Sunshine's Story

Chapter Seven

He chuckles and closes his eyes. "Okay, Imagine you're 35, and you have a 15 year old son," I say.

"That implies I'm going to have a baby in a year," he says.

"Shut up and focus," I say and hit his arm.

He chuckles again at me. "Your son's 15; he just started dating seriously. Before you know they have just been kids, but now they're teens. They're hormonal and sex driven, and your son is dating a cheerleader," I say.

He scoffs at my cheerleader remark. "You know they're not what they're cut out to be. You know how bad cheerleaders can be to a boy. You also know that cheerleaders can be worse of an influence than the football boys, because girls can get boys to do a lot more than they think," I say.

"Sunny are you trying to seduce me?" He asks with his eyes still closed.

I smack him again. "Anyway!" I grit my teeth together and say. "He comes home and he and this girl have gotten into a fight. A pretty big one by the looks of it. You go to him and ask what has happened. He tells you that she cheated on him with another guy on the football team. You tell him she's not worth his time, but he doesn't believe you. He's determined that he's in love with this girl, but you're not so sure. You've seen this before. It's the same thing you did. You try to explain that but this is different in his eyes," I say as I watch him.

His face scrunches up every now and then. He's kinda understanding. This is a trick my granny used before she died.

"Sooner rather than later, he's 17 and he's still dating this girls. They get into another fight but instead of coming to you, he finds another cheerleader. He has sex with her and then the main cheerleader is back. You know what he's doing. He's doing everything he can to keep that one girl in arms length, but now he's starting to go down a bad path. A path that could lead to health problems and/or family extensions, if you catch my drift," I say looking at him.

He rolls his eyes from under his eyelids. "Suddenly, your son starts to come home, and he's yelling at his mother. You storm into the kitchen and hear it's about his girlfriend. You try to address the conflict, but your son won't stop yelling. Both of your angers are starting to match. You both start hitting those nerves you both know how to hit oh so gently. And then bam! Your anger becomes too much and you hit him. He looks at you with disbelief and runs to his room. You talk to your wife and calm down before you go and try to apologize," I say.

"Now, open your eyes," I say.

"What? No, do we make up?" He asks sitting straight up looking at me.

"That's up to you. It's how you handle it. Do you stay in the kitchen talking to your wife until one of you decides to go to bed? Or do you go up to his room and sit outside his door until he agrees to listen?" I ask him.

He looks at the door and takes a deep breath. "I'm not going to apologize," he says honestly looking at me.

"Do you think your son should?" I ask.

"No," he answers.

"Okay then," I reply.

"Dinner!" Melissa yells.

"Dinner's done," he says.

"Do you guys have dinner together?" I ask hoping the answer is no but also yes.

"Yes, but not when we have fights like that. My dad will leave and it's just mom and I," he says as he opens his door.

We head downstairs and look at his mother. "I was going to make fajitas today, but, with everything going on, I decided to settle for pizza," she says as she points at the delivered pizza boxes.