"What took you so long?" asked Richard when they got back. Dwayne just walked right by him, not answering. "Dwayne, I asked you a question." He still didn't stop, not feeling in the mood to talk to Richard. "You weren't stopping off at one of your bimbo's houses, where you?" Richard spoke in an accusing manner. Dwayne shook his head. "Then where were you?" Richard grabbed Dwayne's arm.

"Don't fucking touch me!" Dwayne seethed.

"I want to know where my daughter was!"

"Dad, we just went to go get ice cream! Ok? I badgered him into it. Don't hurt him please, it wasn't his fault!" Richard loosened his grip on his step son's arm as Olive spoke. Dwayne began softly massaging the place where Richard had grabbed his arm, looking daggers at Richard.

"Honey, I don't mind. I just wish that Dwayne would have told me when I asked instead of being insolent." Dwayne muttered something inaudible under his breath, and walked back to his room, where he was relived to see Frank was out with Sheryl. Olive followed him in.

"What's a bimbo?" she asked. Dwayne was taken aback by the question.

"I don't know." Dwayne threw his hands up in the air. This was not something that he felt like explaining to his little sister right now.

"Ok, I'm going to go take a bath, are you going to be ok?" she asked this because she had noticed that the content expression that he had been wearing had completely vanished, and was now being replaced by a grim expression.

"I'll be fine, your father just pisses me off sometimes, more often then not right now though," Dwayne said. "But don't base your feelings for him off of mine, he loves you a lot more then he could ever even come close to loving me. You are his kid, and I'm not. It all boils down to that."

"Oh, um, well ok." Olive left, she didn't know what to say to that.

"See ya," he called after her. Dwayne turned on his radio, but tuned it out with his thoughts. A few minutes later, Richard came in.

"Hey, listen I don't want you around my little girl anymore, ok? At least I don't want you to be alone with her. Do you understand me?"

"Why the fuck not? She's my sister!" Dwayne looked Richard angrily in the eye.

"Why? Well, because you are sick!" Dwayne sighed.

"I see that you and my mother had a talk."

"Yes, Sheryl and I did have a little chat, and I tell you, she really, really loves you."

"What makes you say that?"

"She wants to keep you around now more then ever." Richard looked at Dwayne. "Me? I don't want you around Olive. I liked you, I thought you were alright, but this is just so unlike the person that I thought you were. I was just stunned when I found out. I thought you were a winner Dwayne, I really did."

"Well, sorry to say this, but I guess you were wrong." Dwayne shot Richard a look of pure contempt. "But who are you to fucking discipline me like this? Who are you to take away the rights for me to be with my sister?" Dwayne had known that Sheryl would share the information she had received with Richard, but he wished that she hadn't.

"Just don't influence my daughter, ok?" Richard left the room, slamming the door on his way out. Great. Now there really is no reason whatsoever to stay here, they just took away the one thing that I love about this place! Dwayne stared at his ceiling angrily. I want to be able to talk to her! But no, can't do that! I wonder if Richard told my mom he was going to do this. Dwayne got up and locked the door, he didn't feel like company anymore. Laying down on his bed, he tried his best to remain calm. Normally he would have blown a fuse, but it was only a couple of hours until his dad arrived, and he wanted to be composed for when that happened.

A little later, Dwayne was disturbed from his solitude by the doorknob being jiggled, then a knock on the door. "Dwayne, please open the door, it's Frank." Dwayne remained silent and didn't move. "Do you need to be alone? If you do that's fine, just say something it I'll assume that you've gone out of the window." Dwayne sighed and stood up and unlocked, but did not open the door. When Frank heard the lock click, he opened the door, almost hitting Dwayne in the back as he walked towards his bed. "Ok, what is up with you now? You have been like the poster boy for teenage angst or something ever since we got back from California."

"Richard," was Dwayne's sole response.

"What did he do this time?" asked Frank.

"I don't want to talk about it," Dwayne said. Then after a minute, "are you coming to the airport?"

"Probably, it's been a long time since I saw Steve." Steve was Dwayne's father.

"I think that makes Richard the only one not going."

"Yeah, well that doesn't surprise me. The two have never met before, have they?" Dwayne shook his head no. "Well this should be interesting."

"I hope dad tears Richard's head off of his shoulders." Dwayne spoke in a rather nonchalant manner, which struck Frank as amusing considering the sentence he had just delivered, and chuckled a little bit. He stopped when he saw Dwayne glaring at him.

"Sorry, well, I guess it's almost time to go?"

"Yeah, it is."

"Are you excited?"

"Why would I be excited about this?"

"Well, I thought maybe, since it has been almost a year since you last saw your father."

"Yeah, well, I don't really care."

"Then why do you want to go and live with him so badly?" Frank thought he knew the answer, but he wanted to double check, just make sure that Dwayne wasn't lobbying for this move for the wrong reasons.

"It's not about going there, it's about getting out of here. I need to get away from Richard, I need a father, but he doesn't even want me around anymore."

"Of course he does! He just has, um, an interesting way of showing it to people." Frank stumbled for the right words.

"No, he told me that he doesn't really want me around Olive anymore," Dwayne admitted.

"Why? Because of your, um, well your problem?"

"Pretty much." Dwayne sighed. "But I kind of see his point, I hate to say."

"Don't let him get to you, he's a jerk."

"If you had a little kid would you want her around someone like me? I mean think about it, and be honest." Dwayne folded his arms across his chest.

"Well, honestly, I couldn't say. I obviously don't have a child, so I wouldn't know what it's like. I'm inclined to say that I would want her around you because you are a great guy, but a parent's instincts may be different."

"See? There you go."

"BOYS! OLIVE! COME ON IT'S TIME TO GO!" Sheryl yelled from the hallway.

"COMING SHERYL!" Frank hollered back. Dwayne got up slowly and pulled his shoes on, then he followed Frank out to the hallway where Sheryl and Olive were already standing, waiting for them. Dwayne sighed and muttered under his breath so that Frank was the only one who could hear him.

"Here goes nothing."

"Well, we're all behind you kid, well, except Richard." Frank told Dwayne this as they walked out the front door, and to the semi-repaired Volkswagen bus.

"Yeah, well, let's hope that this goes ok, I'm just a little worried about dad and Richard." They all piled into the bus. Dwayne took one last deep breath, then he got in next to Olive. "Here goes," he said softly to himself. Then Frank revved the engine, and off they went.