Delphine and Cosima sat in the car for a few minutes; the only sound the humming of the car engine and the breathing of the two.

"So," Cosima began.

Delphine sighed. "So."

"That was your…"

"Mom – No." She shook her head. "Mother."

"Oh."

There was another moment of silence before Cosima spoke up again.

"So, just wondering, is it normal to see her making out with my friend's dad?"

"No. Well, not technically."

"…"

"…"

"Want to elaborate on that?"

"I just, it's complicated. My mother, she – it's complicated."

"Well, I'm fairly intelligent, if you hadn't noticed. I'm sure I could follow along if you'd like to tell me."

"Well, uh, my father died when I was younger." She cleared her throat loudly, like she was coughing away the lump you get right before you cry.

"Delphine, I didn't mean you have to tell me. If it's too much-"

"Non, no, Cosima. I just, well, I loved my papa, very much. He was always very kind to me. We had a very strong bond. But, when I was nine he died in a car crash."

"I'm sorry, I had no idea."

"No, it's okay. It was nearly ten years ago, Cosima. I've moved on. But, my papa, he was good for my mère. She was so wild and eccentric, and without him she could have just gotten up one day and moved to Las Vegas with no, err, warning, I believe the word is?"

"Yeah, 'warning' works, obvs."

"Well, eccentric and wild is good, but without my papa around she had no one to reason with her crazy ideas. We did actually move to Las Vegas overnight."

"No!"

Delphine nodded solemnly.

"No shit?"

"I give you no shit, Cosima."

"Woah, dude."

"Oui. Eventually, she found someone in Las Vegas that she that she seemed to love, and married him. He was very rich, so we didn't have many problems after that." She sighed. "We were very lucky."

"Well, that's nice, right? Was he nice?"

Delphine was still staring straight ahead, and with the most serious voice Cosima had ever heard she replied, "He's a jackass."

Cosima laughed. "Stone cold!" She paused to look over at Delphine, grinning. "You're my kind of woman, Beraud."

Delphine smiled uneasily. Probably, Cosima thought, at the sexual implication to her words. She chided herself and swore she'd never say anything else that might make Delphine uncomfortable.

"Well, it is true, Cosima. He's a jackass. But I won't get into that. Anyway, my mother, well, she was happy with this man for quite some time. But, as all good things do, it ended eventually. They fought and fell out of whatever they were in, be it love or just attraction for each other, I'll never know. It seems predictable enough, now, right? That I went to go live with my crazy mother and the man was never to be seen again? Wrong. Oh, how I wish that had been the case."

"Then what happened?"

"Well, even though they weren't together anymore, he still seemed to care for me. With a father's a love, or a disgusting old man's love, whatever the case, he felt sorry for my mère, being poor as she was the day she was born. So he took me in."

"Wait – what? Didn't your mom have anything to say about that?"

"No. Mostly, she was just happy to be rid of me."

"I'm sorry."

Delphine shook her head but didn't say anything, probably not trusting herself to speak.

"Uh, what happened next?"

"Nothing. My mother left, and I got to stay with my stepfather. He has a lot of money, so it's not like it would benefit me to leave."

"But, dude, wasn't he a jackass?"

"Oui, still is, in fact."

"And you don't leave because…"

"He is paying for my education. Also, the house. I may have lied about having friends to help pay the rent. I can't leave. As much as I hate to admit it, I need him, Cosima."

"I'm sorry. That sucks. But, hey, once you're done with school you can leave, right? Get your own place?"

Delphine nodded, but it didn't seem like she really believed what Cosima had said. "Your house, it's on this street, yes?" She gestured towards the road she was about to turn onto. Cosima had a feeling that Delphine already knew where her house was but wanted to change the subject.

"Yeah, yeah it's this one. Just drop me off in front again."

Delphine pulled up in front of Cosima's house and unlocked the door for her. "Goodbye, Cosima."

"Bye," Cosima said. She opened the door and began to get out of the car before stopping mid-step and turning around. "Hey, are you sure you can't hang out on Sunday night?" There was no harm in asking again, just in case, right?

Cosima could see the internal struggle in Delphine's eyes before finally she frowned and said, "No. I'm sorry, Cosima. Some other time?"

