Runs in the Family

The next three weeks went by faster than I had expected, I would over hear Lisa talking about her dates with Bronx, and every time I was near she always made sure to raise her voice and look me straight in the eyes with a smirk on her lips.

“I’m getting so sick of her bragging.” Victoria sighs as she sits in front of me at our usual lunch table.

“There’s nothing we can do about it.” I mumble taking a bite of the Turkey sandwich Ryan had made me in the morning.

“I guess you can’t stop true love.” Caitlin says sarcastically rolling her eyes.

I look towards Lisa’s table and see her telling her friends something and starts to laugh. I sigh and look away; my appetite had suddenly gone away.

A bell rings, causing almost everybody in the lunch room to groan, lunch was over and we only had 5 minutes to get to our next class.

I sigh and place my unfinished Turkey sandwich in the Ziploc bag.

“I’ll see you girls later; unfortunately my class is on the other side of the campus.” I say and stand up taking all my things.

“See you later!” Caitlin shouts as I walk out of the lunch room, heading to my next class, Government.

I walk into the classroom and smile as I see Jerry, my history buddy. For some odd and strange reason Jerry and I have always been in the same history class since the beginning of 9Th grade, and we made it our mission to always sit together and be partners.

“You’re here!” I beam excitedly as I take my regular seat next to him.

“Yeah, I guess mom won this time.” He says in a low and sad tone of voice.

“What do you mean?” I ask.

“She found out I was going to ask Tom to be my prom date, and you know how my mom feels about, about me.”

“So what did she do?”

“She wouldn’t let me go anywhere until I agreed that I would take a girl to prom instead of Tom, so I agreed and here I am.” He says taking a deep breath.

“That isn’t fair.” I mumble, feeling bad for Jerry.

“I’m still 17, of course it isn’t fair.”

“So you’re not going to ask Tom, right?”

“My mother would kill me if I did! Especially after I promised her that I would take a girl.”

“So who are you going to ask?”

“Well I was thinking of asking my history buddy, but you’re probably already taken.”

I smile and place my hand on top of his. “I would love to be your prom date.” I tell him.

Jerry looks up at me with a big smile on his face. “Thank you Amelia.”

“No problem Jerry.” I smile back.

---

“Ryan, Brendon! I’m leaving!” I shout as I walk down the stairs.

“Where are you going?” Ryan calls out from the kitchen.

“To the library, I’ll be back in two hours!” I shout and open the front door, but as I step out I remember I had forgotten a book, I shut the front door with much unnecessary force and go up the stairs. I walk straight to Ryan’s desk and realize the book I was looking for was not there. I sigh and towards the bookshelves but it isn’t there either.

“Crap.” I curse silently looking all around Ryan’s home library, but the book is nowhere to be found.

“Maybe I left it in my room.” I murmur to myself.

I walk down the stairs and start walking towards the hall, when suddenly I hear Ryan’s voice.
“We need to tell her.” He says sounding a bit stressed.

“We promised each other that we wouldn’t.” Brendon snaps back, I could hear his anger.

“If we don’t, Pete will and it’s better if she finds out from us.” Ryan argues back.

I hear Brendon sigh and then nothing but silence, I stand nervously in the hall between the stairs and the living room.

“It’s her right to know.” Ryan whispers, and my heart begins to beat faster and harder against my chest, this was the moment I had been waiting for, for so long.

“We’ll lie to her.” Brendon finally speaks.

“Tell her she was adopted?” Ryan asks surprised.

“No,” Brendon says calmly, “We’ll tell her that you’re her biological dad and not me.”

I feel tears’ forming in my eyes, I had been right all along, Brendon was my real dad and yet it didn’t make me happy like I thought it would.

“What?” Ryan asks sounding confused.

“I don’t want Amelia to know I’m her real father, I rather her think it’s you. You’re a batter dad, you’re the one that always gives her advice, the one that always takes hers her places, you make breakfast and dinner, and sometimes you even pack lunch for her! You thought her how to read when she was 3! You read to her every single night for eight years straight and tucked her to bed; you did everything I couldn’t do. Who am I? I‘m just the one who makes her laugh and then one that acts as if I were still young because I can‘t face the fact that my life is over.”

“Brendon, don’t be hard on yourself-”

“NO!” Brendon shouts causing me to jump a bit. “I never wanted her Ryan; you knew that when Rachel was pregnant, you knew I was counting on her to raise her and for me to just pop up on occasions and say hi, nothing more. But then she died.” Brendon’s voice faded.

I could feel my heart aching from what he had just said. ‘I never wanted her’ I bit my lip trying not to cry out, I didn’t want them to know I was still here and not on my way to the library.

“And then you held her in your arms because I couldn’t and I saw the way you looked at her, you looked at her as if she was your own flesh and blood, your own daughter and I knew then that you were the only one that could give her all the love in the world, you were her dad and nothing could change that.”

“But you’re her dad, and you love her just as much as I love her, she’s our daughter.”

“I should have never called you and asked you to come to the hospital, I should have just left her there and hope she would get adopted by somebody who wanted a child.”

I couldn’t hold it any longer; I opened the front door and let out a sob as I closed the door behind me. I ran down the street not caring were I was going. How could he be so insensitive, how could he say those things, that he never wanted me and he didn’t care that my mom had died, that he only cared about himself and no one else.

“AMELIA!” I could hear Ryan shouting after me.

Of course it was Ryan, the only one who really cared about me, the one I wished was my real dad, the one who had always told me to wish on stars and have dreams, and never let anybody bring me down, and yet it was my own father who was bringing me down.

“AMELIA!” Ryan shouted, his voice was closer and I pushed my legs harder, and I kept on running even if I knew Ryan wasn’t going to give up, but I couldn’t talk to him, not right now.