Jackass (She's An Extraordinary Girl)

"Um... wake up?" came a familiar voice that made you slowly flutter your eyes open, "Have you been here all night?"

"They look cute," came a small female voice.

It was Mike and Candice with an impressed look upon their tired faces. It was hard to concentrate on them do to the blinding sun that was lighting the room. The windows were so big, so the sun filled the whole coffee cafe.

You blinked more as you became more awake and more familiar to your surroundings. You turned your head around, only to see a waking Tre slowly start to wake up. You looked back at Mike and Candice, and yawned, "Sorry, but I guess we fell asleep after my shift was done. We just stayed a bit to hang out after closing time."

"Yea, okay," he sounded like he didn't buy the true story.

Candice laughed, "She's telling the truth, Mike. What do you think; they did it?"

Mike turned to her with an amused smile, "Knowing Tre, it's possible."

Yea, just talk like Tre and I are not even here.

You yawned again and wiped the sleep out of your eyes, "What time is it?"

Mike looked at you, "Just a bit before opening. I was surprised the front door was unlocked."

"Me too," Candice added, "Someone could have easily walked in. Even your open sign was up..."

Oops...

Candice went on, "How did you get so distracted that you forgot to lock up and fall asleep? Usually people are excited to get off their shifts so they can go home," she kept her eyes on you as she spoke.

There was a moment of silence that felt very awkward as you felt both Mike and Candice's eyes burning into your flesh.

"What are you?" said Tre from beside you, still waking up, "A cop?"

Mike couldn't help but laugh, "That's my girl. She needs to know everything that happened, why it happened, if there was a purpose."

Candice gave Mike a look, and it was obvious that it was the end of the questioning Candice was giving you about why and how you could have left the store unlocked and fell asleep in the booth with Tre.

Instead of going into a follow-up with Mike and Candice, who had decided to sit down at their usual spots every morning on the big chairs at the front counter, you turned to Tre. Of course, he had fallen back to sleep. It wasn't surprising; he wasn't use to being up so early like you were.

You got up from your seat and went behind the counter, "Okay, what would you two like? The usual?"

****

"I can't believe it..." you looked down at the floor as you kept the phone to your ear. You wanted to cry, but you also didn't, because you knew this day was going to come sooner or later.

"Yea, we were going through a lot of tough times there - a lot of them you saw, a lot you didn't - so we thought divorce would have been the only good route," mom had told you very contently. She didn't have a sound of sorrow, sadness, or any sort of emotion that would have made you understand what she was going through emotionally.

"So..." you paused, "How are you and dad going to work this all out?" you asked. You were just very shocked about the fact that they were divorcing. It was especially hard to hear the news over the phone from your mother who was living more than two hours away by car.

"Well," she paused, "I figure since you live all the way out in Berkley at the moment, you can stay there until everything gets settled here."

"Mom, you know I moved here because I was needing a break from the town, did you know this divorce was going to happen? Is that why you let me move here; so you and dad could work out your differences?" you were starting to feel annoyed as you spoke to your mother who seemed to have no emotion to the topic.

"No, Ivy, we sent you there so you could get better. However, now with me and your father, we have decided to let you stay there, in Berkley, for another few months as we get things sorted out," she said.

You thought for a few minutes about what she said, and what she had considered to be 'another few months. "Mom, how long did you figure I would stay here for?" you questioned.

From the silence you could tell she was thinking about it; "Maybe for a semester of school, so you'd be back here after the new year..." she trailed off.

"And now?" you questioned calmly, "Now that you and dad are going through this, how long do you figure I'll be here?"

Again, silence; "Maybe for a whole school year. Your dad will be taking time moving out and getting a new home, so it's going to be chaotic here with the moving and the arguments..."

"And the arguments..." of course there's arguments.

"Then, I guess, you'll come back home and live with me," she said slowly.

You blinked at her conclusion that you would want to live with her, "But why not dad? What if I wanted to live with him?" you questioned.

She sounded hesitant to talk, but she went on to saying, "Ivy... it's your dad that..." she sighed, "He's having prob--"

"What kind of problems?" you asked before she could even finish. Your thoughts on this situation were that it was really your mom's fault for always nagging and starting fights with your dad. Why live with the person who is the culprit? I know my mother; she is not the easiest person to get along with.

Again, she was hesitant, "It's a problem that I shouldn't be telling you for his sake."

You stared at the wall as her words went through your head a few times, hoping you could find a reason she could be talking about him like this.

"You'll have six or seven months or so to think about it before you decide what you really want," she said quickly.

You slowly fell out of your daze and shifted your attention to the television screen in front of you, and said boldly, "No, mom, I'm not leaving in six or seven months. I have something here and I want to stay!" you paused, thinking she would protest or share an opinion, but she just stayed quiet, so therefore, you continued to say, "Just fuck it, I'm going. Bye, mom."

With that, you hung up the phone and threw it on the sofa chair next to you and turned your head to the television, however, you weren't paying attention to what was on it.

"Are you doing the laundry tonight, kid?" came Stans voice from beside you.

You slowly turned your head from the television to look at him, "What?" you scrunched your forehead in thought, "Since when do I ever do the laundry?"

As if he did not listen to you, he walked in the room with his eyes glued to the television set. He went over to the sofa chair you had thrown the phone on and sat down after he put the phone on the coffee table.

You sighed to break the silence, "There's nothing on Saturdays, -" Is there ever? - "you can change it."

You passed him the remote as you got up from your spot. You fixed the front of your top and took your black sweater from the sofa and pulled it onto your body. "I think I'll go out," you told the hypnotized young man as you zipped up your sweater.

You looked over at him as he channel surfed through the channels and asked, "Did you even hear me?"

He kept his green eyes on the television, "Yea; you're going out, I heard you." He then, finally, as if it took a lot of will-power, looked up at you, "When will you be back?"

You shrugged, not too sure yourself where you were even going. You thought about it and concluded, "I'll be back before midnight."

He nodded quickly, going back to paying attention to the television.

You walked out of the house and made your way down the short narrow path that separated your street from a park. As you allowed your feet to take you to wherever they were going to take you, you thought to yourself whether or not you would ever truly forgive your mom for allowing so many fights with your dad.

You wanted to talk to Tre about your conversation with your mom and the update she had given you, however, you never use to talk about your feelings to anyone and it felt like it would have been hard for you to just let the complication pour out of you.

As you walked up the street, into the early sunset and the cool late-November air blowing into your hair, you wondered how your brothers felt about your parents going through a divorce. Of course they were probably thinking along the same lines as you were about how upsetting it was, but having to live with them, you wondered how they felt.

You found a house that was always welcoming to you on your wanders that evening. You knew that you could knock on the door and the family inside would always allow you to come in and sit with them until you had to leave.

You stepped onto the casually looking porch and knocked on the door, waiting patiently for someone to answer for you.

Before you knew it, you heard footsteps and noticed shadows on the distorted, elegant windows. When the door had opened and the welcoming face had greeted you with a smile, you asked, "Would it be okay if I just hung out here for a bit tonight?"

"Of course you can," said the friendly voice of Adrienne.