ETHAN’S P.O.V.
We all sat on either side of the table as if there were two sides; good and bad. Sophia, Kari, and I sat at one side of the table while Richard sat at the other. Avory was busy in his room filling his backpack with all the things he would need when he left with my parents. Sophia already packed Serena’s bag; breast milk, diapers, clothes, that’s it. Oh, and maybe a rattle or something. “Richard,” Kari spoke first because I wasn’t going to step up to the plate and Sophia wouldn’t have started out too nice. “We need to talk about last night.”
“No,” he shook his head. “I don’t think we do.”
I had my hand in Sophia’s and the more he talked, the more she’d squeeze the life out of my hand. I don’t know what it is about her but she loved to torture me for something I wasn’t a part of. Perfect example; a few weeks ago, she had trouble at work with that nurse she always talks about and she continued to give me the silent treatment the whole night. Question; what the hell did I do? “Yes,” she hissed. “We do!” I nodded, hoping she’d give my hand a bit of relief… she didn’t. “Dad, you locked Avory in his room!”
“He could have gone through the bathroom door and through my room,” Richard simply stated as if a seven year old was going to go through the room of a man who locked him in the dark. But, you know, I really don’t blame him. I chose nearly breaking down the door than going through his room… Richard is nothing nice.
“Do you really think he’d think of doing that? He is seven!”
Richard smirked, and this irked all of us, the stubborn bastard. “Age obviously has nothing to do with it seeing as none of you went through my room. Doesn’t really matter, though, I locked that door too.” He said this as if it gave him an award of some sort. Believe me when I say I was this close to socking him in the face. I would love to break that old nose of his and send the arthritis in all of his joints screaming… but I don’t pick on the elderly. “And you,” he turned to me and propped his elbow on the table. I could feel Sophia stiffen so I gave her hand a reassured squeeze. “Sending your kids away so you can have-”
“Richard,” Kari gasped.
“-with my daughter. Let me tell you something.” He stood up and leaned over the table so we were face to face. A little bit too face to face but I kept my cool and showed no ounce of fear. Actually, I felt like I was looking pretty frustrated. I sure as hell felt frustrated. “You make me sick.”
I took a deep breath because I had a lot to say to him but Sophia stood and caught his attention. “Should I remind you whose house you’re in?” Good one, I wanted to shout but I only nodded.
“Having Sophia finish what you started?”
Grabbing Sophia’s leg, I pushed her back down into her seat and rose so that I was towering about Richard. It’s funny because the ones that like to talk a lot of shit are usually the midget ones. Prime example; Richard. I was so much taller than him that it seem like he was shrinking away from me while I stood. “First of all,” I held up a finger. “I didn’t start anything. You’re the one who thinks they can run someone’s house differently. You did notice that Avory doesn’t even look at you now, right?”
“You watch how you speak to me you-”
“No,” I slammed the table. This was going on far too long for me to ignore it. It’s different when he targets me but, anyone else? That’s where we meet a problem. “You watch how you speak to me. Do you have a problem with me?” He didn’t answer, only looked away. Kari and Sophia were quiet, knowing I was also sticking up for them. “If so, speak to me about it. Don’t run around and try to control things you can’t. Understood?” God, I felt so bad for speaking to him that way but it was actually needed. I sat down, Sophia taking my hand once more; this fight was over. We weren’t going to stay on this subject anymore, it was too tiring.
Oh, but it didn’t end like I thought it was. Do you know those people who keep on fighting, thinking they’d win? Well Richard was that type and it sent me to the extremes. “You’re right, boy, I have a problem. I have a problem with how you are raising your child to be, simply, a bitch.” Sophia gasped, Kari nearly fainted, and I was gritting my teeth. “I’m teaching him that there are some things you can’t walk out on. That he can’t be a man who and walk away from a girl he got pregnant, with his tail in between his legs, like a bitch. Now tell me, son, doesn’t that remind you of someone?” Okay, look, I was mad for a whole other reason. He told me I’m raising Avory to be a bitch. There’s something wrong with that picture because I’m raising him to let him know you can be a afraid of things, you just have to grow out of it. Me? I was afraid of being a father but now I have two kids and I’m not going anywhere.
So, I was so riled up that I had to say something. But, by the time my mind came up with a few sentences, Sophia had stood and slapped Richard so hard his dentures could have flown out. It was the type of slap that made your cheek hurt just because you heard the hand to cheek contact. “That’s it,” she told him, taking steps back. “I want you gone.” She walked into the living room where Serena was quietly waiting to be picked up. “Avory lets go!” She walked back through the kitchen but had a bag full of clothes. They were way too big to be Serena’s. “Ethan, tell your parents I’m bringing them.”
