Treehouse Talks

2- The Start of Summer

We ordered an apple fritter and a plate of mozzarella sticks and split it while we waited for him. 

And like always he was perpetually late. 

Isabella shoved an entire mozzarella stick in her mouth and mumbled out, "I'm gonna miss you."

"Yeah, I know..." My mood immediately changed, "I'll call you every night."

She laughed, "No you won't." her eyes widened, "What if you don't meet anyone your age and you're just forced to hang out with your dad the entire time?"

I leaned back into the comforting plasticity leather of the booth, "If there's one thing I know about my dad is that he spends a good 90% of his time at a bar. I don't think there will be much of a problem."

She frowned and shook her head, 'I'm so sorry you have to go."

I shrugged nonchalantly before taking another huge bite. "I've accepted my fate."

Almost on queue my dad opened the doors of the Applebees and looked around slowly. Mind you I haven't seen him since I was eleven, I wasn't sure if he would recognize me. 

He was a tall and skinny man. His face, while it resembled mine slightly, was worn and starting to deteriorate. He had the same golden honey hair that I had but it wrapped around his ears in little ringlet curls. I didn't inherit those. 

His eyes finally rested on our table. They narrowed a little bit before I forced a small smile and waved. He nodded and walked over a big smile on his face. "Hey kiddo!"

My face visibly became concerned before I was able to fix it. Kiddo?

KIDDO?

I'm almost a grown adult and he calls me kiddo.

Awesome. 

"Hi dad." he slid into the booth, next to me and I was glad he didn't want a hug. 

He did though, immediately grab one of our mozzarella sticks and take a bite of it. Isabella glared at him and I shot her a look of annoyance. 

Why me?

I introduced the two and he announced he wanted to leave as soon as possible.

 He eyed us as we paid our bill and stood up from the booth giving me room to stand. He smelt like cigarettes.  

"Okay let's go, say goodbye to your friend." 

Tears welled in my eyes as I hugged Isabella. "I love you, drive home safe please and be good this summer. I'll call you every other night and probably more if I don't have friends."

She sighed and squeezed me back. "You'll be fine. Just let me know whenever you need emotional support." 

I kept hugging her because she was the only thing real in this augmented reality of an Applebee's and my new future in the middle of nowhere. 

"Goodbye, Violet."

✚✚✚

The next three hours were fucking excruciating. Dad asked me at least twice if I still shopped at Justice, and once if I still played tee ball. 

I quit tee ball at seven.

But you never cared to know that did you? 

We pulled off onto a side road, and to the right of us was a cliff that dropped into a winding blue river. Seconds later we pulled into a driveway to the left. We could still see the river. 

The driveway had a split in it and I could see another huge house down the other road. 

The second I stepped out of his big truck two dogs came rushing up to me.

"Aw hi, puppies!" They both were little bundles of energy and were barely at my feet for more than 10 seconds before dashing away. 

He took me around the side of the house to the back door. "We don't usually use the front door because of the cat." As he fumbled with the key I took a moment to watch my surroundings. We were on a porch, with a large silver grill that opened up to a small yard, adorned with a fireplace, a small koi pond and a whole other house. 

Hold up. 

I stared at it, trying to make out exactly what it was before giving up. "What is that?"

"Wha-" He turned his head as he finally opened the door. "Oh, that's where I sleep. It's the mother in law suite, but you could call it the dad suite." He smiled like his joke was funny and proceeded to elbow me to laugh. 

"Ha ha." I faked a laugh for his sake and followed him into what looked like a mud room, with a wall filled with food. That opened into a kitchen. From there it was an entirely open concept floor plan. "It's nice."

He smiled. His teeth were yellow. 

Gross. 

"Here's your room." He opened the door to a small room with white walls and stencil flowers decorating the walls. The bed was small and purple. I didn't hate it but I felt like I was transported back to 7th grade. "I set up an alarm clock for you and you have a nice little dresser here to put all your clothes."

I glanced at my dark purple suitcase, another one of my 7th-grade purchases and smiled. "Thank you."