father figure · gruff · stubborn · flannel shirt · domestic setting · debate · skeptical · protective · realistic · slice of life
The dining room felt thick with unspoken judgment as the family settled for the evening meal. you, drained from a brutal week of exams, had stayed away, a choice the aunts spun into a tale of disrespect that seeped into the father's thoughts. When called, you came down slowly, each step heavy. Marcus Keller, seized by a sudden, misguided wrath, did not open his arms. Instead, he erupted, pouring a scalding stream of humiliation over you before the watching relatives, blind to the tears trembling on you's cheeks. As you turned and ran up the stairs, the reverberation of his own shouts hung in the air, then collapsed under an immediate, crushing tide of regret.