Ava shook her head. “Nothing so wrong to make me want to leave because of it.” She hesitated. “Nothing to really make me want to stay right now either, but that wasn’t my point.” She sighed, tucking her hair behind her ears. “No, I… I want to leave because of you.” She tried, then quickly backpedaled. “That sounded horrid, no, just hear me out.” She took a breath, launching into her prepared speech.
“Everyone else is okay. Arthur has always had Miss Kami, Emily has her mom, the twins will have Miss Kami and you,” She looked away. “But I don’t. You left all three of us, but I had to lose mama and grammy before you came back. And right when you came back, I came to school. I feel like I barely know you. We barely see each other.” She shook her head, pulling her arms back. She kept them folded on the table, biting her lip. “Vader and I are planning to get an apartment after school. We’re both still saving up. I don’t want to change that. I’m going to try and get into a good art school somewhere, we’ve been talking about it for a bit. But I… I don’t want to go from seeing you a few months a year to barely seeing you at all, trying to dance around school and work when we don’t have living together to connect us.”
She sighed, glancing up and hoping he didn’t notice the tears in her eyes. “I want a year. For us. You’ve been gone my entire life. I… I’ll come back for seventh year. I don’t have any important tests this year and I’m terrible at my classes anyway. I try, I do, I just can’t concentrate… I can study at home with you this year and come back for the big tests and graduation next year. Please daddy?” She started to reach for him, but hesitated, pulling her arm back.