The light from his desk lamp shone on his face as he propped his head up.  Lia laid next to him, her heart beating as she rubbed at his upper arm, willing him along. They had been at his place for several hours. Fortunately for Lia's sake, both his mother and younger sister had been asleep and hadn't noticed the pair. They had tried watching a Fast and Furious movie that had been playing on a random channel, but Lia could tell by his face something had been bothering him all night.  Justin looked down, trying to steady his emotions.  The last thing he wanted to do was to start crying in front of Lia.  He knew she'd never make fun of him for it, but the guy in him didn't want to break.

"I was supposed to be watching both of them," he went on softly, his words dripping out slowly.  "Katrina and Ally.  It pissed me off.  Having to babysit when I should be able to be a teenager.  Come and go as I pleased.  But my mom was working two jobs and my dad travels a lot for work.  She was struggling so I couldn't just say no."

Lia just nodded, knowing not to interrupt.  Justin's eyes were dark as he traced random patterns on his bed.

"Ally was in a bad mood," he went on.  "She wanted me to take her to the park before it got dark, but I had a deadline.  I had to upload my English essay by 8:00.  I'd already asked for an extension and I knew I couldn't have any more excuses.  So I fixed them both hot dogs and some mac and cheese, put on Spongebob, and disappeared into my room.  It was the first quiet I had all day.

"Treena was so little.  She was only four.  Ally was six.  I figured I could leave them for a half hour and I'd hear if anything went wrong.  Ally choked on a piece of hot dog.  Treena didn't know what was going on or didn't notice.  I came out a while later and Ally was laying on the floor.  Treena thought she was sleeping."

His voice caught on the last word and he put his hand over his eyes.  The images flashed back in his mind.  Treena standing by crying as he desperately tried to slap at Ally's back; get her to cough.  He'd tried to help her for over ten minutes before he'd finally called 911.

"And she was gone," he croaked.  "Just like that.  Because I had to finish my homework."

Lia couldn't imagine the guilt he must have been feeling for the last year.  She chewed at her lip, wishing she knew what to say.   What could she say?  That it was okay?  His sister was gone forever while under his care.  Nothing could ever make things okay again for his family.

"I'm so sorry," she whispered, still rubbing gently at his arm.  He still wouldn't look at her, ashamed of his past.  Lia was one of the few people who knew the truth now.  The rumors had been worse.  The look on his mother's face was the absolute worst.

"I know my mom blames me," he said.  "She doesn't say it but I know she does.  Wishes she never trusted me with them."

"Accidents happen," she tried to console him.  "It was an accident."

"Yeah, but if I'd been watching them like I should've I would have saved her," Justin said, shaking his head in disgust with himself.  He laid on his back and draped his arm over his eyes.  Lia scooted a little closer, letting her hand rub at his chest.

He let out an exhausted sigh.  "I deserve this," Justin said.  "I deserve to live with the guilt for the rest of my life because I was an idiot.  And now she's dead."

"You can't let it rule your life," Lia tried to reason with him.  "You were just a kid yourself with way too much responsibility."

They were both silent for several long minutes.  Lia didn't know what to do or say, so she just laid her head on his shoulder and draped her arm over him.  There was nothing that could fix this for him.  No magic words would bring his sister back or take his guilt away.

"Anyway," his voice lightened a little.  "Thanks for listening."

He finally turned his head towards hers and gave her a sweet kiss.  Lia was the first girl he felt he could talk about this with.  He knew she wouldn't judge him or run away in disgust.

"Of course," she told him, relieved that he seemed grateful.  Lia doubted she'd handled it well.  She had no idea how to handle this kind of information.  She didn't even know if she fully believed all that she had said.  Someone like her mother would know what to say.

Lia sat up in a panic, looking at Justin's alarm clock.  3:32 a.m.  She swung her legs off the edge of the bed and grabbed for her purse.  Lia had been so caught up with Justin that she hadn't even looked at her phone in hours.  As she fished it out, her heart dropped.  Twelve missed calls from her mother.  Seven from her father, along with dozens of texts.

"Shit!" she cursed in a panic.

"What's wrong?" Justin sat up and scooted towards the edge of the bed next to Lia.

"My parents are going to kill me," she told him as she bent down to pull on her shoes.  "They've been texting and calling me."

"Shit, I'm sorry," Justin ran his hand over his disheveled hair.  "I lost track of time.  Want me to call you an Uber?"

Lia stood up and grabbed her jacket from the back of Justin's desk chair, her mind racing.  On top of killing her for being over five hours late, her parents would kill her again for taking the subway in the middle of the night alone.

"Uhhh....yeah..." she decided, biting her lip.  Should she call her parents?  Text?  She knew they must be worried out of their minds, but she also dreaded the disappointment on their faces and in their voices.  Lia decided she at least owed them a call.

Justin grabbed his own phone and opened his Uber app, feeling badly that he may have gotten her in trouble.  Lia winced as she pulled up her mother's number and pressed call.  Vanessa picked up immediately.

