Officially Us

29 - Parenting 101.

Jet looked like he was about to explode. "Tell me you're fucking joking right now?" he hissed through his clenched jaw.

"I'm not joking, Jet. Grounded, starting from now. You're lucky you paid for your own phone and PlayStation, otherwise I'd be taking those, too."

"And if I don't give a shit whether you want to ground me, considering you're not even my parent?" he said, fuming. He knew how much of a reaction he would get from that comment, and he said it deliberately right now to piss me off even more. Do not take the bait, Ruben.

"Then you'll continue to be grounded until you've learned your lesson."

"I already know enough about life to know I don't need any more lessons, least of all ones from you. This is bullshit!"

"Yes, it is bullshit, Jet. I've given you an opportunity to make something of your life and you're throwing it back in my face like it means nothing to you. I don't ask you for much. But I am asking that you fucking try, and that you're honest with me. You haven't done either of those things, and I'm so pissed off at you right now."

"Yeah? Well, I'm fucking pissed off, too. I'm almost seventeen and you can't go around slapping rules and restrictions on me now. I'm practically an adult."

"You might think you are, Jet. But you're not. You're a kid and it's my responsibility to make sure you're growing up right," I said angrily, scrunching up the report in my hand out of sheer frustration. "This shit here, is not at all right."

"Fuck this. I don't need to deal with this from you," said Jet, slamming his phone down on the wooden counter and storming off towards the front door.

"Where the hell do you think you're going?" I yelled after him, trying to calm myself down.

"Anywhere but here," he replied, the front door crashing shut with such force I thought it was going to come unhinged.

I took a few deep breaths before I went after him; but by the time I got outside, he was nowhere in sight, and I didn't know which way he went in order to follow him. I pulled out my phone to call him, hearing his ringtone going off inside where he left it, probably deliberately just so I couldn't get in touch with him when he left.

Fucking hell.

I went and grabbed my keys from inside, jumped in my truck and started driving around the streets trying to find him. Whichever way I went must have been the opposite direction he chose to run because I couldn't see him anywhere. I doubled back to the house a few times to see if he had decided to go back, but there was no sign of him.

By the time it was getting dark outside and there was still no sign of him, I started panicking. I had no idea where he might be. I went past his school, but couldn't see him there. I went to the beach where we surf every day, but he wasn't there. I went to the footy oval, nothing.

I even started driving towards his parents' house, stopping a few streets before I reached their street because I knew he wouldn't go back there, especially if he was angry . . . unless he was really itching for a fight, which he very well might be this time.

I pulled over, my heart racing now the street lights had come on, knowing that Jet was out here somewhere on his own without his phone to get him out of any trouble he might stumble upon; and knowing his luck, there was plenty of it to go around.

I needed help. I reached to my phone and called Tanner, who answered on the first ring. "Took you long enough, man."

"What do you mean?" I asked, confused.