Ella's pov:

"You guys kissed?! Actually kissed?! Like mouth to mouth? As in-..." I quickly cover Ally's mouth in attempt to make her not wake the whole entire household up.

...

Or worse.

Mom.

"Shhhh" I try to get her to calm down, but I knew it would basically do nothing.

"But!!" Her muffled voice says under my hand.

"I don't want mom to find out." At this, she pauses, and very cautiously, I remove my hand.

"You think she doesn't want you to have a boyfriend?"

I shake my head, "It's not that, in any case, she encourages it. Well, not that much anymore since..." I pause, not mentioning the whole running away situation, since Ally still seems to get upset by it.

Although she might have understood what I was trying to say, she thankfully bypasses it, "then why not?"

"I may or may not have said something that may or may not have made her have a dislike for Luke..."

"Ella!"

"It was an accident! I thought I would feel bad for lying, but telling the truth just made me feel worse."

"So you are just... going to keep it hidden?" She asks.

I only groan, while walking back slightly to sit on my bed, which she follows in return, "I don't know, Luke doesn't even know."

"That she said she doesn't want you around him?"

"Well technically, she didn't say anything like that... Just that she wasn't so sure about him." I look at Ally, but she only raises an eyebrow at me.

"Translate those words to mom code."

...

"She doesn't like him at all." I lay back on my bed, covering both my eyes with my arms.

"I mean, she technically didn't say you can't hang out with him at all..."

"I just feel so guilty."

"Hey," I feel her hand on my wrist, as she removes one of my arms from covering my face, "it might take some time, but I'm sure she can find it in herself to forgive him. That whole... running away situation was hard on all of us. I know, along with her, I have trouble moving past it, but I'm sure she will see that what he did made you happy." She smiles as me.

"You think so?" I say hopeful, she nods her head, but as soon as she does so, a couple knocks sound from my bedroom door.

We both turn our heads to the door, and share brief eye contact before I mutter a "Come in," after sitting up from my laying position.

What took me by surprise though, is that it was my dad who walked in.

The reason it took me by surprise is that ever since I came back, we probably haven't even spoken more than five words to one another other.

I mean, I know before we barely spoke, but at least we actually spoke sentences.

They were brief, but it was definitely better than the maximum of five words.

I didn't know if it was the fact that I was successful in running away, that I drove into the gate and broke it, or the same reasons Ally and mom had, but I knew that I wasn't going to beg him to tell me.

"Just stopping in to say goodnight." He says.

Woah, a full sentence.

Amazing! The power of communication.

"Goodnight dad." Ally says.

He looks at me, and I almost forget to say something until Ally elbows me in my side, "Ow-.. uh goodnight."

He nods his head, and turns around to walk out, but then he pauses.

"Actually, Ella, can I talk to you?"

"Uh sure...." I draw out, looking at Ally who briefly nods her head at me before standing up and passing dad out of the room.

I flick my eyes over to my dad who shoves his hands in his pockets and walks in.

I watch him like a hawk as he pulls out my desk chair and takes a seat right in front of me.

"How are you?" He asks.

"Oh I'm fantastic." It would be impossible to not hear the sarcastic in my voice.

Although he most likely caught on to the sarcasm, he doesn't roll his eyes or address it, "I know things haven't been.... the greatest between us."

"Oh really? Haven't noticed."

I swear, I have no control over the words that come out of my mouth.

It just has a mind of its own.

But, just like before, he doesn't address it which means he must have really good patience...

Or he's planning my murder in his head without showing any trace of evidence.

"Ella, look, I'm sorry. I know you have been hearing it a lot lately, but I really am."

I signal for him to continue as he takes a deep breath, "Even with the business and all, I should have put you and Ally as my top priority. Instead, I was blinded by the need to finish what your grandfather always wanted, to succeed the business."

I can't help but break our eye contact as I look down at my bedspread, "Why now? It took you years to realize you have been putting your work ahead of your family?" I had so many questions.

I wanted to scream at him for all the years.

I wanted to cry about all the times we missed out on.

I wanted to slap him in the face for just realizing.

And I want to hug him for accepting that he wasn't around and was apologizing.

"It wasn't until... the recent events that I realized. I know, it took me a missing car, a broken gate, and worrying about you every second of the day to realize what I had done. Over the time you were gone, all I could think of was my lack of presence in your life. And just thinking that-..."

And for the first time in all my life, I saw my dad cry.

A man of power, strength, dignity and so much more in the eyes of others.

But for me... he was just dad.

".... that you could have been killed, thinking that your dad didn't love you... I-.."

I stop him, "Please don't say that, of course I know you-..."

"That's not enough. Lately, I've been thinking about what it was like before the business, or the money.

When we would play hide and seek around the house and bake brownies because you said that chocolate chip cookies were over rated. I was surprised you even knew what that word was. We would play with nerf guns because why not, and what did I always say?"

I look up, "You would tell me that although it's not right, aim for the face because that's how you defeat your enemy quicker." I can't help but laugh a little, remembering the good times when our family... was perfect.

He smiles and I watch as he reaches for my hand and takes it in his, "I want times to be like that again. I want to promise you that I will put this family above everything else."

Another promise.

It feels like my life as been living off of that word.

A promise to make a change.

A promise to make things better.

As much as I like a promise, I can't help but be afraid of it.

Because as easy as a promise can be made, it can be even easier to break it.

"Promise?" I ask, just to be sure.

"Promise." He nods his head smiling, and I smile back, just as the sound of footsteps come into my room.

I look up to see Ally who was grinning at our smiling faces.

A moment of unsaid happiness passes us as dad let's go of my hand and stands up, "See you two girls in the morning, don't stay up too late."

We both nod our heads like five year olds.

He then walks out, and out of nowhere, Ally's grin drops.

"So mom just told me something and you know that plan to not let her know that you and Luke are dating?" She says.

"Yeah..." I draw out, worried about what she was about to say.

"Well, she just said that his parents invited us over for dinner tomorrow."

"What?!" I say in horror.

I know we talked about how mom would eventually come to see that Luke isn't a bad person...

But I don't think a day is going to cut it.

"What should I do?!" I freak out.

She points to my phone that was on my pillow, "You might want to have a conversation with your boyfriend."

I nod my head, "Yeah, I'll just tell him that I made my mom dislike him... great discussion."

Just hit me.

With a frying pan.

To the head.

Something tells me this dinner...

Is not going to be fun.