I glanced quickly at Mom, who, upon hearing Dad's question, had looked at me. Was I supposed to tell him or not? Wiping her hands off on a towel, Mom nodded, telling me to proceed. Yet, she still stood defensively behind me, watching Dad closely.

"Max is a friend of mine," I told Dad.

"Really?" he questioned, unimpressed, as he rose to his full height. I though, was close to his height, and therefore, was not intimated by his presence. "And, what are the odds that there would be another Max in Seattle besides this one?" he asked with a nod towards Mom.

"Pretty good odds considering I just met her," I bit back. Unlike my mom and I, my dad and I did not have the best relationship. For starters, he wasn't one to have a relationship. I didn't think it was in him to actually have a lot of emotions required in a relationship. Secondly, Dad had been gone for three years coming and going as he deemed acceptable, and that basically ticked me off right then and there. You don't leave your partner and kid alone. Lastly, both Dad and I were too headstrong for each other, always butting heads on something…anything.

"Don't start it," he told me angrily.

"Start what?"

"Who is Max?" he asked, ignoring my question.

"She's a friend of mine."

"You've already said that, Alanza. Quit repeating yourself like a mindless drone."

"Does it matter who she is? You never care!" I yelled at him, fuming. He could be just so infuriating sometimes. Ok, I wasn't an innocent angel either, but he just had that ability to bug the hell out of me.

"Don't talk to me like that," he hissed, not wanting to raise his tenor voice to yelling.

"Yeah? Well, what if I want to? Y'know, it's true, you never seem to care about me…or Mom!"

"Alanza…" Mom said softly from behind me, but I ignored her. Dad was not a threat to me.

"Who is Max?" he repeated.

"Well, well, well, now who's acting like a fuckin' mindless drone?!" I spat back. There was a pause as the air gathered around us. In a quick flash, I saw his hand coming towards me before he probably even realized what he was doing. Immediately reacting, I grabbed him by the wrist, holding him back. He glared at me through slit eyes, not saying anything.

"You wanna fight?" I hissed. "Bring it on." It was mocking him, really it was. We all knew that I could whip my parents' butts any day without even trying. It wasn't an opinion of any sorts; it was a fact.

Mom didn't care either way, due to the fact that I rarely had a valid reason to get extremely angry with her. And when I was mad at her, it came and went rather swiftly. Besides, Mom never would fight me even if she had a chance. That was just the way it was.

Dad on the other hand, would fight me if he had to. I wasn't really viewed as his daughter, just another person in his way-the enemy sometimes. And, we got angry with each rather frequently, which would usually result in physical gestures. Yet, it both irritated and ashamed him that he could be beaten down by me. So, whenever we got into a verbal argument, I would poke that reminder into him, just to tell him what he was dealing with.

And, sure enough, Dad backed down, only for a little bit though. "Who is Max?" he repeated under his breath.

I backed away and grabbed my coat off the arm of the couch, ignoring his question. Again, he repeated his question. Throwing my coat on, I screamed back, "It's Jace's daughter!" Then, with a swift flick of my arm, I slammed the door shut, letting the reverberations echo throughout the cheap plaster walls.