18. Wait 15-25 Mins

Maisie blearily opened her eyes to the penetrating sound of a monotonous beep that just kept going round and round in a circle. She blinked a couple times and rubbed at her eyes until her vision wasn't so blurry. Turning her head, she looked over at the bedside table where bright red numbers flashed at her.

Maisie stared at the numbers for a moment until the dots connected in her brain and she was suddenly scrambling out of bed. She ran to the bathroom and quickly cleaned her teeth before throwing on clothes and tying her rat nest of a hairdo out of the way.

9:57

She had three minutes to get out the damn door or her monster of a half sister was going to be whining for hours in her ear about waiting like some kind of idiot. Maisie ran down the stairs and grabbed a pack of eggos from the freezer and shoved two into the toaster.

She'd be damned if she was skipping breakfast just to please Rachel and her dad.

Maisie slipped on her converse and looked at the rest of the shoes where her mom and Tony's were missing.

"Could have freaking woken me up before you left," she muttered bitterly and ran back to the kitchen when the toaster popped.

Grabbing the two Eggos, Maisie wrapped them in a napkin and practically stumbled out of the front door, just managing to lock it behind her. She walked to the bus stop and luckily only had to wait a few minutes before one came strolling down the street. She showed her card and sat on the not very populated bus near the back and happily munched on her waffles.

She couldn't help but think back to the night before. How nice it was to be around Logan, the amount of times she laughed and the fact that he had taken her somewhere that his old friends owned; that he wasn't hesitant about leading her directly into his life. And the movie had been perfect, lying on the top of the car in the stuffy night air. A smile fell across Maisie's face and a horrible part of her sank because she was going to see her dad instead of in her bakery, around people that actually cared back.

Twenty minutes later, Maisie was rushing through the doors of the arrivals at the airport. She reached the right area and it was heaving with people that had all their families with them as they walked the opposite way to Maisie out of the doors. She finally made it to the middle of the room and saw her dad and Rachel leaning against a post with a single suitcase each in their hands. Her dad was on his phone and Maisie sighed before walking over.

Sadly, Rachel was the first to notice her.

The blonde gave Maisie a pointed look and pushed some stray hairs off her forehead. "Nice of you to finally show up," she said with a tight smile and Maisie gave one back.

Her dad looked up and smiled, opening his arms out immediately for a hug that Maisie returned. She felt his phone lightly dig into her back and ignored it as she looked over her dad's shoulder at Rachel and silently lifted up her middle finger. Rachel scoffed and grabbed the handle of her suitcase, dragging it along the floor as she already started walking with an iced drink in her hand that they must have bought while waiting.

Maisie's dad pulled away from her and gave a quick smile. "How are you?" he asked and grabbed his suitcase before following after Rachel who had no idea where the fuck she was going.

Rachel pulled back and trailed behind them so Maisie hung around her dad.

"I'm good. The bakery's doing really well," Maisie smiled. "We get tons more customers now."

"That thing still going?" her dad asked.

Maisie looked away and put her hands in her pockets, feeling a sudden drop in her enthusiasm. "Um, yeah it is."

"Well that's good, I guess," he said. "How's school?"

Maisie swallowed. "Not bad."

They walked towards the bus terminal and the light shone down on them harshly but Maisie strangely just sought comfort from it.

"Do you like doing psychology? I loved it when I was at University," he said.

Maisie nodded. "It's great. Everything I thought it would be."

"That's great, Maisie," her dad grinned and put a hand on her shoulder.

They stopped at where a small line of people had started to get the bus and luckily only had to wait a few minutes for one to come round the corner. The three of them hopped on and got their suitcases secured on one of the racks. As her dad was putting Rachel's suitcase up on the rack, Maisie's skin bristled as her annoying voice came from the seat behind her.

"Really? A bus?" she hissed.

"Sorry I didn't book a damn limo in time," Maisie scoffed back and Rachel narrowed her eyes at her.

Her dad told her where their hotel was when she asked it was the one he always stayed at so luckily the bus would get them there easily.

This time the bus ride felt much longer than when Maisie was alone and reminiscing about Logan. Looking out the window and wishing she was somewhere else wasn't doing enough to stop the downward slope in her mood so she took her phone out of her pocket and unlocked it.

Maisie smiled. Her mood had completely lifted.

***

Maisie's dad took the bags when they arrived at the hotel that was way too expensive for her to ever be able to afford to stay in. Rachel walked ahead inside the building to get away from the heat and Maisie slowly trailed in after her, feeling like she was treading in on some kind of family scene.

When her dad had signed them in to the hotel, he gave a room card to Rachel and pocketed the other. Maisie wrung her hands together and rolled back and forth on the heels of her sneakers.

"Well I could do with freshening up so how about we head up to our hotel suite and you can relax for a bit before grabbing a bite at the restaurant down here?" her dad asked and Rachel shrugged so Maisie nodded.

"Sure, sounds good," she said.

But it wasn't really good. She didn't want to sit on a hotel couch for the rest of the day then eat in a hotel restaurant. She wanted to go to the new theatre that opened. She wanted to go to the food fair happening only a few streets over from her bakery. She wanted to show her dad Tucson, the place he left. But he didn't want that, he wanted to stay in a hotel all day where he would be able to still work and pretend that he came here because he actually cared.

They got into the elevator, with Rachel checking her makeup in the mirror and got out on a middle floor and went to the room that was at the very end of the hallway. Walking inside made Maisie uncomfortable. She watched the two of them put their bags down and set things up as they would if they were in their home and Maisie felt like she was looking in like an intruder.

