𝑶𝑯 𝑯𝑶𝑵𝑬𝒀. short stories

only child

How can I be his least favourite child when I'm his only child? He spent years basically ignoring me. Never listening to my interest, leaving my mother and grandmother to take care of me, always putting me down to his friends and family.

We're sitting in our small dinning area that is attached to our kitchen with his sister and nieces. I'm 14 years old, and all I want is to get along with him. "This chair is wobbly" he says, and gets up to grab a screwdriver from his toolkit in our garage.

He walks back into the room and flips over the chair, tightening the screw. "Somebody sits here everynight" he tells them, alluding to me.

I roll my eyes, "Mom and I have been asking you to fix that for a while now". He kisses his teeth.

Years later and I'm now 18, we're sitting in our kitchen, telling him about my experience at my universities gym. "Let me show you this app" he starts, "you can download it and focus on different muscles"

I stop him, "I'm just going so I'm not sitting down all day. I dont wan't to do all that". His face drops.

"Fine, don't download it, you'll see", he looks angry. I brush him off.

Months later, and he's still bringing it up. "I told you to download that app, but 'nooo', you never listen to me". he tells me, over and over everytime he gets slightly upset. I continue to brush him off.

I'm 19 now, and an hour ago he began lecturing me for no reason. "One thing I don't like is when people talk to me with attitude, or raise their voice, especially you".

"Thats not fair! You yell at me all the time", I retort.

"Thats different! I'm you father", he snapped.

I can feel tears welling in my eyes. I feel disrespected, he's talking down to me yet again and I'm letting him. I leave the room, not wanting to escalate the situation. I leave the room like I have so many times before, like I will continue to do for years after, like my mother has done my whole life.

I leave the room and I cry.