My Summer's Dilemma

Throughout the entire plane ride I could not sleep. I'm too anxious about seeing Michael again. The fact that the plane is landing at the moment does not make me fell any better. I wait patiently to unbuckle my seat-belt and leave the plane. I get up and follow everyone else to the Baggage Claim. I take my time; the longer I take, the longer I'll delay the meeting process. Plus it'll probably upset Michael if he's still the impatient man that my mother use to tell me about. About the fourth or goth time my suitcase passes me by was when I decide to pick them up and make my way through the crowds. I do the usual airport system things before I get out front to the entrance. I find a bench a few steps away and drop my body upon it. I take my phone out and text Amunet asking her if they were here yet. Amunet is my little sister, from Michael and his wife Mandisa. Mandisa is Egyptian, hence the foreign sounding names. When Michael went to Egypt to launch a new branch of his airline, I was only two. That's when he met Mandisa and had an affair. Then she got pregnant with Amunet, and that's why Michael and my mother got separated. I have nothing against Amunet, she had nothing to do with Michael cheating on my mother. I love and missed her a lot; the last time i saw her she was 11. Amunet is now 16, which means that she's around that age where boys are a part of her life, and I intend to keep my eye on her while I stay here. She growing up to be an attractive girl, so Facebook shows me. She has that whole exotic look going on, since she mixed with Scottish and Egyptian. She has waist-length chestnut hair and tan skin, making her big cobalt blue eyes pop out. And inheriting her mothers body figure does no good either, talk about curvy. Just thinking about her gives me anxiety; I know how boys think. I try to push that out of my mind when she finally texts back:

'We're pulling up right now, I can see your hair from here! Lol'

I stand up and slide my phone back into my pocket, waiting to be attacked with a hug. Just as suspected, my sister comes running up to me and embraces me.

"Hey little sister," I strain to say. He's squeezing me.

"I missed you so much Kenny," she lets go flashing a cheesy smile. I smile back and rustle her hair.

"I'll lead you to the car, follow me," he says turning around and walking away.

I sigh and grab the handles to my suit cases; the man couldn't even come out if his car to see me or help me with my bags. Incredible. I follow Amunet to the car and open the trunk, tossing my bags in. I close the trunk then walk over to the already-open back row door and sit in.

"Kenny, this is my boyfriend, Nicholas," Amunet say, turning to face me from the passenger seat.

Nicholas turns around and greets me with a nod, then turns back and starts up the car. I grin at her and she turns back. Boyfriend? Whom drives? Nope. Sorry Nicholas, but you're getting the talk later.

The drive to Michael's house was quick, and the views were nice. As we passed some shops and a couple of gas stations, Amunet comments that I shouldn't worry because there was a mall not too far from the house. Of course she would know. When we arrive to the house Nicholas takes my bags out of the trunk and puts them on the side walk in front of what must be Michael's house. I've never been to his actual house, or any where in Massachusetts to be exact, obviously. Any time I saw him he would fly out with Amunet. I get our of the car and await my sister to join me. Nicholas opens the door for her and helps her out. She hugs him and tiptoes to sneak a kiss, which gets me slightly upset. He says bye, slips into his car, then drives away. She turns to me smiling than grabs one of my bags and leads me down the trail to the big beige house.

"Michael didn't want to pick me up, huh?" I bit met lip and shake my head.

"No, it's not that. It's just that I begged him to let me and Nick pick you up," she says with a smile on her face.

"Oh, so you used me for extra time with your boyfriend? How old is this guy anyway?"

"He's 17, turning 18 in 4 months."

"I don't know about this guy..." I say, running my free hand through my hair.

"Oh shut up, you don't even know him yet. He's a great guy, really. We've been dating for a year now-"

"A year?!" I cut in. "Why did I not know this? You didn't tell me anything, you said you would tell me when you got a boyfriend and you never did."

"I know, I'm sorry Kenny." I look down at her and see that she actually looked sad. She seems to take things seriously. I scruff up her hair again and smile, crinkling my nose at her.

"It's okay, I'm just gunna have to talk to him soon, see what he's about."

