Fuck parents (other people's)

I totally hate my boyfriend's parents. They don't know this. We're always perfectly nice to each other when in each other's presence. We even exchange gifts on Christmas/birthdays/Easter/whatever, and I've been dating this guy for almost two years. SO... we're pretty tight. I consider them my second family, and considering my parents don't live in this state, it's pretty important to have a second family if you ask me. I don't get to see my biological family very often. Regardless, back to the story.

So, I'm not going to bore you with the gorey details, but tonight my boyfriend's father told his family that he was considering leaving them. Told them this. I guess this was supposed to be a threat because my guy had been a bit disrespectful earlier. Mind you, they deserved it, really, like they always do. And I'm not advocating disrespecting your parents, or disrespecting anyone honestly, but they disrespect him so often and so fully that it's no surprise when he decides to turn the tables on him. Basically, they're jealous of him because he wants to leave this small ass town and do something really special with his life which neither of them did. It's a typical case of you know what I'm talking about.

Anyway, he does whatever to piss them off tonight, and he happens to be at my place when this happens, so whatever, they make him come home so they can talk to him. Eventually, he ends up back at my place, and one of our friends comes over and all is well, but I can tell that he's been crying. Which is pretty unusual for him. I don't really talk about it, though, because of our friend who I'm sure he wouldn't want to discuss it in front of. So we end up going to this party for another friend who is going to the Navy on Monday... going away party and what not. We're there for about 10 minutes when he gets a phone call from angry parents saying that he wasn't supposed to leave the house... he was being punished.

Wow.

My boyfriend is 18 and in college, and they grounded him? Color me flabergasted.

So we have to drive back to my house, speeding the entire way, so that he can get his car and go home to his parents who obviously don't know how to deal with an 18 year old boy. They just don't understand how good they actually have it. Their son works 20 hours a week to help pay for everything, he's on full scholarship to school, he doesn't use drugs or get in trouble with the law...

And the icing on the cake is this: as we're driving home from this party, we have the following conversation:
Him: You wanna know what my dad said to me earlier tonight?
Me: Yes, what?
Him: He said to me, 'you're the reason my marriage is falling apart.'

I wanted to fucking cry. What kind of a father can say things like this to his child?!

Fuck. And they don't want to let him move out... and that's all he needs, just some space from them. And their relationship would improve drastically. I know mine did with my parents when I moved out. But I need to work on keeping my mouth shut. They don't give a fuck about my opinions anyway.

Agh. I really wish there was something I could do to help the situation, but I know I'll only make it worse, so I have to just stay out of it. I just can't stand someone hurting the person I love the way that they do.