Chapter 3. Awkward

I got home right before dinner. My mom was busy preparing the table when she saw me walking toward the dining area. 

"Hi, sweetie," she kissed me on the cheek. "How's school?"

"Still the same," I answered. I excused myself to when upstairs to change my clothes and clean myself.  

I wanted to check on my dad in his study room but when I open the door, he was not inside. Maybe, he's still on his way home.  

"He'll be late," my older sister, Arielle said, coming out of nowhere. 

"And he's going to get killed," I said. My sister just laughed about it and went downstairs.  

Arielle, who's the first born among us, is one of a kind. She's studying in med school in Boston and went back here yesterday just because she misses our mom. She never settled for less in her life, well, she was raised to be a competitive woman by our grandmother in the US. Meanwhile, our younger sister, Arianne, is the opposite of her. She's humble most of the time but she can be a little devil if Arielle forces her to. As for me, I'm the middle child. I might be the carefree one though, I just love freedom. Besides, my parent never manipulated me to do something for them.  

After I wash my hair and change my clothes, I went downstairs already. I'm about to enter the dining area when Arielle stood up from her chair and walked away. She just glanced at me for a second but I can see her fuming mad expression all over her face.  

"What happened to that crazy woman?" I asked when I sat down in front of the table.  

Both my mom and Arianne stayed quiet so I just put some lasagna on my plate. Mom started to eat again but Arianne seems still bothered.  

"Ari, you better eat those nuggets, or else I'll just snatch that from you," I teased her but she still has no response. 

I looked at the side of my mom. "Mom, someone's not eating her food." 

"Angela," my mom called me by my whole name. Okay, that wasn't good.  

"In three days, you must choose where to stay," mom calmly said. "Your dad's or mine." 

I'm a bit puzzled by what my mom said. Choose? Why would I do that?

"What's going on?" I asked. 

Mom sighed and said, "Your father and I are going to have a divorce." 

Arianne immediately cries from what my mom said and I'm too stunned about it.  

Divorce? Our family's been doing great lately. As far as I know, mom and dad never argued a lot in the past up until now. I can't find a reason why they are doing this. I thought tearing apart the family will never be a choice for them. I thought... I thought our family was different. 

Everything went silent. I just found myself walking outside to our garden and climbing up one of the old trees that we used as our tree house. When I'm at the top, I look around and see the biggest family picture that I have here. 

My family. 

I can't feel anything. The only thing I know right now is that we're broken. I wanted to ask my mom a bunch of questions a while ago, but not a single word came out of my mouth. I felt so empty. 

I saw scissors beside me. Without even thinking, I grabbed them and started to cut our picture into pieces. While doing it, my eyes didn't even drop a single tear. It's like I don't even have a feeling. I can't feel any sadness or anger or disappointment. All I want to do is to destroy this shitty family picture that I have. 

I stopped what I was doing when I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned my back only to see my sister, Arianne, still crying from what she heard from our mother. 

"I'm going," she said while sobbing, "with Mom." 

How can she easily decide about that? 

"I'm going, too," I said. I'm going away for a while. 

"Mom needs you to pack your things immediately," Arianne told me before she went down. 

I feel like I'm being robbed. 

Minutes later, I heard our gate opening and I just saw my dad's car. I wanted to face and confront him about this matter, but I felt like I was glued to this tiny chair. I'm just looking at the floor where I see pieces of our family picture that I destroyed. 

"Gela?" my father called from beneath the tree. He called again four times until I just felt his hand on my shoulder.

"Why?" I asked, almost in a whisper. He went silent for a moment. I'm guessing he wasn't ready for the question that I would throw at him. 

His daughters have the right to know, of course, this is too sudden for us.  

When I heard my older sister I immediately go down to her. She's packed with a shoulder and luggage; she looks settled already.  

"I'm going back to Boston tonight," she calmly told me. "You should go back with me." 

The finality of her voice made me laugh for a while. Studying and hiding at the same time? She may seem to have the authority next to our parents, but I will not go with her. I just walked past her, straight to our main gate to go outside. I don't know where I'm going but I want to breathe and think. Especially, think.

I walk passed the mini-park inside our village until I saw its gate, I just walk passed it too even though I heard the guard calling my name. Maybe my parents had already told them to look for me.  

Do they even think that guard will stop me? He can't look at me straight in the eye, geez.  

From the other side of the main road, I saw a convenience store so I just stay there. I suddenly felt my hungry tummy when I smelled coffee, right, I didn't get to eat my dinner because of the sudden revelation. 

