THE JOCK JUST WANTS THE NERD [2]

6

||ETHAN||

"How was your first day of work?" My dad asked as he brought out plastic bags of food from my favorite Asian eatery. Staring at it, I felt my stomach growl as I remembered that Kenny had about three-fourths of my food this afternoon.

"It was swell. I love it," I smiled at him, pulling my lunch box out of my bag and quickly washing it off before sitting myself on the dining chair in front of him.

"I'm glad you think that," My dad said, placing shrimp tempura and sweet-sauce chicken on my plate sat in front of me before serving himself.

"Thank you," I said with appreciation. Dad doesn't really cook as he was more of the type to heat up pre-made food in the microwave. I remember back then when I was sick in bed, he tried preparing a rather difficult dish and ended up causing our apartment to smoke up. Needless to say, he never really touched the stove at that point, fearing he'd burn the place down or somehow 'poison' me with his food, so he just gave me chicken broth instead afterwards. He'll just stick to police officer things for now. I pretty much am the one in charge when it comes to cooking. My dad would always say that my food would remind him of mom so much, calling me a talented chef and a wonderful gift in his life. "So what did you do today?" My dad asked, taking in the fried rice on his platter and blowing on it before biting.

"Well... I helped this one girl named Carla, shared a bit of my lunch to this one boy named Kenny, and I actually served food to a guy named Jackson who used to be in my high school last year," I said to him.

"Oh that's nice, though, I think I recall Jackson being a football player?" He questioned. My father is quite a fan of sports; although because of his work, he tries hard to find time in his schedule to watch some of the football events in highscool, especially if I was involved in singing the national anthem before the game.

"Yeah, apparently he's attending in that one college nearby, Cal university," I said. My father nods silently as he kept on with his food. I envy the fact that Jackson could study in higher education. I frowned, remembering how hard I tried in pursuing to enter in one. I was seeking so desperately to apply for as many scholarships as I could, but it just wasn't enough to apply and frequently pay for future debt. I brought up the idea to my father: with the number of scholarships I've been given, I could register and try to get accepted and work while learning at the same time. My father thought the opposite and never liked my plan. He was scared that I would be put under so much stress that if I really wanted to go to college, he suggested to be the one to add more hours to his work so I didn't have to look for a job myself. Vice versa, I pitied him and got stuck for a moment. I love my father with my whole heart, and I could not stand the thought of him working to death to let me in college. With great dissatisfaction, I dismissed the idea of getting into college for now and find a place to employ and save up some extra money with my two-four years of lasting scholarships and hustle later on to get in one. It wasn't the best plan, but it was something my Dad and I could somewhat agree to.

"Welp, I gotta get some sleep now for work tomorrow," my dad said as he finished his meal and placed his plate in the sink, "good night son, love you," He said with a smile as he placed a kiss on my forehead.

"Love you too Dad, sleep well," I said to him as I watched him disappear into his bedroom and closing his door. As I sat down in silence, alone with my food, I pulled out my flip-phone to check if I had any messages. Sadly, my inbox has been really empty now in these past few days. Ever since we've parted ways, Noah and the others became a lot more busy than ever. Sighing, I took my last bite before scraping what's left on my plate in the bin and proceeded to wash our plates.

After cleaning up, I looked at the clock on the wall to check the time and read that it was almost nine. I let out a yawn and stifled a sniff. Dragging my feet over to the bathroom, I checked myself in the mirror. Putting up a fake smile for a while, I slowly let it down as I stared at my slightly visible shaking hands. I let out a breath and opened the medicine cabinet from beside and rummaged through to find my bottle of antidepressants. Taking out one, I quickly swallowed it down easily with no difficulty. Putting it back in and taking out my toothbrush, I then began washing out my mouth and gargling.

After preparing myself for bed, I stared out the window and looked up at the glowing moon surrounded by glimmering stars. I let the serene view calm me down and I sang a sweet soothing melody that my mother used to hum to me when I was young. She had the prettiest voice that would help me go to sleep in tranquil every time she sat by my bed. As I felt my eyelids getting heavier, I slowly started bringing myself deeper into my bed and began drifting away.