Moving On

Disaster

"I can't do it anymore," he sighed, shaking his head at me, "You've gone too far this time. I can't do this anymore. I can't act like how you're acting is okay."

He looked like he was about to cry. My dad never cries. Not once in seventeen years have I seen my father cry. He didn't even cry when my brother walked out for good. He just stared as he slammed the door and drove away in a hurry. It was like he was totally unaffected. The only emotion he could show, ever, was happiness and anger. Sadness didn't even come into it. His eyes didn't show upset or hurt, they showed complete disappointment. He was ashamed of me.

"Too far," he repeated, his voice quieting slightly.

Okay, maybe I had gone too far. But it wasn't really my fault. I was just messing around. How did I know that the principle was going to be there at the precise moment? It was just a joke, a dare, a prank. You can't say no to a dare. It wasn't my fault that the principle got in the way of the prank. He was supposed to stay in his office, in a meeting to some stuck up important people. He wasn't the target, but he sure acted like he was.

He shook his head at me again, "When will you learn? I've tried. I've tried again and again and again. You're impossible and I can't do it anymore."

When what he said gained no response, he repeated himself, the disappointment showing very clearly on his face, "I can't do this anymore."

Was he actually saying this? He was giving up on me. The one person who stuck by me forever and forever was giving up on me. I blinked at him, shocked by what he had said, his eyes revealed that he was far from joking.

"What? You're kicking me out?" I shouted at him.

"You've already blown it, big time. If only you'd stopped and thought about your actions, Leslie," he tried to guilt me into apologising and talking him out of it. He didn't actually want to kick me out, he was overreacting.

I raised my eyebrows in disbelief, "Dad, you can't do this, please," I took a deep breath, trying to control the anger that was bubbling inside of me, "It was a prank, it wasn't supposed to go like that. He...he got in the way. That's not my fault,"

He stood up, towering over me who was sat less than a metre away from him, the only thing separating us and protecting me was a weak and old kitchen table, that had definitely seen better days, "Oh so if it was just a prank, it's okay then. No hurt feelings. Except there was more than hurt feelings wasn't there? Your principle, or should I say ex principle, is lying in a hospital bed, with severe injuries. You cannot get yourself out of this one, young Lady," my dad showed a different side to him as he shouted this at me. It was a dark and scary side I had never actually seen before, I had heard him this angry before, but never had the chance to see it myself. I was glad up until now I never had met this side of my dad.

Arguing was a rarity with my dad, he was laid back and never allowed an argument to take place, if one was beginning he would walk away or pretend to be busy, too busy to argue. I couldn't remember a time in the lat five years that we actually had a full blown argument like this.

Before I could even begin to think of a clever response, one that would surely get me out of this mess, he continued, lowering his voice ever so slightly and sitting back on the edge of his seat, "I've spoken to your mother," I winced at the word 'mother' he never said that unless he was angry at me. He knew I hated it, it was one of those words, such as full names, that reminds people of punishment. No one ever called my mum 'mother', "She agrees that...that you should finish your last year of sixth form with your brother." He took a deep breath, placing his hands on the table, as if to be surrendering. He knew this would infuriate me.

I blinked back at him, speechless for the first time in years. He had stunned me into silence. It was a bit drastic wasn't it? Throwing me a couple of hours up the country to live with someone I hadn't spoken to for over a year. He couldn't mean it, could he? "Are you being ser-"