𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐁𝐚𝐝 𝐁𝐨𝐲'𝐬 𝐃𝐢𝐬𝐜𝐢𝐩𝐥𝐞

11 | 𝑃𝑟𝑒𝑡𝑡𝑦 𝐿𝑎𝑑𝑦

I was on the verge of passing out and if not on the verge, I sure felt like it. Yet, I never moved, I didn't even flinch. I was frozen in a stance of bafflement as the man stood proudly in the entryway.

"Dinner!" my mom yelled a bit more frustratingly from the kitchen. "Riyah!" She began ordering, her thrumming steps were heard in the distance, but muted the second that she stepped foot into the living room. Her breath hitched, the tension raised in the air and I couldn't tell how long it's been of me standing there. "Reed," she curtly greeted, swallowing thickly.

"Jessica," he breathed out, "Azariah," he added in his exhale, looking between the two of us with such astonishment. "I missed my two girls--"

"We're not your girls," I said sternly. "You lost that privilege when you left."

"Please, Aza," he started with such desperation underlying his words. "I know, I've made a few mistakes--"

This time it wasn't me who spoke, but my mom. She came storming up from behind me, a rage blowing fire around her like a veil blowing in the wind. "A few!?" she repeated. She stood beside, standing tall. "You ruined this family."

"I want to come home," he begged, "I'm ready, I've changed--"

"And I've changed too," rebuked my mother, curling her nails into her fist. "And you're ready for what? To act like a man? To act like a husband? A father? You left!" she charged, her voice straining with every bit of power it took in her system. "Do you realize what you have done?"

"I'm trying to change!" he cried out, "Give me a chance, Jess! I want to watch our daughter grow up--"

"She is growing up just fine without a father figure," retorted my mom, her words strong and sending. A course of memories flooded through me at those words.

"We haven't seen you in ages," she ranted. "Let me guess, the little blonde-headed bunny couldn't put up with your bullshit anymore?" she relayed and I knew she had this practiced for as long as he's been gone. "You don't live here anymore--"

"This house--"

"Is not your home." My mom licked her lips, swallowing back a knot of tears buried in her throat. "Leave, now. You have no business coming unannounced."

"Fine!" He started to raise his voice, beckoning a hand to the siding of the house from his spot on the porch. "But I want to be there."

"Be where, Reed?" she exasperated wearily.

"Be there for our daughter's graduation," he concluded, causing my own gasp to pull from the air, holding onto the oxygen greedily. My eyes stayed level with his chest since he was taller than me by a lot, but I couldn't face his eyes. I was too stubborn to show him my tears.

"Well," started Jessica pointedly, "that's a decision my daughter has to make." She sternly  declared, "get the hell off this property and you can text me, or did you block my number after you left four years ago?" she charged.

He sighed thickly, turning to me with a stare that burned every nerve. He didn't say anything or respond, but slowly began to pivot around, jog down the porch steps and started to an old and deteriorating car out by the curb.

The world was too happy for a moment like this, a moment that happened so fast. 

My mom closed the door shortly, but when the hinge clicked into place it resounded through the house and then I watched as her back slammed against the front door. Tears welled in her squeezed shut eyes, the weight of every burden dragging her unhurriedly down to the ground and she fell to the floorboards, her knees to her chest, head in her arm. She cried all the rain droplets in every rainstorm that's happened since he'd left.