"Lia?" In only two syllables, Lia could tell just how stressed her mother had been.

"Hi, Mom," she answered tentatively, pushing her feet into her well-worn converse.

"Oh God, Lia," Vanessa felt a wave of relief rush over her as she paced around her kitchen.  The last few hours had been hell.  She and Lin were on the verge of calling the police.  Lin, on the phone in the living room with his dad, quickly said goodbye, overhearing his wife's relief.  "Are you okay?  Where are you?"

"I'm sorry," she told her.  "I'm with Justin.  We lost track of time and I..."

Vanessa's relief was quickly replaced with anger at how irresponsible her oldest child had been.  Lia was one to be almost too good most of the time.  It was so out of character for her not to answer texts and calls, which was what had gotten them so worried.

"...didn't answer your phone for four hours," Vanessa finished for her, tucking her free arm around her body.  Lin was by her side in moments, leaning in to hear his daughter's voice.  He'd been having visions of her unconscious in an alley; bleeding on an empty subway train and without her phone.  It had been some of the worst few hours of his life.  "And we've had no idea where you've been since four this afternoon. Do you know how worried we've been?"

Lin gently grasped his wife's upper arm, hoping to calm her down a bit.  He'd been just as worked up as she had, but the last thing they all needed was to lose their tempers with each other.

Lia felt tears welling up, hating when her parents were angry at her.  And just when they'd been starting to really treat her as an adult.  "Mom, I'm sorry," her voice caught.  Justin took her hand, feeling guilty that her parents were apparently pissed.  "I just lost track..." she repeated.

"And you were with Justin?!" Vanessa went on.  "Are his parents home?"

Her mother's sudden distrust in her stirred up her feelings from earlier; how she could have had a happy, normal, two-parent upbringing if it wasn't for her mother's selfishness.  "Yeah, HIS parents have both been around all his life.  We've been perfectly well supervised."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Vanessa retorted, feeling a punch to the gut.  Lin had overheard enough.  He firmly fished the phone out of his wife's hand before a mother-daughter verbal smackdown could commence.

"...but instead I had to go through childhood with a stick-in-the-mud mother who-"

"Emilia Nadal Miranda," Lin's firm voice came through loud and clear, stopping Lia's words in her throat.  It was rare that her dad ever had to put his oldest child in her place.  He was not going to let her continue bashing his wife, who'd been put through hell the last few hours.  "Now stop and take a breath."

Lia ran her tongue over her teeth, pissed with her mother and with herself for what she'd just thrown at her.  She tried to take in a cleansing breath, but her pulse was racing.  Confrontations were not her thing.  This was why she always tried to go with the flow.

"Dad-" she practically whimpered, not even knowing what to say.

"Are you safe?" he asked, his voice calmer now but still no-nonsense.

"Yes," she told him, still on the verge of tears again.  "I'm at Justin's house."

"Tell me his address and I'll call you a cab."

"He's already ordering me an Uber," she explained, looking over at Justin.  He held up his phone, showing a confirmation and a thumbs up.

"Okay, good," Lin told her, giving Vanessa's shoulder a squeeze.  She pushed him off and instead went for the wine.  "I'm glad you didn't decide to try to take the subway.  Does his building have a doorman?  Can he wait with you until the Uber gets there?"

"Yes, Dad," she grumbled, feeling like a child again.  Did he really not trust her to be able to get home?  It's not like she was some newbie to the city and didn't know the subway alone at night was a bad idea.

"Put Justin on the phone for me," he requested as he watched Vanessa pour a very large glass of red wine.  Lin knew enough about his wife not to mess with her wine consumption when she was ticked off.

"Dad!" she protested, feeling humiliated.  Justin was in college; he didn't need to deal with some high schooler's daddy.  When Lin insisted, she reluctantly held out the phone and asked Justin to take it.   It was the first interaction Justin was going to have with either of her parents.  She was pretty sure he'd never want to talk to her again.

Lia finished gathering up her stuff and wiped the mascara from under her eyes and she listened to Justin politely say a combination of yes sirs and no sirs.  After her dad had apparently been satisfied by his answers, Justin ended the call and handed it back to Lia.

"Sorry," she told him meekly, tucking her phone in her jeans pocket.  "I hope he wasn't an ass to you."

"No worries," he told her, brushing a stray hair away from her face.  "Just being a dad.  He just wants me to stay with you until the car comes."

Lia chuckled humorlessly and rubbed at her forehead.  "This is probably why college guys shouldn't date high school girls.  They're still on a leash."

Justin just shook his head.  "Not at all," he reassured her.  "I'm willing to wait.  It's not every day you find a girl who doesn't bolt the other direction once she knows what happened to Ally.  Like half my graduating class.  I was a complete leper."

Justin was so gentle and caring; she couldn't imagine a girl running away from him.  "Then they're fools."