The hotel room wasn't actually a room, it was a huge suite with a bathroom, armchair and TV with double doors at the back that opened out to a room with another bed and a TV. Maisie inwardly died at how much it probably cost.

As her dad went into the bathroom and Rachel locked herself away in the back bedroom, Maisie awkwardly sat down in the armchair and put the TV on to create some kind of noise. Her phone went off in her pocket.

Maisie leaned back on the chair and kicked off her shoes so she could put them on the arm of the chair.

The bathroom door opened up and Maisie's dad walked out. He smiled and grabbed his wallet from the top of his bed.

"You hungry?" he asked.

Two Eggos still sat in her stomach from just about an hour ago but she shrugged and nodded. Free food wasn't something to turn down. Especially if it was coming from a restaurant.

"Great, I'll just go get Rachel," he said and knocked on the bedroom door as Maisie got her shoes back on. Her phone went off in her pocket but her dad was already heading towards the door so she ignored it for the moment.

Another awkward elevator ride and they were finally at the restaurant which was actually a steakhouse. The place was dark with dim lights and the majority of the seats being booths. It wasn't too busy seeing as it was lunchtime and not dinner. They slid into a booth, Rachel and Maisie's dad on one side and her on the other.

The conversation was idle and a little awkward for the first ten minutes as they ordered drinks and chose some food. But then of course, everything went downhill.

"So when can I come see your college?" Maisie's dad asked as he popped a fry into his mouth. "It would be nice to see it, get a feel for where you spend every day and such."

Maisie took a sip of her water and pushed the pasta around her plate. She wanted to be back to yesterday, sitting on a wobbly stool in a park eating a burger with someone who would never ask for more than they could give in front of her.

The fact that her dad didn't even care that she was on her phone just drilled down further into Maisie's chest. She slowly chewed on a piece of chicken and looked up at her dad. But nothing came out. Rachel got up to go to the bathroom and Maisie could do nothing.

"Of course," Maisie said. "You can-"

She stopped when her phone buzzed on the seat beside her and she glanced down at the screen before quickly unlocking it.

Maisie looked up at her dad and slowly slid her phone into her pocket.

"Dad I..." Maisie's voice cracked and she took a sip of water. "I got kicked out of college."

She said it so abruptly that she almost thought the words hadn't fallen from her mouth at all.

His knife stopped sawing into his slab of steak that was half gone and he stared down at the table for a while before finally looking up at his daughter. "You what?"

"I was skipping classes and not doing my homework properly so that I could work on my bakery. They revoked my scholarship and kicked me out," she said emotionlessly.

Her dad looked down at his food before picking up the napkin and wiping his mouth. He pushed the place a little forward and grabbed his wallet. Rachel came back from the bathroom and frowned when she saw the wallet.

"I'm not finished eating yet," Rachel said.

"I'll get a to-go box," Maisie's dad said, clipped.

Maisie pressed her hand against the imprint of her phone in her jeans and looked down at the table.

"I'm done here," her dad said and Maisie's stomach dropped.

They got out of the booth after paying and walked into the lobby of the hotel. Maisie looked back at her dad and knew there was no invitation to spend the day with him. Instead of feeling sad at that, her jaw clenched in mild anger and she ignored him, turning to Rachel.

"Nice to see you again," Maisie said. "Have a safe flight."

Rachel's frown turned even more pronounced and she glanced between the father and daughter before slowly nodding at Maisie. "Thanks. Good to see you too," she said.

Maisie didn't look at her dad as she walked out of the hotel and took a bus back to her home. She sat and looked out of the window. Her body felt heavy and her head hurt. The day hadn't gone the way she wanted it to. But when did a visit from her dad ever go the way it should.

The bus stopped later round the corner from her house and Maisie hopped off the vehicle and walked down the street. She contemplated going to her bakery but the keys were still at home and all she really wanted to do was lie down in bed and pretend like the day never happened.

She slid her phone out and sighed. It was only 1:43.

When the door to her house came to view, Maisie almost sighed in relief. She unlocked the door and walked in, not bothering to check if anyone was home. None of them would be back at this time. So now she had a house to stay in alone.

Maisie leaned against the front door and felt completely drained. Her fists clenched in anger but in the end the only emotion she really had was sadness. Her eyes stung Maisie rubbed them before making a bee-line to the fridge. She rummaged through everything in there, her vision blurring as she went until she found a beer bottle.

Her hand grabbed onto it as her eyes blurred over with tears. She yanked the bottle out of the fridge and in the last second it slipped out of her hand and smashed against the tile floor. Glass and liquid slid along the ground. Maisie stood in the middle of it, her sneakers drenched and her hands shaking.

She heard footsteps and looked up quickly to see Tony charge into the room, decked out in his Sheriffs uniform. A few tears ran down her cheeks and Tony came over, holding Maisie around the waist and picking her up and over the broken glass and beer. He set her feet down on dry ground and looked down at her for a moment before pulling his step-daughter into a hug.

Maisie burst into tears and gripped the back of his shirt.

"He's...s-such a bastard," Maisie sobbed.

"I know," Tony whispered and stroked her back. "I know."

When Maisie calmed down a little, she rested her cheek on Tony's shoulder and felt another wave of tears about to come up.

"I got kicked out," she said. "I wasn't g-going to classes."

Tony shook his head and rubbed her arm. "We'll worry about that another day. It doesn't matter right now. It doesn't matter."

Maisie closed her eyes and gripped onto her step-dad as she cried.

It didn't matter.

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- Ellie x