Waves

My dad sat in the front, driving his Ford pick up truck. We had been on the road for a week traveling coast to coast. Florida was our destination, near Miami. We still had awhile to go though and I enjoyed the small slience with the radio softly singing in the background. It took us one small measly moving van and the pick up to move from our old home in Cali. We hadn't brought much since most had been my mother's or my dear sister's. I thought back to that night when I was twelve. It was a Tuesday, hot for the dry spring weather, there was screaming and shouting. My mother stomped out of the room with a sheet over her naked body. Some boy snuck out in his underwear while holding onto his clothes. Dad was mad, he looked torn between hate and sadness. He'd been on anti-depressants since that night. The next thing I knew mom was gone leaving Lacey, my little sister confused and hurt. But we'd all been hurt. I came back to reality when the radio began to get all fuzzy sounding. I looked around for a new station and found one.

"You'll like it in Florida," my dad stated. He was trying for small talk. "The beaches are nice and the city isn't far. You can use the Corolla when it gets to the house."

"Thanks dad," I said nicely. My dad and I always had a good relationship. I played with my dyed blonde hair and sighed. It was going to need another dye soon. I had started doing this a year after mom left. I reminded my dad too much of her and I felt guilty. My hair was naturally a light brown like my moms, my green eyes always resembled my dads. With my dyed hair I looked more like my dad who was a natural blonde. Lacey was a dirty blonde with brown eyes. She was prettier than me and much more graceful. She used to dance in big theatres informt of huge crowds. She stopped after mom went away. She too went into a depression and I was left with being the woman and man of the house. When I started high school I got in with the wrong crowd. I met Drake, he was a drug dealer. It was how he bought me nice gifts. We hit it off half way into school. I never once did drugs or helped him sell it any way or form. I should have been paying attention to Lacey at the time. She was really depressed and bullied by other girls at her school. Two years had passed and I found her on a Tuesday night. She hung herself from her ceiling fan. On the bed was a note explaining her reasons. Dad finally woke up after that. I cried myself to sleep every night after. Drake saw that I was sad and he did comfort me, but after awhile he got mad and said he couldn't deal with "my shitty life" and that it was too "fucking sad." I saw him the next day with a different girl. I told my dad everything and togehter we got him arrested and put in jail. Dad then saw it unfit and a hazard to live there in Cali. Too many bad memories was an understatement. I let a tear slip and I quickly wiped it away. No more tears, I promised myself. I would try to have a better life here since it was my last year in school.

"Hey dad?" I asked, "can we stop at Ruby's?"

"Sure kiddo. It's about dinner time anyway," he smiled.