A/N: Thanks for all the reviews! I totally appreciate it.
It all started last Saturday morning. I poured myself a bowl of Frosted Flakes, only to realize just seconds later that we were out of milk. Not real milk, of course, because Emma couldn't stand the thought of eating anything that came out of a cow. Soymilk. I'd gotten used to all of the weird healthy food by then. Plus I liked eating it. It was good for the baby.
I grabbed my purse and headed for the store. Usually Emma would have offered to go. She didn't really like to make me run errands or anything that might in some way hurt the baby, who was probably going to be her stepdaughter someday. But she spent the night at Mr. Schuester's house, (Ew…) and she wasn't back yet.
When I got to the store, I noticed something strange in the parking lot. Not strange, so much as unnerving. Dad's car was in the parking lot. I double-checked the license plate number to be totally sure it wasn't just some look-alike car. It wasn't.
Lima was a small town, and my parents did eat food, so I probably shouldn't have been too surprised to see them at the grocery store. But I hadn't seen or even spoken to either of my parents since they threw me out of the house two months ago. Still, now that the opportunity had presented itself, I was curious to see if I was really as dead to Mom and Dad as they had made me believe.
I forgot about the milk temporarily, and walked around the store, scanning up and down the aisles for my parents. After a few minutes, I found them, debating the merits of white over wheat bread.
I probably looked like a huge creeper there, but I stood, watching, until my dad left to get something at another part of the store. I couldn't talk to him yet. If either of them were going to forgive me and take me back, it was going to be Mom. I walked up behind her.
"Mommy?"
She turned around, looking just as surprised as I must have when I saw the car in the parking lot. Her eyes got all wide and watery, and for just a second, I thought maybe everything was going to be okay.
It wasn't. Just as soon as that glimmer of love and forgiveness had appeared, it was gone. Her features iced over almost immediately. It was something I used to admire about my mom, how she could just hide her emotions, so deep down that nobody could figure her out. In my family, that was real power: making people think you were something you weren't.
"Quinn." She said, politely. "How have you been?"
That was what hurt more than anything, my own mother talking to me like some acquaintance that she hadn't seen in a few months, instead of her little girl. I knew I had to stay cool too, at that point. Spilling my guts out to her wouldn't get me anywhere.
"I miss you." Damn.
Well, nothing to lose now, might as well start crying like a little baby right? I mean that's not exactly what I did. I had just enough self-control to avoid that. But not so much as to keep myself from telling her all about how mean everyone at school was being, and how Finn wasn't her father, and how he hated me now, and how I felt like I ruined everything in my life. I sounded like a little kid whining about a bad day at school, and it disgusted me.
And then my dad came back.
"What are you doing here?" he said. Almost angrily, like just because he kicked me out of the house, I wasn't allowed to even be in the same building as them anymore. I missed him too, but I kind of lost any hope of getting my dad back a long time ago.
"Out of milk. I should go. It was nice to see you." Then I ran away, feeling like an idiot. I had gotten exactly what I expected to get, which was nothing, but part of me still felt disappointed. I guess I never totally gave up on Mom taking me back. But I should have known. She'd never go against anything my father said.
I ran out into the parking lot and got in the car. I didn't cry, although God knows I wanted to. Just set off for home. Well, my new home anyway.
I was halfway down the street when I realized I forgot the damn milk.
A/N: I'm going to try to update again this weekend. Hopefully the next chapter will be longer. And possibly happier. If y'all want anything in particular to happen, leave me a review, and you might see your idea in the next couple chapters!