When I got inside the store, I just picked up a random loaf of bread and a few biscuits to fill my hunger. After I paid for it, I just sat down on the stool inside and watched the vehicles passing along the road.  

I had just come to my senses when I felt a vibration inside the pocket of my shorts. Oh, it's my phone, currently ringing. I saw a lot of messages from my mom, dad, and Arianne. I also saw only one message from my older sister saying 'I'll go, for now, take care'. Wow, that's really helping the situation, huh?  

Time has passed and I'm just browsing through call logs only to see missed calls from my family. I was about to turn off my phone when I curiously went through my contacts and looked for the phone number that I got a while ago. I already saved it when I was on my way home from school. I don’t have a habit of saving a stranger’s phone number but he’s harmless after all. 

Is he going to answer at this time of the night?  

I dialed the number and it's ringing! I waited for it until it stopped ringing and a young girl answered my call.  

"Hi! My uncle's not around right now, "she cheerfully said. 

"All right, little girl, just drop the call," I said, and I heard her gasp at what I said. 

"I'm not a little girl anymore," she complained.  

"Okay, then just drop the call and thank you," I said, and I just heard her saying the 'i love you' word to me before totally dropping the call. That made me smile a little, even though I'm out of my mind right now.  

Moments later, my phone suddenly rings, and it is the number that I dialed a while ago. Maybe the little kid's playing around? 

"Hey, kiddo," I didn't get to finish what I was about to say when I heard a husky voice from the other line.  

"Hey, it's me." 

"Your niece is much more adorable than you," I sarcastically said.  

He chuckled a bit and said, "Any acceptable reason to call me at this hour?" 

I sighed softly and just looked at the dark road outside. "I ran away." 

There was a hint of confusion and worry in his voice when he asked me, "Where are you?" 

"On the edge of being bloated because I ate too much bread," I said to ease the tension.  

"Where are you now?" he asked again. This guy's pushy, huh? 

I just told him the way after dropping the call. I don't even know why I told him about my whereabouts. Maybe I'm just totally out of mind.  

Today was too much for me, that's for sure. I'm about to lose my special someone, and now even my family is one hell of a hopeless case. Not to mention that my older sister just left us behind already and to think that the other one was just too pressured to choose during dinner time because she was with our mom. What a total tragedy! 

Another hour passed but I’m still here in the convenience store. It’s almost midnight and I guess I’m going to stay here until tomorrow morning. The road’s too dark now and even if I can cross to the other side, it’ll just lead me back to our mansion which is the last option that I have in mind. I also received messages from my boyfriend asking about my whereabouts but I might not trust him this time to come around. Even my friends were texting me a while ago but I just don’t want to let them know where I am. 

I’m busy thinking about what to do when a car parks in front of the store. A man came out wearing a black hoodie, cap, and face mask. I just looked at him until he enters the store. When he looked in my direction and caught that I’m staring at him, I felt nervous. I almost panicked when he started to walk toward me. Am I going to die? 

When he’s already in front of me, he removes his cap and face mask. I almost cursed him when I saw a familiar set of brown eyes, it was Kendric. 

“You look scared?” he asked.

Obviously, I thought I’m going to die! 

“Next time, just wear a hoodie if you’re going to meet someone in the middle of the night,” I angrily said. 

“Next time, you give your directions clearly so that I can meet you earlier,” he sarcastically replied. 

“What are even doing here?” I asked. I’m a total stranger to him, too. Why would he help me anyway? 

“I want a coffee?” he said as he shrugged his shoulders. I just looked at him and noticed that his eyes look a bit… worried. He gently pushed my forehead with his fingers when he noticed that I’m just looking at him. 

“You want coffee?” he asked. 

I nodded at him and he already went to the coffee vending machine. He’s really a good guy. 

He gives me the coffee that he bought and we just sat together silently while looking outside. This is awkward but for the first time in my life, I can’t even get to start a simple or random topic to talk about. 

“Why?” I suddenly asked as he turned his look at me. He looks so confused about what I said. 

“Why are you here with me, drinking a coffee in the middle of the night?” I asked again. 

His confused expression fades as he suddenly smiled like I asked a ridiculous question. 

“Easy,” he said. He then types something on his phone and seconds later, a message pops up on my phone. 

It’s from him. 

From: Bench Guy 

‘coz you’re pretty :> 

I looked at him again only to hear what he texted. 

“Just like what I said, you’re pretty,” he said while looking at me. 

Now, this is too awkward.