We are at the beach! Simon is lying down, covering his face from the sun. My dad is on his side with his phone in hand, and I'm standing up.
"Ahhh." I plop down on my towel. I have my belly on the towel with my elbows up. My eyes go to a big group of mostly girls ( some boys), listening to music. The girls are dancing and some are twerking, making their butts shake like crazy. I chuckle, they look like they're having fun. I look at my dad and he realizes what I was laughing about.
"Don't look at that," he commands.
"I wasn't," I state, looking away. I flip myself so my belly is facing the sun.
"That's gross," My dad states.
"They're just dancing," I answer.
"What's gross?" Simon chimes in.
"That they are twerking," I state.
"People who do that, don't care about themselves," Dad states causing my face to turn into disgust.
"That's not true," I interject.
"Excuse me... They're shaking their butts in public. That's disrespectful,"
"Okay," Is all I say. "How do they not care about themselves?" I add after a while.
"If they treat themselves like that, then men will too," he states, "Don't do that," he adds. But he doesn't know how much of a BadAss I am. I look away and stare at the sun. God, help me. I look away and see the moon. I know he's a crazy man, can you please help. I mentally shake my head at my father's words.
Simon and I, are standing next to our broken tartaria (sandcastle) that we made, while our dad is in the water far away.
"That's not true, what he was saying about those girls," I state, looking towards the girls who are now in the water.
"I know." Simon shakes his head.
"He doesn't know why the girls are twerking. He isn't those girls," I say angrily, "They're dancing," I start to move to the sound of the music, I can't help myself. "They're just having fun," I continue.
"And why was he even whispering?" Simon asks inquisitively and I smile.
We're biking home, and right now we are headed towards a red light.
"Stop, stop, stop!" My father repeats over and over. I'm breaking so I can stop right at the stop sign.
"What did I say?" My father asks as I stop at the stop sign. "I told you to stop."
"Sorry," I say innocently. You see the grudge he is trying to keep but luckily it turns green, so we start to bike again.
"Simon, stop at the sidewalk," Great, I think. When we stop...
"You have to listen to my directions," he tells me and I nod. The people around us start to look towards us. "How many times do I have to tell you to listen?" When was the last time you told me? "When I say stop...you stop," he explains.
"Okay," I answer and he nods. We're off! We start to bike. I smile at what just happened, how pathetic and stupid. I shake my head as I smile. To make himself feel better Awww. Pathetic- I think. The thing is, he says stop when we're not even by the red light so if I stopped right where he told me to, I'd be in the middle of the street.
As we bike home, we stop at Whole Foods. We park or bikes and I stand behind them. When Dad finishes locking his bike, he looks my way.
"Don't stand there, make good decisions today," My dad tells me. What the Heck?
"You guys stay here, while I shop." We nod. As he leaves, I hiss.
"Son of a Bitch." I narrow my eyes.
"I know," Simon answers with the same expression on his face.
"Let's go to the police officer, and tell her to help us," I point out as I stare at the police officer, knowing that we won't actually ask.
"Ya," Simon agrees. He starts to make cool stories on how to run away and how to distract our dad. ( Legolas comes in, in one of the stories.)
I sit on the curb of the Whole Foods.
"Oh," I hear someone say, their voice surprised with joy.
"Hi," I say surprised as I realize who it is. I jump off of the curb. It's Rossella. She is one of my mom's friend that we've known our whole lives, she's Italian too. She's practically our aunt. She's my favorite aunt, even if I have plenty of real ones, I choose her.
"Hi, what are you doing here?" She asks.
"Daddy's in the store," Simon answers as I walk to stand next to them. Simon and I have grown taller over the years and are almost her height but she's still a few inches taller as we stand next to her. I still have my sad expression on my face and she sees this.
"Can I hug you?" I ask. She opens her arms and I go in. I want to cry.
"I wish you guys could come with me, I have pizza," She says, mischievously, her whole foods bags in her hand. I smile sadly.
"Dad's actually getting some right now," Simon says pointing to the store and she nods.
"Well...are you with mamma this weekend?" We nod, smiling at the thought of being with her. Amy does the same. "Good," She says, "We'll see each other this weekend then," She states, "I'll feel better after doing my taxes, if I'm with you," she says. She always worries about finishing things up, but she looks happier seeing us.
"Ya," We say at the same time.
"Have fun," She says as she grabs her bags, "Remember, tomorrow's Friday," she adds.
"Ciao," I say. We see her red curly hair bounce as she disappears through the city, her hair shining in the warm sun.
"Who's taking a shower first?" Dad asks.
"Me," Simon answer. I do the 'teenage look' at my dad,( meaning 'don't talk to me look') But he's too stupid to know what that means.
"What's wrong?" he asks.
"Nothing," YOU!
When it's my turn to take a shower, I think about random things, my usual babble of thoughts as I look at the tub underneath my feet. I somehow start thinking about Friends. Imagining what it would have been if Rachel wasn't there for an episode, because I remember one time hearing about how the actress was thinking of no longer being in the show, Impossible. But, I make an episode anyway.
The end of the episode Phoebe and Monica are in the kitchen, "Where's Rachel?" Phoebe asks looking around the apartment. The episode switches to a club, showing Rachel twerking. (not real episode)
I start dancing in the shower, and shake my butt. Thinking about the way daddy said it was gross to twerk, I start to do exactly that.
"Watch this." I shake my butt, "Take that daddy." I laugh.
And all this day is washed away by the water, my worries disappear, dancing in the shower.