"You have GOT to be freaking kidding me!" Brooke screeched as she flung her backpack across the living room. It impacted with the wall with a sharp bang. She whirled around to face her father, her face a contorted mask of barely controlled rage.

"Brooke, calm down," Mike ordered calmly. Brooke’s glare intensified.

"I will NOT! How DARE you! How could you even THINK that I’d go along with it?" she ranted absolutely outraged.

"Tyler is a nice young man. He has a good head on his shoulders. I work with his father and have met Tyler a few times. And he’d be delighted to go out with you," Mike explained as if Brooke hadn’t spoken at all. The more he went on, the redder her face got with anger.

"How dare you?" she repeated in a growl. "How dare you decide who I’m going to date!"

"I’m your father and as such I will make the right decisions concerning your life," he informed her sternly. Brooke put her hands on her hips and stared at Mike incredulously.

"OK, tell me something; exactly which part of ‘I’m GAY and deeply in love with SAM’ is SO hard for you to follow?" she asked sarcastically. "Because I’ll be glad to go over it again for you if you missed any of it the first ten thousand times!" Mike’s face flushed purple as he glowered at his daughter.

"You are NOT to speak about ‘that’ again in my presence. As long as you live under MY roof, there is to be no mention of _HER_," he spat the word, unable to even say Sam’s name out loud.

"Uhm, hello? Reality check? That’s why I left in the first place, you idiot! You said the exact same thing months ago, so I left. I did as you requested. YOU’RE the one who decided to hunt me down and drag me back here against my will. I don’t want to live here. I’m nothing more than your prisoner, not your daughter. I HATE it here!"

"Don’t you speak to me that way, young lady. I’m your father and you WILL respect me," Mike demanded. Brooke laughed bitterly.

"Respect you? RESPECT YOU? Respect is something that has to be earned, not taken. You haven’t earned my respect; you’ve earned my contempt and hatred. Not only have you treated me like I was some sort of freak or evil, but you BEAT the girl that I love. You beat her, hurt her! Do you even understand what you did?" she raged.