Last To Know
I sat at the edge of the bed, anticipating my last day of summer. I couldn’t figure out what I should do first should I go to the beach, should I go to the park, or should I just hang out with Val tonight. Then I had the bright idea,I can do all three.0
“ James,” my mother yells from downstairs.
“Yes, mom?” She doesn’t answer, I hate when parents do that. Why call me and not answer?I go downstairs to see what she wants, and my dad was sitting at the table. It was a shock to me, I haven’t seen him much after the divorce. It’s my first time seeing him all summer actually. I personally thought he wasn’t coming back, and I was OK with the idea of this.
Trouble always seems to follow when my dad is around. I don’t know if he’s cursed or he just has a magnet for bad things. I think that’s why my mom divorced him, although he said it was his choice he’s just full of bad luck. Like the one time I went to the park, he wanted to push me on the swing, I didn’t want him to. But he wanted it to be like the old times, as soon as he touched the swing I fell off at the highest peak. I broke my arm in three places, that’s the last time I went to the park with my dad.
“Hi dad,” I felt weird calling somebody dad. I just hadn’t done it in a while, and it felt like I was out of practice.
He smiles, but it was a scared smile. I felt like something was happening and nobody wanted to tell me. I didn’t feel in the loop at all, and this was my worst fear. I hate not being in the know, just like when dad moved out and I had to find out last, the divorce I had to find out last, when my dog died I had to find out last. I don’t wanna be lost anymore.
“ We have some thing we have to tell you kiddo.” This made my stomach stink. Last time my dad called me kiddo, he was no longer married to my mother.
“Well what is it,” I ask.
My mom pulls out a seat, “why don’t you just sit down.” She said as if I was sick or something.
“Why don’t you just tell me,” I felt my blood rising, it wasn’t hard to make me mad, that’s why I usually kept myself. I used to get into a lot of fights because people used to just say things that bothered me. Like ask me the time, even though there was a clock right there, and it was a stupid thing, but it happened a lot. Or asking me for my last piece of gum, I don’t want to get mad about that, but I just felt like they were really rude.
“You see,”my dad started, “you are starting high school tomorrow. And I was going to tell you this earlier in the summer, but your mom didn’t want me to,” He said looking into my moms direction.
My mom gave him a death stare after he said this.
“ Anyways,” he continued, “you will be moving in with me for this new school year. You’ll be starting the new school right next to my house. I feel like this will be easy since it’s going to be your first day of high school, so you would have been making new friends anyways.”
I didn’t even let him finish, I walked out of the house and headed straight to Val. I felt the hot tears streaming down my face, I didn’t want to start a new school, especially freshman year. It wouldn’t have been easier for me, I had friends here, friends that I can go into a new school with, but now I can never know what it will be like. I know for a fact that I don’t have a choice in this, I never have a choice. I’m always stuck in what my parents want, what my teachers want, what everybody wants, but I don’t remember the last time somebody asked what I wanted. I felt stuck, stuck in this world. I just wanted to escape, but I didn’t know where to escape to.
I thought I wanted to see Val but I didn’t. I eventually just ended up in a random park, I don’t remember getting here, and I don’t remember how I got here, but the light that lit up the park made me feel at ease. It was the only bright thing I had in my life right now. I sat there sobbing, sobbing for what I felt like was hours, but I really didn’t know. I didn’t grab my phone or anything before I left.
I got myself together, and I saw somebody staring at me so I felt very uncomfortable. He looked really tall, I never seen him before. He didn’t move or talk he just looked at me, and I don’t know, something about him made me want to go over there, but instead I got up and walked away.
As I walked back to what I thought was the direction of my house I just wanted to have time to think. Think about what I was going to do, and how I was going to do it. I knew I was going to end up going with my dad, that was not a battle I can win. I don’t want to spend the whole day packing, or thinking about how I’m going to leave my friends.
So I went to Val’s house, even though I think it took an hour to get there, when I got there the first thing I did was hug her, I hugged her for what I felt like was a good 10 minutes. She didn’t ask any questions, we just went into her room and we played all day. She called over a few more friends and I played with them too, mostly video games and we talked a whole bunch, I didn’t tell them about the move. I didn’t want this whole hung out to be just us crying or whatever, I wanted their last memory of me to be just this, fun.
When I got home it was dark, my parents were arguing like they usually did. When they heard me slam the door, they stopped and got Silent. I looked at the both of them, and they looked at me back as if there were some thing they could’ve said to make me feel better, but I know deep down they knew there was nothing. “I’ll go pack, just give me two hours.”
It would’ve taken longer for than two hours for me to pack all of my stuff, but I just decided to pack the stuff I needed for school for the week. Because I plan to come back on the weekend to grab the rest of my stuff. I want to give myself a week, a week to come up with some thing to tell my friends. A week to adjust, a week to get everything right.
The two hours went by in a flash, I go downstairs dragging my one suitcase that I had packed. “You’re going to need a lot more than that to move in,” my dad said as if this whole situation was a joke.
“ I will come back on the weekend, and I’ll get the rest of my stuff. If that’s OK with you guys.” I say this passive aggressively, and I know they picked up on it. But I was still really upset and nothing was going to change that at the moment.
My parents agreed, I get into the car and I don’t say a word the whole car ride. It just occurred to me that I do not know where my dad lives. We were driving forever, I see a big building, and I already knew this was the school that I was going to be forced into. Jefferson High, what a stupid name.
We reached the house, it was really nice house, big too. It was two stories with a bunch of windows. Dad quickly show me to my room, I didn’t even unpack. I just went to my bed, it felt different. And I knew it was going to be different. I hate it here, I hated everything about this. I felt like I was kidnapped by someone who knew me, but didn’t know me at the same time. Why now, why now that everything in my life just seems to have finally clicked.
I feel my eyes getting heavy, I’m guessing it was from the crying I did earlier, and the playing I did later than that. I had to go to sleep, school starting in a few hours. But I didn’t want to go, I wish I didn’t have to go. But the one thing I guess, the one thing that really just made me mad, I was still the last to know.
