OOM: Negotiation
There are a lot of little things you can do to keep yourself from looking as nervous as you are. Pull your hair back to keep yourself from playing with it. Keep your hands in your pockets so you can't fidget with things. Plan what you're going to say, don't get defensive, count to three before you answer any arguments. Looking up, like you're trying to see your own eyebrows, will sometimes keep you from crying.
But for some conversations, there aren't enough little things in the world to keep you from looking nervous.
"Um, Daddy? Can I talk to you?"
"Yes, Hannah, what is it?"
To her earlier list, Hannah adds Take a deep breath and Do not get offended that he hasn't even looked up from Golf Magazine.
"I was kinda hoping we could talk about school.
Tom Griffith closes his magazine and looks up at his only daughter. "What about it?"
"I thought maybe I could go back to Neptune this fall."
"Hannah, your mother and I don't think that's a good idea."
"Just hear me out, please?"
Her father makes a somewhat impatient "go on" gesture.
"Look, I know you're disappointed in me, and I know you don't really trust me, but you know, Daddy, I'm kinda disappointed in you, too, and I don't know that I can trust you, either. The thing is," she rushes on, when he starts to interrupt, "if you pack me back off to Our Lady of the Maple Syrup, I don't see how any of that changes. And I think it needs to, don't you?"
It's not a comfortable silence that answers her. It is, in fact, about as awkward as a silence can get. Hannah stands it as long as she can, then says, "What do you want me to say, Daddy? Yes, you and Mom were right, yes, he was using me, yes, I was stupid and naive and you have to believe me when I say I'm sorry about the whole thing. I really should have listened to you and Mom and I really wish I had."
"Hannah, it's very easy for you stand here and say all that, but you haven't done anything to demonstrate that you mean any of it."
"How am I suppose to show you anything from 3000 miles away?"
Another long silence, before her father finally breaks it. "There would have to be rules."
"Like what?" Hannah asks, cautiously.
"You stay away from Logan Echolls."
"No problem," she says. She doesn't have any desire to be anywhere near him, anyway.
"I don't want you alone with any boy I haven't met. For any reason."
"What if Mom's met him?"
Tom Griffith considers. "That one of us hasn't met," he amends. Then adds, "And approved of."
"Okay," she says. It's not a rule she didn't expect.
"You keep your grades up, be home by curfew, and understand that if you do anything to break any of these rules, we will have to consider sending you back to boarding school."
"Sounds fair," she says, keeping the "sort of" to herself. "Anything else?"
"I'll talk to your mother and we'll see," he says.
Hannah nods. "Thank you, Daddy."
"I'm not promising anything," he says.
She nods again. "Yeah. But thanks for at least thinking about it."
"You're welcome." He picks up his magazine again, and she turns to go. "Oh, and Hannah?"
"Yes?"
"I have a ten o'clock tee time tomorrow, if you want to come."
Hannah smiles a little. "Yeah. I'd like that."