You tell them now

You take a deep breath. There is no use in waiting, plus you don’t know if you can actually shut up about this, so you decide to just tell them now.

You reach for the doorknob and open the door. You are met by the nice smell of bakery. This means your mother has been baking, which means that she is in a good mood.

“Hi mom, hi dad” you yell, letting them know that you are home. Your dad peaks his head out in the corridor you are standing in.

“Hi Hun, how was your day?” he asks.

“Great” you reply taking off your jacket.

“That’s good” he kisses you on the head and leaves you to watch football on the TV. You think to yourself that it’s now or never, so you follow him and sit down next to him on the couch.

“I actually wanted to talk to you guys about something that happened today” you say with your cutest smile you can come up with.

“Really, and what’s that?” you mom says, just entering the living room. Her hair is pulled back in a ponytail and she is wearing an apron. Her jeans are covered in flour and she s barefooted. It is not rare that you see your mom like this; she has always been the funky, working at home, kind of type of mom.

“Emily and I just saw that our favorite band is coming to Denmark in two months and I was just wondering if I could go” I said.

“Laura you are over 19, if you wanna go, then there’s not much we can do to stop you” you mother told you. Wow, you didn't really expect this, but fine!

“When is it?” you hear your dad ask. He hasn't left his eyes from the game he is watching.

“It’s at Friday the 29th” you smile and add “…of May. We would need to skip school just that one day, so we can be first in line and get good seats”. Your dad looks up at you.

“You can go to the concert, but you are not skipping school” he said.

“But dad, this is important” you beg him.

“And so is your education” he says in his fatherly voice. You hate it when he uses that voice; it always makes you feel guilty about something. In this case it was wanting to go to an once-in-a-life-time concert instead of going to school, which you – by the way – do every week. Why can’t he see that? As you look at your mom for some support, she just shrugs and tells you that “your dad is right kiddo. You can’t skip school.”

You take in a deep breath, knowing that the tears are coming. You don’t want to cry in front of your parents, and you actually don’t know why you are reacting this way. All you know that this concert is important to you. You also know that Emily wouldn’t have any trouble with convincing her parents that this was actually a good idea. You know that her parent will be cool with this. They’ll probably even pay for her ticket. You don’t say anything; you just sit there thinking about how unfair this is. You hadn't even noticed the water gathering in your own eyes.

“Honey what’s wrong” you hear your dad say with a sigh.

“You just don’t understand how important this is to me, don’t you?” you almost scream. You are taken aback by your reaction. It wasn't meant to come out this way, but you are so worked up by now that you don’t even care, so you continue “this band is what has gotten me through EVERYTHING! Hard times in school, fights with you, fights with Emily, even after Grandma died, they helped me, and that is more than you can say about one single Friday in high school.” You feel the first tear falling from your eye, so you get up and storm to your room. Behind you you can hear your mom call for you, but you don’t listen. When your door is closed you throw yourself on your bed crying.

A few minutes later you hear a knock on your door. It’s you mom asking for permission to enter. You don’t really know if you should. For starters you don’t feel like talking, you look like a mess, but on the other hand, maybe she wants to understand.

You let her in?

You tell her to stay out?