I sighed; he pissed off the pope now. I knew for a fact I was going to catch a bit of her wrath. I’m sorry but Sophia didn’t know how to direct her anger at one person. She aimed it at everyone but Kari, Serena, and Avory. So, basically, just Richard and I were her victims. And, just for that, I glared at Richard while getting up to retreat to our room where I would call my parents. They were currently at Embassy Hotel next to Disneyland with Amanda and her boyfriend. That would be about an hour drive so two hours until Sophia would get home. That meant I had to be here with him until three o’clock. I didn’t know if I could handle that.
My mom’s cell phone was speed dial five or something so it was a fast process to pass on the message. “Oh, Ethan, good timing! We’re getting ready to leave right now and-”
“Don’t worry about it. Sophia is dropping off the kids, she just left.”
“Richard,” my mom knew everything there was to know about Sophia’s dad. Especially how he liked to piss Sophia off. But this time, she had a perfectly good explanation and I was happy to see him go… if he went.
“Who else?”
Mom sighed on the other line, “Honey, maybe taking them in was a bit of a stress on the two of you. I’ll have your dad pay to get them a nice little home and have him employ Richard but-”
“Hey, look, mom I have to go. We’ll talk about this later okay?” She was going to go into her little self conversation about how we weren’t fit to take care of four people on our own. That I’m just as fragile as Sophia and we needed to watch out for each other. Let me explain to you how I am not fragile. I took a bullet for a girl I was deeply in love who still had doubts about our relationship. Now tell me if that’s fragile because I could have been setting myself up for heartbreak.
“Okay Ethan, remember what I said.”
“I will. Bye mom.” I hung up the phone. She always has to go on some other topic when nth conversation was initially supposed to take a few seconds. That’s why I wish dad’s family cell phone didn’t break.
Anyway, I began to lose myself with time and started to think of all the possible ways I could subtly tell Richard he needed to go somewhere. From the sounds of it, he wasn’t listening to Sophia; he was watching T.V., eating, talking about me and being loud on purpose, you know the usual stuff he did. I came up with three ideas; tell him we couldn’t afford to have him hear. It could work… if I wasn’t a basketball player. Hell, I had a game in about a week and I was going to make quite a bit off that and he knew that. Second, sent him to a nursing home. He was getting too old for his own good and couldn’t do the things he regularly does. His arthritis wasn’t getting any better and everyone could see that so it’s not just me making stuff up. The last one was institutionalize him. I thought that I could get him mad over something so dumb everyone would think he was crazy, record it, and then show it to the people who pick up crazy people.
That’s it… but I wasn’t willing to set plans into motion before Sophia got here. She was the one who was daring and was able to stand up against him for hours at a time. After a while, it got tiring to me and I needed to take a break. A break sort of similar to the one I was taking now. I was lying on the bed, partially asleep but partially awake. Sleep wasn’t easy to find last night when you had Avory in the bed with you. Because he doesn’t just fall asleep. No, it’s a process. It starts out like this;
“Dad, it’s too dark, can you turn on the light?” I say okay, get up, and turn on the light. I go back to lay down and he decides he wants the light off. “Dad, it’s too bright, can you turn off the light?” I get up to turn off the light and go to lay back down, happy that he didn’t tell me to get up and turn the light on. The lamp was dimly lit so there was some light in her. Sophia? She was dead asleep and I was so jealous.
“Dad, I wonder how many sheep I can count before I fall asleep; 1, 2, 3, 4-”
“Avory,” I would say. “Go to sleep.”
“You know what dad, I want to be a basketball player too!”
“That’s nice, Avory, now go to sleep.”
“-5, 6, 7, 8.”
“I’m trying to sleep Avory. Maybe you should do that same.” My head would be shoved so far into the pillow that I’m suffocating myself.
“Dad, I’m getting kind of tired. How many sheep are you at? I’m at 9, 10, 11, 12…”
Finally, I had to harshly whisper at him. My eyes, I could feel, were red with exhaustion and my body was aching for some sleep. “Avory! I’m trying to sleep! Go to sleep!”
“Well, jeez, dad! You could have just said so. ‘Night.” Then I’d lie back because he was finally going to sleep. Once my eyes were securely closed, he’d whisper, “13, 14, 15, 16.” and it keeps going on! So not only am I tired of Richard, I’m tired from the previous night and I suddenly found myself falling asleep. The room was going blurry because I was trying to keep my eyes open; I wanted to be awake when Sophia got home. But all I could do was fall asleep, letting Richard’s words drift from my head because if Avory was growing up like me, that’s good… in a way. There are things I’d rather have him not follow but if he’ll do anything to keep his family together, he’s definitely a son of mine.
