This woman frustrates me as none of my charges ever have before. Just when I thought she was coming close to making a change, she turns her back and storms off in the opposite direction. If I didn’t know better, I would believe that she was doing this on purpose to spite me.
But I’ve gotten ahead of myself. Tonight was the evening that Shannon and Mark had planned to spend together, and both of them were very excited about it. Shannon, however, came home in a foul mood. Her meeting with her advisor had not gone well—he had not approved of her paper as much as she had hoped. She was upset, believing that she had deserved better, and nothing I could say could calm her.
When he arrived and heard the story, Mark tried to soothe her, as well. “But you got a passing grade, didn’t you?” he pointed out, pouring her a glass of wine.
“That’s not the point, Mark,” she snapped, attacking the vegetables she was cutting for stir-fry. With a knife in her hand and her red hair bristling around her face, she looked very fierce. “The point is, I worked my ass off on the paper—you’ve been there! You know!”
“Mm,” Mark said skeptically, leaning against the table and grinning. “Well, you worked on that paper. You have to admit, lately you’ve been paying attention to other things.”
Shannon did not want to admit that at all. She wanted to be angry, and so she turned some of her anger against Mark. It was all I could do to keep her from snapping at him, but the meal was prepared and half eaten before Mark and I could draw her out of her sulk, and she remained argumentative, disagreeing with Mark over his choices of dessert as well as his suggestion of what they should watch after dinner.
Mark is a patient man, but finally he had had enough. “Okay, will you get over yourself?” he asked when she wouldn’t sit next to him on the sofa.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said.
“You’ve had a bug in your ass all night. If you don’t want to hang out with me, I can just go.”
“Maybe I don’t,” she snapped.
He pressed his lips together. “All right then.” He went to get his coat.
Shannon watched him go, and a hint of regret rose up into her chest. I fed that spark, but she clenched her jaw and drew up her anger in retaliation, and there was nothing else I could do.
But then Mark came back, having pulled up his own anger. “You know what, Shannon? You are one entitled bitch.”
“Oh, no,” I murmured, wanting nothing more than to cover my eyes and ears.
Shannon rose to her feet, shocked and outraged. “What the fuck kind of right to you have to say that to me?”
“My tendency to speak the truth?” he suggested. “And I’ve been nice about it, but it is the cold truth. You think the world owes you something because you’re pretty and smart and rich—”
“You had better shut your mouth right now,” Shannon gasped.
“Why, because no one has ever called you on your shit before?” He laughed derisively. “No wonder you’re such a brat.”
“Where do you get off judging me?” she demanded, her face flushed with rage. “You’re screaming at me for being in a bad mood, you’re the bastard here!”
“A bad mood? You’ve been snapping at me for an hour because your professor did his job and told you what was wrong with your work. You’re just mad that he didn’t kiss your hand and tell you that you’re perfect.”
“I never said I was perfect—”
“Only because you know you can’t get away with it,” he said. “But that’s what you think and that’s what you expect everyone else to think. Everybody’s worshipped at your altar your entire life and you think you’re the light of the goddamn world, don’t you?” He shook his head. “You’re in for a rude awakening, and soon.”
Shannon drew herself up, pale and furious. “Get out of my house,” she said, enunciating each word as if she were biting off his fingers with every syllable.
“With pleasure.” He went to the door and turned back, bitterness clear on his face. “I really liked you, you know. You’re smart and you’re gutsy and you’re hilarious. But I’m not going to kiss your ass, Shannon.”
“I said get out!” She looked around for something to throw at him, but he opened the door and strode out into the cold. He intentionally left it open, and she grew even angrier as she stomped after him and slammed it closed.
She is still raging. I tried to calm her, but I could not stand the poisonous air for very long. I wish I had been able to intervene in the argument, but it all happened so quickly, and I did not know what to do. I do admit that Mark disappointed me—I did not think he had such vitriol in him.
I hope that I can work some good out of this. There is some truth to Mark’s words, however cruel they might have seemed to her, and perhaps this can be a turning point for her. But I think I have learned enough about Shannon to be sure that this will not be the case. I will have to watch her carefully in the next few days, and we will see what happens.