Cosima waved her hands around, "Yeah, sure, of course. Bye, Delphine!" She resumed her walk back up to her house notably less cheerful, but kept a smile on her face anyway. When she reached the door, she turned around to wave goodbye. Delphine met her wave with a smile and a goodbye before backing up her car and driving out of the neighbourhood. Cosima's smile faded as she opened the door, not at all looking forward to seeing her parents again.

Just as she thought, there they were, waiting for her, on the couch. Her mother forced a smile and patted the spot next to her on the couch. "Come on, Cos. Sit."

Cosima looked over at her dad with a weary expression, but he just shrugged helplessly. She guessed he had even less control over the situation than she did. She sat down on the couch across from her mother, and she thought she saw the smile on her mother's face falter for a second before multiplying in strength and looking eerily like someone out of Coraline.

"Cosima," her mother began, "we know that you dislike Dr. Leekie."

Cosima snorted. "Really? Did you know that?"

Out of the corner of her eye she thought she saw her dad run his finger across his neck as if to say, 'cut it out,' but she ignored it as her mother resumed speaking.

"Yes, we actually do. But I'm afraid that for this one night you're going to have to tough it out and be polite."

Cosima's rolled her eyes. "And what exactly constitutes as 'polite,' mother?"

"Well, we expect you to speak to him if spoken to, and to either outwardly agree with anything he says to you or ignore it."

"But what if he says something stupid? Oh wait, that's everything that comes out of his mouth."

"If you can't be polite to him we'll have to leave you at home."

"You know, I think I actually prefer that option, maybe you should just leave me here. You know, I'm a cheeky, cheeky girl. You don't know what I could do next."

Cosima's mother took at deep breath and rubbed her temples. "Cosima, I am not in the mood for this right now."

"Well I'm not in the mood to go and socialise with Doctor Leekie." She said his name mockingly, her fingers raised in air quotes.

"Cosima, if you can't be polite to him just go and speak to someone else at the party. I'm sure there will be other kids your age."

"Mom, I'm seventeen. No other 'kid my age' is being forced to go to a party like this."

"Maybe not, but there will be other teenagers there."

"Yeah, ones who want to be there! No parent makes their child go places with them that they don't want to go to after the age of, like, twelve."

"Yes they do, Cosima."

"Okay, fine, maybe not twelve, but, sometime after that! I'm old enough to stay home alone, you know." She sat back in the couch, muttering under her breath, "God knows I do that enough."

Cosima's mother raised an eyebrow and put her hand to her ear. "Excuse me, young lady. What did you just say?"

"I said, 'god knows I do that enough.'" Cosima raised her voice. She hadn't told her parents off for all of their shit – ever. Maybe, Cosima thought, it was time to do so. "You leave me alone for all these long weekends and trips to Guatemala or some other random-ass place and now suddenly it's all, 'oh, Cosima, we can't leave you alone, that would be bad parenting!' 'Bad parenting' my ass! You leave me alone more than you're here! I've spent the last seven birthday's alone, and all because of you! My first day of middle school I came home, expecting to find my parents there to comfort me, because I was scared out of my fucking mind, but no! No parents, just a measly fucking note on a post-it saying you'll be home late! I woke up the day I was going to go get my driver's license, expecting you to be waiting to drive me to the registration place, but no, no, no! You had to go examine the fucking red-balled Iguana that lives in Saudi Arabia or some shit! I've been alone for most of my life, but now suddenly once I'm used to it, you just expect me to do whatever you want? No. You're out of your minds." She stood up from the couch, planning to storm out to her room and leaving a silence in her wake, when her mom stood up.

"Cosima Niehaus. You go up to your room right now, young lady."

Cosima turned around, her mouth open in shock. "What?"

"You heard me. Up. Now."

"Are you kidding me?" This couldn't be how they handled things, was it? She couldn't actually remember – it'd been too long since they'd had a fight, or, any conversation at all, really.

"No, I'm not. Now go up to your room while your father and I decide on a punishment for you."

"Fine." Cosima stomped up to her room, slamming the door behind her and muttering, "Bitch," under her breath.