Hendrix

by Kelsey Clayton

“I want to be involved in her life.” “I think it’s time for you to go,” she says, and then realizes what I just said. “Wait, what?” I square my shoulders and stand tall. “She's my daughter. I want to know her. I want her to know me.” Saige's grip on her water bottle tightens. “Colby, you don't know the first thing about being a parent.” “Yeah?” I bark back. “I wonder why that is.” She winces at my tone. “If you keep yelling at me, she isn't going to want to know you.” I roll my eyes. “Haven't you made enough choices for her, and me for that matter, over the last five years?” She laughs dryly. “Excuse me for not jumping at the chance to let someone who never grew up jump right into my daughter's life.” “Our daughter.” I correct her. “Or are you forgetting that there's another parent in this mix?” “You didn't want to be tied down with a halfway relationship with a nineteen-year-old, Colby.” She grips the counter and leans forward. “Do you know what a child is? Being tied down in ways you couldn't begin to imagine. For life.”