High School Survival Theory

Chapter 53

I pour coffee into three mugs. Then open the bag of sugar cubes and put two cubes in one mug and one cube in the other two and stir them.

When I go back to the living room, dad is still where I left him.

Hearing me coming, he looks up. I give him his mug. "I'll be right back," I tell him.

I climb up the stairs and knock on the door of my parents' bedroom. "Mom?"

I hear shuffling noise inside. "Go away."

"I made you some coffee," I say. "With one sugar cube, just the way you like."

There's a pause. "I'm not feeling well honey," she says.

I sigh. "I'm leaving it on the doorstep." She doesn't respond. I leave the cup at the doorway and walk back to the living room.

"I didn't realize how much you've grown up," dad says when he sees me walking down the stairs. "Leaving for college next year, making coffee that doesn't taste like drinking hot coffee-mate."

'You would've known if you were around,' I wanted to say. Instead, I give in a small smile and sit down on the couch beside him.

Dad doesn't say anything as he drinks his coffee.

Then after what it feels like an eternity, I spoke, "What happened Dad?" I thought they were doing well, mom sounded pretty happy when I last talked with her. Heck, I even thought everything would be back the way it once was.

"It all happened so suddenly," he sighs. "I'm not sure where to start."

"How about from the beginning?" I suggest.

Dad takes off his glasses and pinches the bridge of his nose. "It all started on Monday afternoon after we came back from the cruise. We were talking about where to go for lunch when I had a phone call," he says. "I went to receive it and when I came back Agnes started shouting at me. At some point, I lost my temper too and I shouted back at her. Things got pretty bad and...and your mom left the hotel telling me she's going back home."

I wonder what might've happened during a phone call.

"I was a bit late to watch up with her," he says. "I had to pack our things and then discharge us from the hotel, barely catching up with your mom. We came home in the same Uber but she didn't even glance in my way, once. She almost sprinted out of the car and locked herself in the room since then," he pauses. "She's not even telling me why she's so mad at me."

"She didn't tell you anything?"

Dad's eyes squint. "When I came back to our hotel room after taking the phone call, she mentioned something about a lady and cheating on her," then he shrugs. "It was probably an angry outburst."

Unfortunately, I don't share his positive thoughts. "Dad," I say. "Is there any chance the person who called you was a lady?"

"Why do you ask?" He looks at me. "But yes, it was a lady."

Is he freaking kidding me right now?

"You picked a woman's call on their holiday merely to chat with her?!"

Dad blinks. "What's the problem with that?" I shake my head. Age doesn't grow a man. I ask him in disbelief.

"You aren't supposed to pick up any calls outside the family when you're on holiday."

Dad lifts a brow. "First that's a very backdated thought," he tells me. "And secondly, I didn't know there are any holiday rules. And even if there was, I had to break that one. The call was important."