“He’s the same age as me, Mum.”
“Does that mean you’re old?”
“Not old, no. But I’m hardly aboy…”
“I calledhima boy, not you.”
I let this ridiculous argument drop and take a few sips of my beer.
“She hasn’t come out of her room,” Mum tells me, as if I hadn’t already noticed. “I think she’s been in there all day with those things glued into her ears.”
I sigh, exhausted.
“You need to do something, Niall.”
“We’ve just got here. Give her time to get used to everything. Besides, if all goes well, she’ll be starting school next week. She’ll make new friends, and she’ll have someone to hate other than me.”
“Don’t force yourself.”
“To do what?”
“To spend time with her.”
“I don’t know what to do, how to get her attention. I don’t know how…” I look at my mother’s concerned expression. “I don’t know how to be a father.”
“No one does. You learn on the job. But if you neverstartthe job, Niall, it’s much more difficult.”
I lower my head in defeat. My mum is right – but I have no clue where to start.
“Is Rian here yet?” My father joins us in the kitchen.
“Not yet. She had a late class tonight. She’ll be here as soon as it’s done.”
“What about Skylar?”
“Still in her room.”
My father nods slowly, before speaking again. “I was thinking that we could let her redecorate the room.”
I glance at him. “What do you mean?”
“Well, it’s Rian’s old room. It’s full of all that New Age hippie stuff, with posters about peace and love. Have you seen your daughter, recently?”
I want to laugh, but I resist.
“That’s a great idea,” my mother adds. “It’ll help distract her. She can create a new place for herself, where she feels at home.”
“You know we won’t be here forever, right, Mum?”
“I wouldn’t have done anything with that room, anyway,” my father says. “And I doubt that Rian will ever come back and live with her old, uncool parents.”
She definitely wouldn’t. Me, on the other hand…
But Dad is right. Skylar needs a place she can call her own.
“The rest of our stuff should be here by the end of next week. That might help.”
“Of course,” Mum says, smiling. “Do you want to deliver the good news?”