Justin gave a shy smile, looking down for a moment, then took her warm hand in his.  "Let's get you downstairs."

____

Half an hour later, Lia stepped out of the Uber in front of her Washington Heights brownstone, letting out a long breath.  Knowing that as soon as she stepped into her apartment she'd been in deep trouble made her appreciate these last few moments outside.  Even in the middle of the night, she could hear the sounds of her block - car horns, latin music, laughter.  She wasn't sure if she could imagine herself living anywhere else.  Would whatever college she ended up at ever feel like home?  Where would she be this time next year?  Cambridge? L.A.?  Downtown New York?

Lia looked up at the sky and admired the few stars that weren't outshone by all the light pollution.  She never minded though; she preferred the twinkling lights of Manhattan that were visible from her bedroom window.

After the ride up the elevator she let out another breath of resignation as she put her key in the lockhole.  No doubt both her parents would be up waiting for her.  She pushed the door open gently, finding the apartment mostly dark besides a lamp in the living room.  Instead of walking in to her mother shouting at her in Spanish, she found her father standing up from the couch, in pajamas and looking very sleepy.  The guilt of worrying them washed over her again.  Her dad didn't need more reason to add to the bags under his eyes.  She sighed as she pulled her sneakers off.

Lin gave her a sheepish look, with a hint of disappointment and relief mixed in, as he padded over to her.  Without saying anything, he gently took her face in his hands, his eyes welling up, before pressing a kiss to her forehead.

"I'm sorry," she told him as he rested his hands on her shoulders.

"I know," he replied softly.  "You may be practically grown but you can't do that to us again.  I'm getting too old to stay up 'til five a.m."

Lia gave a small smirk, knowing how much he treasured his sleep, especially with two young kids.  She sighed as she took off her backpack and set it on the kitchen counter.  She was surprised her mom hadn't waited up for her, given how pissed she'd sounded on the phone.

"I told your mom to go to bed," Lin told her, reading her mind.  He grabbed a glass from the cabinet and started pouring himself some water.  "There's no use in everyone staying up so we can have a shouting session.  We can talk tomorrow."

"You know, it's only a few more months until I'm in college," she told him, taking off her jacket.  "I won't be subjected to a curfew or checking in constantly."

Lin swallowed a gulp of water and studied his daughter for a few long moments.  "True," he agreed.  "But that won't stop your mother and I from worrying about you."

She rolled her eyes, but then it turned into a yawn, causing Lin to chuckle.

"You should apologize to your mom in the morning for scaring her," Lin suggested seriously.

Lia grumbled, "I already did and she didn't seem too receptive. She's being a helicopter parent."

"That's not fair," Lin frowned. "You were out way past curfew on a school night and weren't answering your phone. Of course she was going to worry."

"Did you hear the way she was talking to me?" Lia pointed out boldly. "I'll be at college in less than a year and she talked to me like I was a kid. It's always been that way with her."

"Lia, she acts that way because she cares. We both do,"

"Really?" Lia scoffed, "Because she didn't care enough to tell me that you were my father for fourteen years."

Lin was taken aback by the sharp turn her words had taken.  They'd just been talking about missing curfew and Lia had spun off on a tangent about her whole childhood.  Whatever these feelings were stirring up ran deep. Lia twisted her lips, a tell-tale sign she was fighting not to get emotional.

"Hey, hey," he said gently, putting his hands on her upper arms.  Lin ducked his head to try to make eye contact with her.  "I think we both need to get some sleep and take a breather.  You're obviously still upset, so let's just chill a bit, okay?"

Lia closed her eyes and nodded her head slightly.  She was one to know how a bad combination of lack of sleep and a bad temper could blow up in her face. 

"Is it even worth going to bed?" She asked.  "I have to be up in two hours for school."

"Absolutely," Lin told her, turning her 180 degrees.  He started walking, forcing her in turn to start walking down the hallway.  "Every minute counts."

Lia grumbled, the reality of her night of fun coming back to bite her.  She was facing a full school day on two hours' sleep, plus a whole night of studying lost.  Despite being almost an adult, she kind of liked her dad following her into her room, pulling back her covers, then closing her blinds.  After letting out a resigned sigh, she relaxed as her dad pressed a final kiss to her forehead and turned off her light.

"Love you kiddo," he told her, giving her a wink.

"Love you too, Dad," Lia called back weakly before her exhausted body finally gave in to sleep.

Lin stood in her doorway, the room still slightly lit from the sun that was starting to rise through her window. He grinned, shaking his head, as he heard the light snore emitting from his daughter's bed. The same daughter who has questioned if she should even go to sleep not less than ten minutes prior. He had had not even four complete years with her and she'd be graduating high school in little over six months. Lia was growing up so fast and still had so much to learn. He rubbed his hand over his face, knowing that he should take his own advice and head to bed. Like he told Lia, they could talk tomorrow. He gave one last amused look at his daughter before closing her door.

Teenagers. They think they know everything.