The Substitute Teacher

Part 138 ~ A Hard Goodbye

~ Michael's point of view ~ 

I just came home . . . and just as I suspected, Jaden is talking to Ariana. . . crying . . . I bet he spent the last 10 minutes telling her how bad I am and how wrong I am for not wanting him to be with that woman . . . but we are not gonna take sides here . . Jaden knows it's wrong to be with a woman twice his age!! . . . there's nothing he can say or do that will change my mind. And the stuff Julianna said to me didn't quite change my mind either . . . in fact, I'm a thousand percent sure now that I will never allow this . . . ever. 

I take off my jacket and without saying hi to Ariana, I grab Jaden by his arm and pull him out to the hallway. He looks at me with his wet eyes and cheeks but that's not gonna soften me . . no . . I'm mad and Jaden's gonna hear it from me.

"What on earth got into you?! . . how could drive away and leave me there? are you crazy?"

". . . well, sorry . . but you were already angry so I thought I might aswell-"

"Wow . . . and your respect for me flew right out the window, huh?!!"

"No . . . I do have respect for you . . but-"

"No!! . . . . right now I'M talking, OK?!"

"Whatever . . ."

"WHATEVER?" 

I grab Jaden by his hair . . . "It's MY turn to talk now, alright?!!!"

"Fine . . . . ."

"Jaden . . . I am so over and done . . and I'm not just saying that 'cause I'm angry . . I really am so over and done with all this crap . . most of all with your behavior!!! . . you have no respect for me, Jaden . . . NONE!! . . . when I walked out of Julianna's house and saw that my car was gone, I couldn't believe it . . . you have NO RESPECT for me, Jaden . . . . and crying to mommy is not gonna change anything. I told you how I feel about the whole thing . . . you and Julianna are not gonna happpen . . END OF THE STORY!"

"Dad . . . you're being so unfair . . . you want me to respect you??! . . HOW ABOUT YOU RESPECTING ME?!! . . how about that?!!!!"

"Jaden . . before you take that word in your mouth, I want you to find out what it really means . . because obviously you have no idea!!!. . . I wanna talk to your mom for a minute . . I want you to wait upstairs, I'll be with you in a minute . . ."

"Talk about what?! . . Julianna?? . . I don't wanna hear about it!!"

"All you need to do now, Jaden is close your mouth and go upstairs!"

"Ughhh . . . . "

Jaden walks upstairs giving me the angriest look . . . Ariana is standing in the hallway looking at me, shaking her head. We sit down on the couch and start talking. On my way home I did a lot of thinking. . . and now I wanna talk to Ariana about what we should do with Jaden . . . . . 20 minutes later I walk upstairs to his room. He's on the bed watching TV. . . I walk inside and close the door behind me. Ariana and I talked about things and we're both sure that we found a good, temporary solution for this problem.

"Alright, son . . . . let's talk . . ."

"I don't wanna talk . . ."

"You have to!"

"I don't wanna hear it,dad! . . I heard enough! just leave me alone!!!"

"No . . .there's a lot more you need to listen to . . . please sit up!"

"I can hear you fine!!"

"I said SIT UP, PLEASE!"

"Alright . . . what is it?!!!!"