Calling For Summer [GirlxGirl]

Chapter Seventeen

| Jade Summers |

I ran out of the house, shaking, stumbling, not knowing where to go. I was in no condition to drive, that I knew. So I just kept running. After listening to the shoes slap against the concrete, my long legs soon brushed against cool blades of grass. My adrenaline was pumping, so I traveled far in an unknown direction. Yet despite my adrenaline, it was too much for my intoxicated self, so I stopped, and I fell. Every piece of grass tingled my senses, and I took in my surroundings. I had subsided near a small playground, the place eerily silent. Though the swings were still, I half-expected them to subtly move, and then I would hear squeaking. That was not the case. Instead the case was an unwanted call for an unwanted child in an unwanted playground. The night air was on the brink of becoming warm again, but for now I let the coolness create goosebumps out of my skin.

My breaths were the loudest thing in this tiny park, and it's apparent that respiring into the ground will not solve anything. I managed to push myself off of the too-green lawn, considering California's drought. But this thought was not the most important thing to me right now. So slowly, I made my way over to the swingset, dropping my weight onto the largest swing, that was still quite small. For a moment I was scared that it might give out under me, but I relaxed once I was assured it was stable under my weight. I inhaled. I exhaled. A nugatory coping method I used before pulling out my phone. The screen was barely legible with how much my hand was shaking. But I had to do this. With the help of both hands, I went to my recent calls and faced the contact I never wanted to think about again. Dad.

It's been almost five years since he left my mom and I. The memory of the day he left still burns freshly in my mind, and I predict it will do so no matter how long it becomes. I sat in silence, letting my eyes blur to stare only at a blue glow, but the meaning behind my hesitance remained. Finally, after another deep breath, I pressed the call button.

"Hello?" my father's voice sounded just as it had all those years ago.

"Why did you call me earlier?"

"Why didn't you answer?"

"I was busy."

"I need to talk to you."

"Really?" I tried to sound confident even though I was already starting to break down, "because you didn't feel the need to talk to me for four and a half years."

"Jade, please," he tried, but I kept going. I will not let him break me again.

"No! You can't just leave me hanging for nearly five years, wondering and waiting for any phone call or piece of mail or, or something from you! I've had too much time to think about what I could have possibly done to have made you leave, and now I realize it wasn't me. It was you. This is and can only be your fault. And now you call me out of the blue saying you need to talk to me. I don't want to listen to what you have to say!" I shouted, tears running down my face like a faucet he turned on, after years of being off.

"Jade, you're being immature."

"Oh my go-"

"I'm coming back to town," he interrupted me. I went completely silent. The thought of my father coming back was not a good one.

"Are you serious? Don't you dare step foot back here after what you did! You abandoned us! You don't get to come back after five years, Dad! You can't just leave without a trace, leaving a shitty stay-at-home mother and a 13-year-old girl all by themselves!"

"Don't talk about your mother like that!"

"You all of all people think you can tell me what to do? You can't! She is a shitty mother! And you want to know why? She looked me in the eye and told me I was an abomination! She kicked me to the curb, leaving me to fend for myself! So yes, she is a shitty mother and I deserve to think that!" The last words slurred, and I hoped he wouldn't notice.

"She kicked you out?"

"Yes! I finally got the guts to tell her what I told you so long ago, and she told me to get the hell out of her house!"

"Where are you staying then?"

"With a close friend." The words slurred again.

"Is that 'close' friend, perhaps, a girlfriend?" Again, he didn't notice, thankfully. Underage drinking is so not the point right now.
I groaned. "You don't have any right to know that!"

"Jade, calm down, I'm sorry. I'll be in town for a couple weeks, I won't try to find you I promise."

"You better not, or I swear to God," I hung up the phone before I could continue, fearing what I would say if I allowed myself to continue.

There was a crunching of leaves close by, and I jumped and looked over, only to find Kara walking over to me.

"I may or may not have heard the majority of that conversation. Sorry," she greeted and I chuckled solemnly.

"It's fine. How'd you find me?" I asked, motioning for Kara to sit on the swing beside me.

"I saw you run out, so I followed you," she reached her hand out, and I grabbed it, "I had to make sure you were okay. You looked like you had seen a ghost."

I laughed humorlessly. "No, but I heard one."

The atmosphere changed sharply. "Are you okay?"

"I don't really know," I sighed. "No doubt I liked my dad better than my mom. That sounds mean, but my mom really is terrible. So when my dad left, my heart wasn't just shattered. It was like, dust. Hearing his voice after so long, and then him saying that he's coming back, is just . . ." I shook my head, "I'm getting mixed feelings."

"What your dad did was a dick move, and he has no right to try and come back. He left you when you were, what, 13? That's probably one of the most confusing times in your life, and for him to leave then - at all - that's terrible," Kara reasoned.

I opened my mouth to speak, but my phone rung instead. My instinct was to throw it, and watch it break on the concrete, but I didn't do that. Which was the smart decision, because it wasn't my dad. It was Winter.

Kara motioned that it was okay to answer it, so I nodded a thanks and stepped off of the swing.

"Hey, Winnie."

"Jade! Thank God you're okay! I got so worried, you just ran out! What happened?" Her words seemed to come off more inebriated than mine, so I couldn't help worrying about her as well.

"My, uh, my dad called me."

"Oh. Oh shit, are you okay?"

"I think so, maybe? Kara and I are talking it out currently."

"Wait, Kara's there?"

"Yeah. Apparently she followed me when I ran, unlike someone," I joked.

I heard Winter sigh. "I was shocked and drunk, give me a break."

"Well, you're still drunk. It hasn't been that long."

"I am?" I could almost hear the sound of her eyes popping, which sent another signal out that she was, in fact, intoxicated.

I laughed. "Yes, babe."

"Oh!"

There was silence. It seemed like we remembered my dad in unison.

"Just go have fun, I'll be back soon," I assured.

"Okay, I'm glad you're okay, I love you."

"I love you too."