Pictures Of You

Chapter 2

Amy just stood there, staring at the man standing in front of her. She'd dreamt of this moment, thought of different scenarios of when she'd finally meet her father but not one of them was like this.

The man waited for Amy to respond, he looked sad, apologetic.

"What are you doing here?" Amy finally asked, after a couple of minutes of silence.

"I've come to see you." The man said, trying to smile sincerely.

"You had sixteen years to come see me, so why now?" Amy asked.

"I know I've screwed up but I've come to make it up to you." The man said.

"Well, you don't have to." Amy said, slamming the door in the man's face. Amy stood against the door for a second, taking a deep breath, trying to process what had just happened.

"Are you okay?" Karma asked.

"Yeah, let's get back to our marathon." Amy said, walking towards her room.

Karma looked back the door, confused about what to do; finally she walked away, trying to catch up with Amy, she didn't want Amy to feel like she wasn't there for her.

"Amy, do you want to talk about this?" Karma asked, entering Amy's room.

"No, not really." Amy said, taking a seat on her bed.

"Are you sure?" Karma asked.

"What is there to talk about? My father abandoned my mother and I and disappeared off the face of the earth. I spent so long waiting for him, hoping and praying that one day, I'd wake up and it would all be dream; that he'd never left. I waited for him and loved him for too long, longer than I ever should have; until one day I realized he didn't care about me. And so I stopped caring about him." Amy said, tears falling down her cheeks.

Karma didn't say anything, she went and took a seat next to Amy on her bed and put her arm around Amy's shoulders. There were no right words Karma could say to make any of this better for Amy but she could at least be there for her.

Amy had been dreading having to talk to her mom about what had happened last night, but she knew that she had to tell her mom; she deserved to know.

"Hey mom, do you have a minute." Amy said, walking up to Farrah, who was sitting at the dinning room table.

"Sure." Farrah said, in her thick accent.

"Last night, when you and Bruce were out, a man came home." Amy paused, not knowing how to continue. After a couple of moments she said, "He said he was my father."

Farrah was taken aback by what Amy had just told her. She hadn't seen her husband in twelve years.

"Are you sure that's what he said?" Farrah asked.

"Yeah." Amy said.

"What else did he say?" Farrah asked.

"Nothing really, that he wanted to meet me." Amy said.

"What did you say?" Farrah asked.

"I told him he'd had sixteen years to meet me but he didn't and so now he didn't need to and then I slammed the door in his face." Amy said.

"Are you okay?" Farrah asked.

"I'm fine, are you okay?" Amy asked.

"Yeah." Farrah said.

"What exactly happened between you and him mom?" Amy asked.

Farrah looked at Amy for a moment, she didn't know where to start from.

"Your father and I met in high school We fell in love in our sophomore year. We dated all through college and after we graduated, we got married. We'd been married two years when I got pregnant with you. He was so happy, when he found out, we were having a baby. The three of us were very happy for the first four years of your life. I had no idea he was unhappy, not even a clue. And one day, when I came back from work, I found a note saying he was going to buy some groceries; but he'd cleared out his wardrobe, all this things. He'd left and he never came back." Farrah said, between sobs.

Amy went over to hug her mother, heartbroken by the way her father had treated her.

"Well screw him, we don't need him." Amy said.

"We don't but Amy if you want to get to know him, you can." Farrah said.

"I don't even know who this man is mom, he could just be someone pretending to be my dad and the truth is, I don't care who he is, I don't want to know." Amy said, pulling her mother into a hug.

Both of them sat in silence for a while, not saying anything but just enjoying each other's company.

Karma came over to Amy's house later that evening, to check on her.

"Hey." Karma said, walking into Amy's room.

"Hey." Amy said, sitting up on her bed.

"How'd it go with your mom?" Karma asked, taking a seat next to Amy.

"Pretty well actually. She told me the story of how she and my dad fell in love and how he just left and as heartbreaking as it was to see her old wounds hurt her again, I've never felt this close to her before." Amy said.

Karma smiled and asked," So what have you decided then?"

"I've decided that I don't care. For a very long time, I thought the one thing missing in my life was a dad but now I know that I have everything I need. I have you and my mom and Shane and I even have Lauren. My mom's found a nice guy, who loves her and I don't want anything to come in the way of all these things and ruin them. He chose to leave, he didn't pick me when I need him and now I'm not picking him." Amy said.

"I think you've made the right choice and you're right, you do have me. You'll always have me." Karma said, holding Amy's hand.

Amy pulled Karma into a hug; so glad to have someone who loved her as much as Karma did; Karma was her family, the family she picked and Amy couldn't have asked for anyone better.