The One For Me
Chapter One
“This isn’t funny,” my dad yells.
No, no it’s not. I lean against the kitchen table and shovel in the rest of my eggs, desperate to leave the dining room and get away from my parent’s bickering. I wish I could crawl into the aquarium on the far wall and drown myself. I’m sure I would be decimated before my parents would notice.
My parents are at it again, for the seventeenth time this week. I lean up in my seat to glance over into the laundry room, watching Dad. He is standing in front of Mom, his hand clenched around a pair of frozen boxers. Mom’s face is emotionless, paying him no attention. She has one killer poker face.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Mom says, laying the shirt she is holding, on the ironing board in front of her. She presses lightly, twirling the iron around in circles, slowly.
“This,” Dad says, waving the pair of frozen boxers in her face, “you froze all my boxers, Kathy.”
Mom sighs, shrugs her shoulders and smiles. She smiles. I have to look away. It’s too risky. It’s almost funny. Almost.
Dad laughs. It’s loud and hysterical. I would glance back to see if Dad’s vein in his head is popping out, but I don’t. I already know it’s there. His laughing like a coyote comes to an abrupt stop.
Time to go.
I slip out of my seat and up to my room before things get ugly. Not that it could get much worse, anyway. This has been the worst week of my life. Not only have my parents been down each other’s throats because Dad got caught doing some heavy making out, by Mom, with his receptionist, but Hayden broke up with me. We’ve been dating for the last year and I gave him all of me. He hadn’t even given me a real reason why, only that he didn’t feel the same about me. I thought everything was fine, but obviously, I have zero talent when it comes to reading people. Like my dad.
I tried so hard to get out of school every day this week but my parent’s made me go. I have to go to school and watch Hayden with Holly. Together. Touching. Like he used to do to me. That is the real reason. Holly with her huge rack and little waist. That was the real reason ‘he didn’t feel the same way about me anymore.’ Because he ‘felt’ that with someone else now, tossing me to the side like I was a piece of nothing. I shake the thoughts out of my head. I can most certainly do this. I can put on my big girl panties and get through one more day of this.
Thank God it’s Friday. I can have the weekend to myself. I can’t handle much more than one day of this.
I fight back tears that are threatening to stream down my face; grab my bag and push it over my shoulder. I don’t say bye to my parents, I don’t want to see their fake smiles. I slip outside and get into my Honda. I turn on my radio so loud I know that my mom would be giving me a disappointing head shake right about now. I head toward school. I used to love school. Not only did I get to see Hayden, but I like to learn. I like to know that I know things. Now, my grades are still great, but I don’t care about learning. All I think about it getting the Hell out of dodge.
I’m deliberately late, like I have been every morning this week. I stalk down the empty halls, not having to look at anyone. I can’t risk seeing Hayden or Holly anymore than I have to. It hurts too much. It’s like a car crash. You can’t help but look and can’t make yourself look away. It’s mentally tiring. Not only seeing them together sucks but everyone else looks at me with these pity stares. It’s aggravating and pathetic.
I walk into biology and glance at the board. SEX is written in a large cursive on the chalkboard. Oh no. I’ve dreaded this day since the beginning of the semester. The sex talk. Not only any sex talk but a sex talk in front of a class full of seniors and our teacher Mr. Fringe that is a total hottie. I fight the urge to turn around and go back home but Mr. Fringe looks up, his handsome face calm, showing a row of white teeth beneath his enthusiastic smile.
“Are you coming in, Katy?” Mr. Fringe asks, his eyes secretly hypnotizing me to walk into class. That’s the real reason Mr. Fringe got this job, he has secret super powers that with one look he can make anyone walk into class. Who doesn’t want to see that for an hour every day? This girl does.
“Um, yeah of course,” I mumble and walk back to my table where, my best friend, Jennifer sits twisting her gum around her finger.
“I see you noticed the forbidden word on the board.” She wiggles her dark eyebrows. “Let’s learn some moves,” she says, moving her hips back and forth.
“Stop being gross,” I say, taking out my books. Not that Jen has ever had sex, or wouldn’t freak out if someone tried to. But, she loves to make people think she isn’t just as scared as the next virgin. Her mother would kill her and bury her in her backyard.
