"Jesus, would you stop talking to me like I'm one of your patients. What do you mean you're getting divorced? You never fight. You've been married for years or something. You're too old to get divorced. What the hell are you talking about?"
My mother got up too. "Your father and I got married very young and we both just feel that we've outgrown each other emotionally and we have learnt all we can from this relationship."
"What does that even mean?" I'm screaming now. But I'm not sure how to stop. How the hell am I meant to react like this? Surely this isn't right. Surely your parents don't just drop a bomb on you like this. Surely you see it coming. Surely there are clues leading up to this kind of thing. Okay, maybe there had been clues, but clueless me hadn't seen them.
"This doesn't change the way we feel about you though." My father just uttered that cliché. It's the first thing they tell children of divorced parents, this has nothing to do with you.
"God, for psychologists you really picked a great time to tell me, Friday morning before school. Right before the tournament. Great way to start the weekend!"
"There's never a good time to say something like this." My mother had come up to me and was laying her hand on my shoulder. I looked up at her; no tears, no emotion registered on her face. How was she so calm?
"Besides," my father said, "I start my new job next week and I will be moving soon."
"Moving?" This news almost shocked me more than the news of the divorce.
My mother and father clocked each other again, before both turning to me in unison. For two people getting divorced, they seemed to be in perfect sync.
"I got a very good research job, out of state." My dad said it so matter-of-factly that I almost couldn't believe it.
"It's only a few hours away, so you can come on holidays and long weekends."
"Absolutely," my mother piped up. "In fact, it will be great getting to know another city, broadening your cultural horizons. You've always said you've wanted to travel more."
Suddenly the divorce flew out of my mind and all I could think about was how crap it would be if I didn't spend my holidays with Maria. And I realized, that my parents getting divorced was about to change my entire life.
Chapter 11 - Maria
I drove to school that morning, thankfully. Because if my sister had been driving, I might have been compelled to throw myself out the window- I was already nervous. More nervous than I'd ever been in my entire life, because I... I was going to tell him.
It had gone too far. It was out of control. I needed to put an end to this mad charade. I hadn't had a second of sleep last night because I'd gone over it in my mind until my brain started to hurt and turned to mush. How the hell was I going to say it?
"Haha, it was a joke." "Hey Mike, guess what? Surprise! Joke! Hahah."
It had sounded so much better last night when I'd been mad from exhaustion. Now... it just sounded mad. This was going to be the hardest thing I'd ever done in my entire life. What if it ruined our friendship, and made it awkward? It was a risk I had to take though, because it was ruining our friendship already, for me anyway.
"Careful the pigeon." My sister screamed from the back and I jumped. She's always been the ultimate backseat driver, and it makes me even more convinced that she has eyeballs located somewhere else on her body. I have never seen anyone text while simultaneously say...
Careful the pigeon.
As if I am going to intentionally run the thing over, and since when did she care about pigeons, or anything other than herself. And how the hell had she spotted the little feathered thing from the backseat? We arrived at school and I took up my position outside the gate to wait for Mike. I knew he wasn't there yet, because if he had been, he'd be standing there waiting for me. I was glad he wasn't. It gave me a few more minutes to prepare myself. I had to keep reminding myself to breath. My body was tingling all over- hot and cold- with a palpable and very physical sense of painful anticipation. It was hot outside, but I felt shivery.
But when the final bell rang and Mike still wasn't there. I started to wonder if something was wrong. I sent him a few texts, which he didn't respond to and then tried to call him- no answer. He always picked up his phone, no matter what he was doing, and he always texted me back. I 'm overcome by a feeling that something was wrong, but I can't do anything about it right now, so I ran off to class. I consoled myself with the thought that maybe he was jogging to school and his phone was in his bag. But after two periods, still no Mike, I started to worry.
"Brett." I pulled him aside in the corridor. "Have you seen or heard from Mike today?"
He shrugged. "Nope."
"I think something's up, I can't get hold of him."
He looked surprised. "Has the telepathic link been broken?"
"The what?" I didn't quite get what he was saying immediately.
"You guys seem to communicate via telepathy, you always seem to know what the other one is thinking or doing. Mike says that anyway."
I nodded, I knew what he meant. Sometimes it did feel like we were communicating like that. "The link has been severed," I said.
"Well." Brett paused and looked like he is thinking about something. "Then I think the situation is grave indeed."
And I knew he