She beams, taking this as approval. We finally get to the front door and I sigh as she opens the screen door. She unlocks the front door and punches it open, welcoming me in. I grab the handle to my bag and walk in.

"Mom, dad, were home," Amunet shouts.
Someone starts rushing down the stairs while I close my eyes and mentally prepare myself to see Michael after 5 whole years. What occupied him for 5 whole years that he couldn't see his son? The man is loaded, so buying the plane tickets couldn't be the problem. What a jerk. I open my eyes to find an average height tan skinned lady sashaying towards me. I assume it's Mandisa. I've never met her, just seen her in pictures that Amunet would post up on Facebook. So this is the woman that broke up the family? Pft, I guess she's an attractive woman, but she's no Sophia Mathews. She comes to a halt just a foot away from me, reaching out her hand.

"Hello, I'm Mandisa, and you must be Kenneth. I've heard so much about you," she exclaims, smiling.

Heard so much about me, from who? Amunet? We don't see each other enough for her to know that much about me. From Michael? No way; he knows less about me than my own sister. I have the urge to walk away, or tell her off about taking Michael from my mother. But noticing Amunet from the corner of my eye, I realize that she's holding her breath, hoping I don't hate her mother's guts. So I decide to bite my tongue and shake Mandisa's hand.

"Well I haven't heard much about you, but uh, nice to meet you I guess." I quickly let go and hear a sigh of relief from Amunet.

"Great, you guys are acquainted, so let me show you to your room." She takes me by the forearm and walks me down the short hallway then up the stairs. We stop at the first door on the right.

"This is the bathroom," she says opening the door.

"This is a big bathroom," I say. My mom would've loved a bathroom like this..

She nods and lead me to the next door, on the left. She points at it as we pass.

"That's mom and dad's room." As we walk a couple of steps further, she opens the door to the right.

"This is the guest room, but not where you'll be staying."

I give her a confused look, but she smiles at me, then leads me up a pair of a smaller set of stairs. Up here was a single room and a short hallway that led to a large window. She skips up to the door and opens it, revealing a big bedroom with purple painted walls, one of the walls being completely windows though.

"This is my room, neat huh?" She grabs my hand and leads me in. The room was entirely lit by the sunlight that was coming in through the window-wall.

"Yeah, I chose this room because I thought that the whole window thing was cool." She said that, joining me at the window. I guess she could tell I though it was pretty cool. There was another door in her room, probably her personal bathroom or a closet.

"This isn't where I'm staying, is it?"

"Oh no, of course not! We've got a special place for you. Follow me!" She runs down the stair with me close behind her. We skip down the next flight of stairs and she stop at the bottom.

"Mom, I'm gunna get Kenny fixed up in his room, is the food ready?"

"Almost sweetie," Mandisa responds from the kitchen I have yet to see. Amunet leads me to the back room and opens the screen door, revealing their back yard. It seems endless.

"We got a lot of field as you can see," she says, pushing past a couple of tree branches. We stop in front of a shed-looking single room.

"And last but not least, your room." She opens the door, showing me the perfect guys room.

From the outside it didn't seem impressive, made me upset for a second, thinking that Michael was selfish enough to have me excluded from the house, but now I get it. I step in, taking the room in. It's pretty large, has a large window next to the bed, and then a skylight. There's a large flat screen tv on the wall opposite from my bed, and multiple gaming systems. There's a laptop set on a desk that was next to the door, with standing mirror beside it. And did I mention there's a mini fridge in the corner? Wow. Amunet steps in and sits on my bed.

"I mean, it's not a room in the house, but dad figured you'd like this whole disconnected scene. Independent is what I like to call it."

"No, it's perfect," I say as I runs my fingers against the laptop, this is quite awesome.

This is probably one thing that Michael has got right about me; an electronic filled room apart from the house. She gets up and waits for me at the door.

"There's one last thing." I follow her out an she leads me to bother room, just feet away from mine.

"This is your bathroom. It's really cool, but if I were you, I'd wait till later to check it out. Wait for the perfect moment, you know what I mean?" She winks at me and she takes of to the house again.