“This isn’t funny,” my dad yells.
No, no it’s not. I lean against the kitchen table and shovel in the rest of my eggs, desperate to leave the dining room and get away from my parent’s bickering. I wish I could crawl into the aquarium on the far wall and drown myself. I’m sure I would be decimated before my parents would notice.
My parents are at it again, for the seventeenth time this week. I lean up in my seat to glance over into the laundry room, watching Dad. He is standing in front of Mom, his hand clenched around a pair of frozen boxers. Mom’s face is emotionless, paying him no attention. She has one killer poker face.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Mom says, laying the shirt she is holding, on the ironing board in front of her. She presses lightly, twirling the iron around in circles, slowly.
“This,” Dad says, waving the pair of frozen boxers in her face, “you froze all my boxers, Kathy.”
Mom sighs, shrugs her shoulders and smiles. She smiles. I have to look away. It’s too risky. It’s almost funny. Almost.
Dad laughs. It’s loud and hysterical. I would glance back to see if Dad’s vein in his head is popping out, but I don’t. I already know it’s there. His laughing like a coyote comes to an abrupt stop.
Time to go.
I slip out of my seat and up to my room before things get ugly. Not that it could get much worse, anyway. This has been the worst week of my life. Not only have my parents been down each other’s throats because Dad got caught doing some heavy making out, by Mom, with his receptionist, but Hayden broke up with me. We’ve been dating for the last year and I gave him all of me. He hadn’t even given me a real reason why, only that he didn’t feel the same about me. I thought everything was fine, but obviously, I have zero talent when it comes to reading people. Like my dad.
I tried so hard to get out of school every day this week but my parent’s made me go. I have to go to school and watch Hayden with Holly. Together. Touching. Like he used to do to me. That is the real reason. Holly with her huge rack and little waist. That was the real reason ‘he didn’t feel the same way about me anymore.’ Because he ‘felt’ that with someone else now, tossing me to the side like I was a piece of nothing. I shake the thoughts out of my head. I can most certainly do this. I can put on my big girl panties and get through one more day of this.
Thank God it’s Friday. I can have the weekend to myself. I can’t handle much more than one day of this.
I fight back tears that are threatening to stream down my face; grab my bag and push it over my shoulder. I don’t say bye to my parents, I don’t want to see their fake smiles. I slip outside and get into my Honda. I turn on my radio so loud I know that my mom would be giving me a disappointing head shake right about now. I head toward school. I used to love school. Not only did I get to see Hayden, but I like to learn. I like to know that I know things. Now, my grades are still great, but I don’t care about learning. All I think about it getting the Hell out of dodge.
I’m deliberately late, like I have been every morning this week. I stalk down the empty halls, not having to look at anyone. I can’t risk seeing Hayden or Holly anymore than I have to. It hurts too much. It’s like a car crash. You can’t help but look and can’t make yourself look away. It’s mentally tiring. Not only seeing them together sucks but everyone else looks at me with these pity stares. It’s aggravating and pathetic.
I walk into biology and glance at the board. SEX is written in a large cursive on the chalkboard. Oh no. I’ve dreaded this day since the beginning of the semester. The sex talk. Not only any sex talk but a sex talk in front of a class full of seniors and our teacher Mr. Fringe that is a total hottie. I fight the urge to turn around and go back home but Mr. Fringe looks up, his handsome face calm, showing a row of white teeth beneath his enthusiastic smile.
“Are you coming in, Katy?” Mr. Fringe asks, his eyes secretly hypnotizing me to walk into class. That’s the real reason Mr. Fringe got this job, he has secret super powers that with one look he can make anyone walk into class. Who doesn’t want to see that for an hour every day? This girl does.
“Um, yeah of course,” I mumble and walk back to my table where, my best friend, Jennifer sits twisting her gum around her finger.
“I see you noticed the forbidden word on the board.” She wiggles her dark eyebrows. “Let’s learn some moves,” she says, moving her hips back and forth.
“Stop being gross,” I say, taking out my books. Not that Jen has ever had sex, or wouldn’t freak out if someone tried to. But, she loves to make people think she isn’t just as scared as the next virgin. Her mother would kill her and bury her in her backyard.