The Gang Bang

Chappie 6

Samantha

My car haults ouside my new campus and I peeked out seeing the same old routine of every college student. I looked at my father who was fighting hard not to cry.

"Are you sure about this hon? 'Cause its really ok if you wanted to stay with me" my father tries to persuade me in staying with him in a very subtle way.

I look at his wrinkling face amd feel sorry for him. He was a very young and handsome man once upon a time, who happened to stumble onto my mother in his teens. They remained a sweethearts for many years before I was concieved. They were so happy but unfortunately I couldn't bring any happiness to them.

My mother died 4 minutes 14 seconds after I was born. My father was devastated and didn't even want to look at the child who killed his wife, his love. I think his action was justified.  My grandmother took me in her care. 1 year later, my father came to my gran's place drunk and crying about how much he missed his wife.

Being the wiser mom, my grandmother took him to my room where he first saw me, stuffed into a Minnie mouse coustume for my birthday party. His first words after seeing him were, " I'm sorry Maggie for abandoning our child" and he sobbed for approximately 2 hours. Maggie was my mother's nickname.

Ofcourse I don't remember any of this but my granny had told me this story repeatedly. But what I do remember is how he made my life full of love and care. He took up each and every responsibility of mine, never once did he complain about it. He always put me first. He cherised the one last gift his wife had left him. He used to tell me stories about how he met mom and many others from their time together. 

It's only recently that I realised he is so attached to me that he is not ready to move on in his life. He was afraid I might go away from him someday like his childhood love had. When he disclosed to my granny that he couldn't re-marry because he thought it would have an adverse effect on me, I decided to move out so that he doesn't hesitate to begin a new life. And what better way to move out than to switch to a new college.

Now that I look at the crowd of unknown faces, I immediately regret my decision. I didn't know anybody and hardly good at making new friends.

Seriously,  who did I think I was, Gandhi?

I closed my eyes and began massaging my temples. This was stressful.

"See, you already are stressed Sam, lets go back.." my father points out.

"No dad, I'm fine. It's just the tiredness" I lie and look at him watching me skeptically. Obviously he knew how uncomfortable I was with people. I had no issues on leaving my previous college since I hardly had friends. The only thing which bothered me was leaving dad alone but then he needed to grow up.

I was not a social reject or something.  I was pretty much in demand owning to my good looks which I had thankfully inherited from my mother.  I was just not good at making friends or rather close friends. The only one I had was my childhood neighbour Selene.  She was everything I needed to endure the struggles of high school. I was definitely going to miss her, dad and granny the most. I'm not sure if I'll miss anyone else.

Taking a deep breath I prepared myself to go ahead with the one good thing I was doing for dad. I got out of the car and tried to relax my nerves plus keeping a happy and excited face for dad.

"Go on dad, I need to go find my dorm and get the schedule" saying I stepped out.  I had planned on joining the classes from today itself.

"You know I will miss you sweetheart" he sounded heartbroken.

I went around towards him and engulfed him in a bear hug. "I'll miss you too dad.  But you know I really need to do this,  right?"

"Why?"