Dream with Me ✔️

16: This is Goodbye

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Aurora ☪︎
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Chapter 16: This is Goodbye [Edited] 

This weekend trip was surprisingly not going as bad as I thought it would. Lesson to us all, set yourself some low bars so when that thing goes above and beyond you'll be impressed, if what you thought it'd be turns out to be true at least you won't be disappointed. Right?

No, that's actually really crappy advice a voice inside my head tells me. Never set your standards low just so you won't have the chance of being disappointed or expect something more. One day you won't even realize how low the bar is until it smacks you in the face.

That voice in my head is completely right, but in reality, it's honestly just easier to do the first thing rather than the second. A voice interrupts my almost internal battle with myself, making me come back to reality.

"We're here!" Both Jackson and Aubrey scream in excitement as we enter the parking lot of this giant arcade place. It's my last night out of the three days here and my father and stepmom wanted all of us to do something fun before I leave tomorrow evening.

The first night here was completely awkward and uncomfortable. It was a mess with the whole finally meeting each other thing and it's not something that I'd want to go through again. Though when the second day came it was more bearable.

There's just something about children that you can just easily click with. They don't see the negatives or the tension yet which makes them crazy happy and bubbly that it's easy to get along with. I decided to be a little more open about myself, which made things a lot easier and less tense too. Whenever I said something about myself my father would listen intently, as if he's trying to soak up every single detail about me that he missed the last decade.

Believe me, it's still pretty awkward with him and my stepmom, especially when the kids aren't around to ease things up but there's some progress going. It's clear that they're great parents to the kids, especially Alice, so I really have no logical reason to dislike her.

"Oh yay!" I say with enthusiasm as I get out the car, instinctively taking Aubrey's hand so she won't run in the street. She did that yesterday, wanting to catch up to me which gave her mother and I both a scare. I don't worry about Jackson seeing as my father is carrying him. We make our way inside, purchasing food and our play cards before finding a table to settle down on.

My step mom speaks in Chinese to the kids again and my father translates it to me saying that she told them they had to eat before they play. One of the reasons why I respect her is probably because she still communicates with her kids with their native tongue so they won't lose it.

I wish my mom had reinforced that a little more with me, not that I didn't know any Spanish at all. It was more like sure I can mostly understand what people say, but I don't know the words to say my own sentences. Though I eventually learned again when I started taking my language classes in school.

Within the next couple of hours, everyone had a bunch of stuffed animals and useless little prizes we got from our tickets. I got the plastic vampire teeth and some tiny bouncy balls. The kids mainly got candy, which I learned was because their parents never just bought candy for them without it being a special occasion. We then proceeded to go get some ice cream at a shop next door.

Ironically everyone besides my stepmom got durian ice cream. Everyone I know gets grossed out when I say durian is my favorite, but clearly, it's a pretty popular choice among this family. It's creepy to know how much I'm alike with these three, but at the same time, a warm feeling emits through my body.