I walk back to my room and plop myself onto the bed. Not bad Michael, not bad. I take my phone out of my pocket and send my parents a text saying that I got to the house safe. After a few minutes of laying on the bed, I get up and leave the room, closing the door behind me. Hopefully Mandisa is done with the food; boy am I hungry. I jog over to the house and enter through the beck door. When
I walk in I instantly get smacked in the face with the aroma of the food that Mandisa was cooking. I grin and walk over to the kitchen, where she and Amunet were giggling about something. Most likely about Nicholas. I take a seat at the dinner table and clear my throat loudly to announce my arrival.

"Oh hey, the food is done," Amunet says, placing a plate of unfamiliar food in front of me. I stare at it, trying to figure out what it is.

"Thanks.." I say, picking up my fork. She stand there smiling at me, waiting to take the first bite.

The rest of the day goes by slowly. And I'm not as miserable as I thought I would be. After eating I went back to my room and took a nap, after trying out my new gaming system of course. But I guess I was more tired than I thought, considering I knocked out at around 2 and now it's 7:14. I sit up, feeling groggy and slump out my door and into my bathroom. Wow. If I wasn't located in this large grassy field in Massachusetts at the moment, I would think I'm in some 5 star hotel or something. I take a long and much needed shower, ending it with cold water to wake up my senses. I dry up and run back to my room. After throwing on a pair of black basketball shorts and a green t shirt, I head over to the house. I creep into the kitchen, grabbing a water bottle out if the fridge and an apple from the table. As I leave the kitchen, I bump into the person I've been trying to avoid this whole day: Michael.

"Hey son, you're so big!"

"Well I would've hope to have grown from the age of 14." I glare at him and try to walk past him, but he embraces me.

"I know Kenneth, I'm sorry for missing out on your life." He lets go. "But I'm a different man now, I would like to male up for it." He gives me a hopeful smile. I roll my eyes and walk down the hall, going back out to head to my room. I stop at the door, and turn to look back at him.

"Have fun with that, I'm not as forgiving as mom."

I sprint back to my room and grab the basketball that I discovered earlier from the closet. After checking my phone to see that I've gotten no calls or texts, I leave the room and explore the vast yard.

"All that's around this place is grass and some cows," I mumble to myself.

"Well what do you expect to find out here in farm land?"

I whip my head around to find the voice that had suddenly spoke. For a second I thought that it came from my head and I was just crazy. But from the dim lights seeping through my room windows, I see a girl sitting on a tree swing that hadn't even noticed.

"I could tell you're not from around here," she says, jumping off the swing and approaching me. "All the kids know that straight through that path," she says pointing to a dirt trail , "is where ya' find the lake house, that's the neighborhood hangout spot." She stiffens for a second, observing me, as if I were some show dog up on an examine table."You must be Kenneth; Amunet's folks told me you were being shipped out here all the way from Cali, that's cool." I nod awkwardly and stick my free hand into my pocket.

"You don't speak much, do you? It's fine, don't let my blather mouth intimidate you." She takes a step closer. "I'm Giselle, it's nice to finally meet you", she says, sticking her hand out. I hesitate for a second before grabbing her hand and shaking it curtly. "Ya' know," she smiles slightly, "your sister has been talking my ear off about you since I moved here, and when she found out you were coming? Boy! She was real excited."

"Yeah, what can I say? She missed me," I shrug, finally speaking up.

"Yeah..," she seems to zone of before continuing. "Well, I should probably get home, it being dark and all. My parents get scared that a coyote might snatch me up at any given moment."

"Coyote?!" She giggle and hushes me.

"I'm just pulling your leg, there's no coyotes out here in Massachusetts, you definitely ain't a land-type guy. See you tomorrow Kenneth, it was nice talkin' to ya'." Then with an abrupt turn, she walks off towards the road and hops on a bike, which I didn't notice before. Who is this girl? And where the heck did he come from? Weird. I guess I should check out the Lake house sometime, see what it's all about. This summer is going to be interesting.