________________________________________________________________________
Why is it that when I get into a good sleep, I always get woken up? It sounded like a muffled trumpet being played by a person who is tone def. But then it started to become clearer and it was the sound of… someone blowing their nose? At first, it was weird and Ii thought I was in a dream but then it was accompanied by soft cries. Like someone was trying not to wake me up or they were crying in the kitchen.
Who, I thought, is crying and… why? And then the voice became more familiar. Avory wasn’t here and Kari had a more quiet voice. The only one left… “Sophia?” I lifted myself onto one elbow, tapping the base of the bedside lamp so it would turn on. “What are you doing up?” As a matter of fact, what time was it? I looked at the clock that sat at the base of the bed and it read 9:30. I had slept longer than I intended to.
“What are you doing up,” she tried to sound like she wasn’t crying and it would have been convincing, if she didn’t have all those tear soaked tissues in her hand.
Frowning, I looped my arm around her stomach and pulling her down to me. Her head landed on my chest; I could clearly see her red eyes and slightly reddened face. “How long have you been crying? Why are you crying?” I waited for an answer to either question. “You better answer me Sophia or else…” I didn’t have enough will power to threaten her; it wasn’t something I was good at. As a matter of fact, it wasn’t something I wanted to be good at.
“You don’t understand,” she mumbled.
I sighed; stroking her cheek that had warmth to them that I was hopelessly in love with along with the rest of her. “Please tell me. I don’t want to watch you cry and do nothing about it.” At first she hesitated but then she repositioned herself so that we were on our sides, facing each other. She placed her hand on my jaw and took it down my neck, stopping on my shoulder. My hand went down her ribcage and stopped one her hip.
“Well,” she bit her lip. “I told my dad he can stay. But he won’t get along with you and I can’t let him do what he’s doing. At the same time, I can’t ditch him!”
A smile spread across my face. She was never one to abandon her family. I was mad at the moment but I’d never think of kicking him out. Yeah he has to irritating mood swings and says something so messed up you want to kill him… but it’s just part of his nature and there’s always a source for things, even though your reactions aren’t as smart as they could be. I now know that he was just trying to get to me when he said that about Avory that’s all. “I may have seemed mad at the time, but I’m glad you told him he can stay. You’re all he has now, Sophie.”
“We’re all he has.” She smiled radiantly, the ones that blinded me, but it quickly faded and her face was sent to sadness again. “But we never got to do our date and I have to work tomorrow.” I frowned, she was right. But, with Ethan, there’s always time for Sophia. I told her to wait in the bedroom while I got up and did a little bit of tweaking. That kitchen light had this dim button that could give you any shade of light so I lowered the brightness to give it that romantic feel. I fished out a candle and lit it with an old lighter of mine once it was placed in the middle of the table. My best wine, Screaming Eagle, and placed it next to the lit candle. I took two chairs, placed them next to each other, and straightened out my appearance the best way I knew how before I went to go fetch my date.
Sophia was fumbling with her fingers when I appeared in the doorway. She only looked at me, and then raised an eyebrow. I held out my hand, “Is milady going to join me or is she going there, taking in my impeccable features?” She rolled her eyes, pushing herself off the bed. She had on the sweat pants that I got her for her birthday that said “Kiss This” on the back and a white tank top. Did I mention she wasn’t wearing a bra? She said, sometimes, she doesn’t feel comfortable in one but there are also times when I don’t feel comfortable when she “leaks.” Yes, women, the breast milk can come out when it wants to.
“Enough with being formal,” she commanded as she took my hand and I led her into the kitchen. She gave me a glare as if I was planning on something. No, just a nice evening with the love of my life is all… unless that’s planning something. It wasn’t until she commented on the wine when I figured out why she glared at me. “I don’t drink wine.”
I gaped. “Babe, do you know what this is? This is Screaming Eagle, the best wine I’ve ever tasted.” I went to the cupboard and got a wine glass and corkscrew placing the glass on the table and having her sit in front of it. I took the corkscrew and carefully opened the bottle so the smell of the liquid could float out of the bottle. To me, it smelled like heaven. Sophia nearly coughed to death. “Don’t over exaggerate. You haven’t even tasted it yet.”
“I don’t need to, but I do need a pick me up so pour me a glass.”
“Hey! I thought I was your pick me up!”
She laughed, a sexy one at that, and ran a finger down my arm. “Only on special nights, Ethan. And tonight is not a special night.”I groaned. Why does she have to play with my man-mind like that? She has me thinking up all these kinds of things and then tells me it’s not going to happen. That, ladies, is how you leave a man deprived, the exact same reason why he leaves you. The only difference between you guys and Sophia and I is that I’m going to be one deprived man because she’s got me hooked… big time.
“You don’t know it but you’re good,” I laughed, watching her take a sip of the wine.
“Good at what,” she asked me.
I thought about it, choosing my words carefully, “Everything.”