"I love you," she sighed as the kiss ended, and gave John's eyes one last longing look, before returning to her former position on the couch.

John walked around the couch, so that he was facing her and pulled her legs down to his lap and placed himself up against her.

"Hmm… FearFactor," he smiled at her, looking at the television. "Very educational."

"Hey! It's not that bad, and besides, I was just… well, I was not really watching it," she tried to defend herself unsuccessfully. That particular programme was one of their oldest disagreements. Abby had always loved the show, but John thought it disgusting and insane.

Abby smiled to herself. She was sure she had the stronger argument, when remembering that the show had been running for almost twenty years by now.

"What?" John asked, looking up at her smiling face.

"Oh, nothing," Abby teased him. "Nothing that matters, at least." With those words, she snuggled closer to him, and watched the show.

A while later, she had no idea how long, Abby heard the door go again. This time, she figured, it had to be the last remaining member of the family, her fifteen-year-old daughter, Lee, coming home.

"Hey mom, hey dad," she yelled from the entrance hall, before entering the living room. "Uhh… maybe I should just leave again," she said, when she saw her parents cuddling up on the sofa. "Can I?" she then asked hopefully.

"Can you what?" Abby turned her head, to look at the young girl.

"Can I go? Peter is having a party. Everybody else's going," Lee explained.

"Lee! You know that is off the subject. We don't want you to start on that stuff… it easily gets out of control," John stood and stared at his daughter.

"But… I really want to go. Everybody else can go!" Lee repeated. She didn't want to be bound to be home alone all the time, just because her parents were who they were.

"Look, honey, things could so easily get out of hand," Abby tried to reason. It didn't do much good though and she knew it. The three of them had been arguing this on and off for a while now and she knew how things would turn out eventually. She did not, however, feel ready to let go of her daughter just yet.

"Why don't we just rent a movie tonight?" John stood up behind his wife, seemingly reading her mind.

…………………..

Lee just stood right in the middle of the room and looked at her parents in silence. Then she rolled her eyes. Why couldn't they just understand that they couldn't keep on forcing her to stay at home every weekend? Rent a movie? Did they think that she was still just a kid who thought that it was cool to hang out with her parents?

"No, dad I DON'T want to rent a movie! I just wanna go and have some fun with my friends! WHY CAN'T YOU JUST UNDERSTAND THAT?" she almost screamed that last part. Then she stormed up the stairs and into her room. Once in there she turned on her stereo as loud as she could and buried her tears of anger in her pillow.

……………………

"You know that we can't keep her from this stuff forever, right?" Abby asked as she turned and sat down on the sofa again. It pained her to keep her daughter from being social but on the other hand she just couldn't let go of the control she needed to feel. And she knew that John felt the same.

"Sssh, honey," John whispered and pulled her close. "I know that she is pissed at us now, but next time this topic comes up we can try to deal with it more properly. After all there's nothing more we can do tonight."

……………………

It was a nice morning when Lee woke up the next day. Seeing as she had nothing better to do, she had just gone to bed early the night before.

She looked at her alarm clock, which was situated on her nightstand. It told her that it was only 9 a.m. Probably still too early to call Anna and hear how the night had gone. Instead she decided to find her computer and do some of her piled-up homework for the following week.

But she didn't get much time to concentrate on her school work, though. Just as she had started her essay she received a text message on her phone. She bent down to look at it:

Shit man… stuff happened last night, sweety!

It was from Anna and Lee hurried up and wrote her back:

What happened??

The reply was fast:

You're not going to like it, but Cassie from the cheerleading team hooked up with Peter… I'm sorry!

Lee's heart skipped a beat. This just couldn't be for real! This was all her parents' fault. If they had just let her leave, she could have been the one who had gotten to kiss…

No, she couldn't think the thought to end. But of one thing she was sure: the next time there was a party, she was going to be at it! No matter what.