When You're In Love with a girl

Chapter 3, Someone else's life

SOMEONE ELSE'S LIFE

"Sam will walk with you to the school," says Dad. We're eating breakfast at our new condo in New York.

The new condominium is pretty nice. Mom says she thinks we should update the oak floors with some trendy white bamboo or birch wood, but I'm not so sure. I just love the old aesthetics. Warm wood-toned walls, rich dark wood furniture, matching wood flooring. And I just love antiquey stuff. Perhaps it is all unnecessarily ornate, but the extra precision of detail, the look of an artisan... that is beautiful in my eyes. I love my furniture to be one of a kind; Mom prefers IKEA furniture.

The walls, as we are on the topic of decor, are a light coral color on some accent walls, giving off faintly beach vibes, while most of the walls are some bright white walls. My mom wants to paint over the pink walls. Sometimes I feel as if my mom wants to paint over me in our family dynamic....

There are some built-in light bulb spotlights on the ceiling. Makes it feel like less of a living space and more like a classroom. Whenever I step into a room with those lights on the ceiling, my airways close up and I can't breathe well.

On the bright side, Sam and I each have our own rooms. I got the one with walls already painted a warm, sunset-like yellow tone. Sam hated the color, like my mom. My dad said it reminded him of the Green Bay Packers, his favorite football team. He himself had been contracted up to play with the Green Bay Packers, but after suffering an injury, he couldn't play anymore. It was a story he often told to Sam.

"When I was a young lad, I was like you, Sam. I had big dreams, dreams of playing football big time. Going pro. I played football through high school and got scouted in senior year. The Green Bay Packers wanted me for their team after I graduated high school." Dad would smile here, recalling fondly his adolescent happiness. "It was probably the best moment of my life. It still is, maybe only rivaled by when your mom and I got married.

"I threw away my college plans and began training for two years to join their team. But a week before the first game...."

Usually at this point Sam would break in, saying in an irritated manner, "I know, Dad, I know. You got an oh-so-horrible knee pain and then it turned out to be serious and the doc said you couldn't play anymore and okay I get it. You missed your chance when you were twenty-one." This made me feel a bit bad for Dad because even though I admittedly don't exactly write nice things about my parents in my diaries (they're really just a dumping ground for all the angry emotions I build up, which is a lot), I would never dare say it to my parents' faces.

I would observe a brief look of hurt flash across my dad's face. "Yes, Sam," Dad would say, shaking off the hurt. "Sam, you are young now. You don't understand that the real world is out to get you. It will hurt you, stab you, cut you to pieces. All your life you have to run against the current. Life is running up a hill against a river that flows downhill. It's always uphill, except I guess it's not really a hill because it never goes down. There are side paths that look like they go down but then the paths abruptly drop off. Death. Living is continuing to run. What I'm trying to tell you, Sam... son, you cannot focus so much on football. Look where it got me. I threw away my college plans, got injured, couldn't play anymore, and so I became useless. Where did playing football get me after the injury? Football isn't sympathetic to middle-aged, pot-bellied dudes like me anymore. I had to do something to get my life back together. Going back to college after the injury hurt. It nearly broke me, but I'm glad I did. Now I have a stable job, a wonderful woman as my wife, and a wonderful son, and of course Alie as well." He would smile here and pat my head.

The memory dissolves from there. I can't remember what happened after that. From then on, Dad would always remind Sam of the football injury and the harsh lesson it had taught him.

Of course, he still loves the Green Bay Packers. You should have seen his old room. Green Bay Packers streamers everywhere, a big number one foam hand taped to the wall. And posters, yes, posters like a teenager would put in their room, all over the walls, covering every inch of the walls.

Mom complains that the kitchen is too small, but she says she'll make do. After all, New York... job opportunity for my dad, and just... NEW YORK. New freaking york. We're in New York, we're in New York, is what Mom keeps repeating (especially on camera). She seems to have already set up meetings with other famous YouTubers living in New York and planned collaborations.

But today... Sam and I start school today. It's a preppy school, with a lot of rich kids, according to the Google reviews. Mom told me it has a pretty good education system, especially compared to the one I was in at Madison. I'm glad. If I have to go to school, I'll go to a nice one, thank you very much.

I do not know why I am so nervous... after all, it will be much like the school I left behind in Madison. Preppy kids or not, they just never seem to like me....

Author's Note: Thanks so much for reading! Please be sure to vote to help the story be seen by more people. Feel free to drop a comment. I read and reply to all comments. I won't bite! :)

-Tara G