Suddenly and surprisingly my dad leant forward and placed his hand over mine. "I hope that's the only thing stopping you from booking." His look was so pointed and loaded that I almost choked on my pancake. God, does he know too? This was so embarrassing.
"What do you mean?"
"I just mean that I hope a certain guy isn't going to stop you from following your dreams." My dad squeezed my hand and then went back to his pancakes.
"You have to do this Maria, you've been talking about it for years and if you don't go, you'll regret it."
I nodded. I knew he is right. That didn't make it any easier though.
"If it's meant to be it will be," He said with a smile, as if he knew what he was talking about and I suddenly I wondered what he and moms story was. I'd never asked how they had gotten together. God, I couldn't even imagine them as young people in love, they seemed so distant now. Or maybe that's just how parents look.
"Like you and mom?"
My dad smiled again, I love this side of him. The side that he shows only me. "I went away to college for four years and we still got together after all that."
I knew that my parents had been high school sweethearts, but I hadn't realized that they had been apart for so long.
"Trust me. If it's meant to be, it will be."
Mike
I woke up and the first thing I did was check my phone to see if Maria had gotten back to me. She hadn't. I regretted not going over there last night and checking up on her -– but maybe I wouldn't have liked what I found. For all I knew she and Jarrod were holed up in her room...
I pushed the thought out my mind. Why was this bugging me so much? I'd barely been able to enjoy my night, let alone look for any potential mystery kisser because I kept thinking about Maria and Jarrod and what they were doing. I pulled my clothes on and ran downstairs ready to go straight over to Maria's.
My mother was downstairs sipping coffee at the table, and something about the way she looked made me stop immediately. She looked upset and I wondered if the divorce had finally hit her. It was about time I guess. I couldn't understand how both my parents could be acting so cool about this.
"Are you okay?" I asked her. She looked away and bit down on her lip, as if she was trying to stop herself from crying. She finally looked up to me, her eyes watering. It felt like someone had knocked the wind out of me. I'd never seen my mother crying before and it evoked such a strange emotion in me that I could barely name it. I felt unhinged as we suddenly swapped roles. I stared at her uncomfortably for what felt like ages. What was I supposed to do? Comfort her? Hug her? Talk? But what would I say? I was the kid, not the parent. How the hell was I meant to deal with this? Someone throw me a book for Dummies quickly because I felt like I was unraveling. Fast.
"Your father moved out today." Her voice quivered as she delivered that blow.
"What!"
My head started to spin. I mean, I knew they were getting divorced. I knew he said he was moving out, but, so soon? Today? Right now? I still couldn't believe this was actually happening, especially because there'd been no signs whatsoever.
And then my mother just burst into tears. Real loud sobbing tears that streamed down her face. She looked broken, the shell of the woman I knew her to be, and quite frankly, I was scared. It's not supposed to be like this! You're not meant to see your parents like this.
"Mom..." I sat down at the table and gently put my arm around her and she immediately pulled away and stood up.
"I'm sorry. I'm sorry." She frantically wiped the tears from her face which only caused black streaks to smudge across her whole face. She straightened her pajama top and I could see she was trying to compose herself. I felt so sorry for her.
"I'll be fine. I'll be fine. I don't want to burden you with this. It will just take some adjusting. Especially when we move."
"Move?"
"Yes." She nodded as if this was the most normal statement she had ever made, only it fucking wasn't. "There's no way I can afford this house on one salary and your father and I have agreed to sell it."
"But, But..." I was a stuttering mess. My world was being ripped apart in front of my eyes and there was nothing I can do to stop it. "Where would we go?"
My mother opened the paper that was lying on the table in front of her. She flipped it open to the property section and I was shocked to see pink highlighter circling pictures of houses. She'd been looking already. This was all happening too fast.
I'm spinning. I'm spinning and I feel like I might fall over.
"I was thinking of moving closer to work." She said and pointed to an apartment that had not only been circled, but also had a star drawn next to it.
"What! " I screeched at her. "But that's a twenty minute car drive away."
"I know, it would be nice not to have to do the long morning commute. And there's a bus that goes to your school close by."
School was the last thing I was worried about. I didn't care if I had to walk an hour to school in the pouring rain, but
