One Week Older: Turning Pages

Let's Play a Game

"Winners choice but be warned I can stay up all night," he cracked his knuckles and neck like he was preparing for battle.

I shook my head, "I took a nap today, so I am wide awake. You've been sweating and running around all day and I saw you yawn earlier."

He kissed my knuckles, "We'll see at the end of the night."

"You never told me why you were late to my game." He rubbed circles into my hand that rested on his face. "It was family-related."

"Oh. Are we going to leave it at that because I've been sharing a lot about myself today? I want to know about you," he said before I nodded.

That was a fair statement and I felt comfortable enough to tell him. "This morning my dad texted me and asked if I wanted him to come to get me from school. I freaked out and had another panic attack."

His face fell, "At school? Are you alright?"

It was cute that he was so worried about me. "I'm much better now. And no, it was before you picked me up and before I got into a fight with my brother. Anyway, I told him to come and he took me to his apartment in the city. It was kind of unpleasant, but we started talking. More like yelling, but that took up a lot of time."

My fingers crossed his lips, "It was over my mom and my brother. You've seen Denny since he came back. All the bruises and the cast, that was because of him."

Banks pierced his lips together, "Did he hurt you?" He had an intensely serious look on his face.

"Not physically, emotionally he crushed me. I was hoping I could actually get some answers out of him, but it turned into a screaming match. One that was followed by an extremely awkward dinner, but ultimately I'm happy I saw him.

"Why didn't you tell me he texted you this morning?" He seemed a little hurt by my lack of communication.

"I didn't know if I was going or not. But I'll be okay, hopefully," I dismissed the conversation.

"Okay," he said with his expression softening.

"Do you think about your dad often?" He wiped my eyes that I didn't even notice were starting to well up.

"Honestly, I try not to. He's some dickhead that ran out on his family a long time ago. I... left something out about him when we were talking earlier. He's not just roaming out there somewhere. He's... incarcerated," he talked with shame behind his words.

"What? What did he do?" I knew it sounded judgmental but I spoke without thinking.

"Oh you know, just minor crimes like drug possession, distribution, and child endangerment. And it wasn't even us. He dipped before that and put some random girls kids in danger." He bit his lip furiously before he tried to shake it off and repress his emotions.

"Why did you do the same thing then? Like, why did you run away from your family?" The subject matter was so serious that I wasn't even paying attention to the fact that he was left only wearing underwear.

He hesitated to speak, "This is going to sound selfish of me, but my mom got a new boyfriend. I knew she liked him, but I didn't think he was any good. Plus, they were dating for less than two months and she moved him in with her three boys. People are creepy these days and you can't let just anybody be around your kids."

Once he started verbalizing his feelings he couldn't stop. "He was always picking fights with me and trying to discipline the boys. It wasn't his place to lay a finger on them, saying they need to be taught a lesson. I told my mom it was either me or him and she didn't answer."