Dangerous

The Summer of Hardships

First chapter! :)

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During my freshman year of high school, my brother Jake and I had to witness many disagreements between our mother and father. At the time, Jake was 10 years old. His face was always smiling, but you could see that in his eyes, there was fear. Fear of mom and dad splitting up.

One night while we were eating dinner, mom and dad had an argument about when I should be allowed to buy my own car. Jake and I were not able to put up with the argument anymore so we quickly finished our dinner and washed our plates off before heading upstairs to my room.

"Jordan?" Jake asked after I closed my door so our parents couldn't hear us.

"Yeah Jake?" I asked, flopping on my bed while he took a seat in my desk chair.

"Do you..." He stopped. He thought about what to ask me before he continued. "Do you think mom and dad are going to divorce?"

That was a hard question to answer. I couldn't lie to my little brother, so I gave him a half honest answer. "I don't know Jake. Maybe things will go back to normal soon." I knew things wouldn't go back to normal, but I truly didn't know if mom and dad we're going to get a divorce. I never would have thought my parents would split up one day, but now, I'm questioning if they could stay together. "We just need to stay out of their arguments. Remember what I told you?"

"Yeah. We can't get involved with their arguments because it will make them think we are choosing sides and that would just make things worse." He said, reciting the exact thing that I told him after mom and dad's first bad argument.

"Good. Just remember that even when you really want to say something. Don't get involved in their problems."

But just like any other kid would, he eventually chose to do what he wanted to do, not what someone told him to do.

He ended up siding with dad. I, on the other hand, was neutral during the whole battle until the very end. I figured that mom needed support because she had no one to lean on. The only extended family we had were on dad's side of the family, so mom was left with no one but me.

In the summer before my sophomore year, dad ended up leaving and he took Jake with him. Dad gained custody of Jake after the divorce was official. I was devastated. They were moving all the way to New York City. That's over 2,700 miles away from home.

On the day that dad and Jake left, Jake came into my room to say good bye.

"Are you mad at me?" He asked me while the salt water multiplied in his eyes.

"Not at all." I said and walked over to him to give him a hug. "Why would I be mad at you?" I asked and looked at the pictures on my wall.

He buried his face into my shirt. "Because I didn't listen to you." He said with a shaky voice. I began to hear muffling and I felt my shirt become wet from his tears. I held him tighter. "I m-made things w-worse. I shouldn't h-have gotten into th-their argument." He said and continued to cry.

"It's okay Jakey. It's not your fault." I said comforting him. "You did what you thought was right and that's all that matters. This is not your fault. It was bound to happen eventually." I said. Then kissed the top of his head.

He cried a little longer until he settled down. He lifted up his head, out from the wet spot on my shirt and looked up at me "Does this mean we won't ever see each other again?"

"Of course not. We will see each other, just not as soon as you think. I will have to save up some money to come visit you. That's going to take some time."

"How long?"

"I don't know." I answered honestly and pulled out of the hug.

"Jake!" We heard dad call from down stairs. "We are leaving in five minutes!"

Jake looked up at me.

Fear.

Fear was the only word to describe him at that moment. I knew that I would never be able to get that image out of my head.

"It's okay Jake." I said and walked out of my room then stopped outside when I realized that he didn't follow. "Come on. You should get going."

"But I want to stay with you." He said quietly.

"I want you to stay too, but you can't. It's okay though. You will be with dad."

"But will it really be okay?" He asked with wide eyes. He still had the look of fear on his face. The look that I will never get out of my head.

When I didn't answer right away, he just looked at the ground and the ran and hugged me one last time.

"I'm going to really miss you." He said, hugging me tight.

"I'm going to miss you too."

Then we walked down stairs to meet with dad so that Jake could leave with him.

"Jake. I'm going to miss you so much." Mom said and cried while giving him a big hug.

I walked outside with dad so that mom could have her good bye with Jake.

"Are you going to be okay Jordan?" Dad asked me.

"I'll be fine. I'm just worried about you and Jake." I said to him truthfully.

"Here." He said as he grabbed out a piece of paper from his coat pocket. "This is a plane ticket for whenever you want to come visit. Your mom made it pretty clear that she doesn't want you to come visit us, but I think that you would like to." I took the plane ticket in my hand slowly and looked at it as if it were a golden ticket. "Give me a call before you come though so that I can pick you up from the airport."

I looked up from the ticket and up to meet my dad's eyes. I quickly gave him a big hug. "Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" I screamed a little too high pitched.

*Beep Beep*

I turned to look at the street to see an impatient taxi driver. I quickly put the plane ticket in my back pocket.

"Let's go Jake!" Dad called.

Jake came out of the house and gave me another big hug. "I'm gonna miss you." He murmured.

"I'm going to miss you too." I said and pulled away from the hug.

Jake got into the cab and was followed by dad. He closed the door of the taxi as it quickly drove away. I watched the car as it drove away and stayed standing outside staring at the spot were I last saw the taxi.

I still loved them, even when mom didn't. She was only focused on the fact that she did not love my dad anymore and that her own son was against her views. She put on a good attitude to say good bye to them, but after they left, she acted as if they were never here.