Ted's eyes glanced toward the bathroom door, where Mikayla had holed up, and Randy's eyes followed. Mike was a bit of a loose cannon-they knew this. And Randy had suggested to Peyton to put his earbuds in and play on his iPod for a little bit. Peyton did, but of course he didn't put the volume on, lol. He heard every word they were saying, unbeknownst to them.
Randy asked flat out what happened, what the backstory was. Ted told him precisely what little Mikayla said to her grandmother that ended up with Ted Sr. bringing her here. Let's just say that the word, that started with a C and ended with a T, with four letters, a word Randy was known to use, that should Peyton use, he'd have ended up with his own fried backside...Randy was a little more than startled to hear that a little girl called Melanie DiBiase -that-.
Peyton did well to hide his shock and just tried to look engrossed in Temple Run, but he couldn't imagine using that word to an adult. While Randy's never slapped him in the face, in all of his life (Randy has a thing about that. Being punched in the mouth by Cowboy Bob at about 13-14 years old, that's something that stuck with Randy, and he'd made and kept a personal vow to never hit any child of his there, that doesn't make old-school parenting completely off-limits. Peyton's thrown over the knee when absolutely necessary. It's a Midwest/Southern thing and it's a last resort and pretty effective. Just the threat alone tends to work more often than not, and when you've got an intimidating-looking Dad who's got the parental "LOOK" down to a science, rarely do you have to raise a hand...)
"I'd have probably took the belt to him if he'd ever called -my- mother that," Randy admitted. Peyton felt his face flushing and stomach dropping. NEVER would he call his grandmother THAT! He VALUED his life!... and he rearranged himself to face away a little more so his eavesdropping didn't become totally obvious.
Ted agreed. "But here's the thing. Mike...well, Mike doesn't get along great with my mother. You know that." Mike was from Ted Sr.'s first marriage and Melanie was his stepmother. While -Mike- might not think greatly of her, he acknowledged that -that- level of disrespect wasn't allowed. He also gave Ted free reign to handle her as he saw fit, dispelling Mikayla's earlier telling of Ted that "we do not hit in this family." That was more of an attempt of convincing Ted of that, lol. Wishful thinking.
Ted had chuckled grimly when he conveyed this to Randy..."She knows her Grandpa won't touch her, and my mother was too upset to. Brett? Brett wouldn't hurt a fly. But her being dropped off here as quick as she was, I'm gonna set that aside. What she said to my mother, that's between them. She got mouthy with me and she got herself swatted. She keeps it up, so will I. She'll learn one way or another. I just...well, Mike says to treat her as my own, and he saw through her bullshit. You also know my brother's a little nuts, but that little girl's probably the only reason he's stayed out of prison for this long." Mike had done time in Texas but has done his best to be law-abiding for his daughter's sake.
Mike also told Ted that she's the reason he's stayed clean, drug-wise, for as long as he has. This is one of the longest stretches of Mike's adult life that he's been able to. And while he lets certain shit go, and tries not to be too rough, Mikayla's no stranger to punishment when deserved. And Mike's reasoning is that "when she doesn't listen with her ears, I talk to the other end." She's getting a little old chronologically to be treated like a bratty little second-grader but when the attitude calls for it, that's the only thing that gets her to listen. When it's things like what she'd done with her cellphone (letting Mike go to voicemail while he went out of his head with worry over where she was when she'd gone to the pizza place with her friends), then he goes with the older-kid punishments like grounding and threatening to take the phone away.
Mike reassured Ted that he'd done no wrong and, much to Mikayla's dread should she find out that her Daddy told her Uncle this, "Whatever you give her, she gets from me when she gets home." Ted didn't look comfortable with that, though, "Because seriously, that might cause her to do one of two things. Act out more...like Brett used to, when we were kids...my mother would crack him a shot, tell Senior and then he'd get punished for the same thing twice...so his logic was 'if I'm gonna get it double, I might as well make it worth it', -or- she's gonna just more or less walk on eggshells and be in fear. That ain't right."
Randy agreed that it wasn't right. "Nothin' stoppin' you from figuring it out as you go along. Like I do with him. But when he fucks up royally..which I'm blessed he tends not to...but when he does something that's gonna earn him some pain, I tell him I hope it was worth it. Then I make sure he's sorry, but after that? Clean slate. If you're gonna have her here, you might wanna make a deal with her that as long as she doesn't make the same mistake..well, not mistake...but you know what I mean..if she learns the first time from you and doesn't repeat whatever she did, then just don't tell Mike."
Ted thought about it, and applied it to his own memories. Would've been a lot less stressful when his Dad came home off the road knowing that Senior would have been stress-free and -happy- to see them rather than first having to lay down the law, make them miserable, and then the next day, everything would be okay.
Peyton popped an earbud out and asked if he could go back to their hotel room..he needed to go to the restroom and didn't want to barge in on Mikayla. Ted offered to fish her out of there, but it was Randy who said no, "It's better we go for now. The longer she sits in there, the longer you got for her to get all worked up. I'll take him on back to our room. You work things out and we'll, 4 of us, have breakfast tomorrow. It's gettin' late anyways."
Mikayla, meanwhile, had heard all of it, not knowing Peyton had. Even still, she was mortified that she was the topic of conversation like that. But she was feeling a ton of gratitude that Peyton's Dad was maybesortakinda saving her a little. Because even though that swat from her Uncle Ted did sting, it significantly faded. Had Daddy gotten a hold of her tonight? She'd have cried herself to sleep, guaranteed. She heard the Ortons say their goodnights and she'd cracked the bathroom door open a little to offer a meek goodnight of her own. It was barely audible, but they had heard it. She didn't make eye contact with Peyton because it was just too embarrassing. Had she even attempted eye contact, she'd see Peyton too was squirming. Ted and Randy exchanged glances with a knowing, soft chuckle.
Ted didn't even have to ask her to come out of the restroom once the Ortons left, but his tone did change. It wasn't as militant as it had been earlier, but there was still a tone of not-too-thrilled-with-you and the Voice of Authority, albeit softer.
"Come sit by me here, we're gonna sort this now."