Best Friends...Forever?

It was the first night that I’d be spending the night at my Aunt’s with my dad. It was awkward. My aunt was out and it was just me and my dad at the dinner table. The silence was killing me but I didn’t know what to say. This whole situation sucked. The conversation was stilted for the rest of dinner.

When night time finally came I got to sleep on the couch. I hated this. I really did. I wanted to be back home in my own bed with my mom and my dad under the same roof. I knew it wasn’t going to happen though.

When I woke up that morning, I forgot where I was for a moment before I looked around. It all sank in. The crappy night I’d just had. I just wanted to go back home. My dad drove me back to my mom’s house.

“Bye. I love you,” he called as he pulled away.

“Bye. Love you too.” I shouted waving at him as he drove away. I walked inside and found the house empty. My mom was out, I crashed down on the couch and called Hunter up.

“Hey, what are you doing?” I asked him when he answered.

“Nothing. How was the night with your dad?” Hunter asked.

“Sucky. It was just awkward and weird. Do you want to come hang out over here? My mom’s not home.”

“Yeah I’m heading over there now.”

“Ok bye.” As soon as I said it Hunter walked through the door and plopped down beside me on the couch.

“Hey,” he said giving me a kiss on the cheek.

“Hey,” I replied. I leaned my head on his shoulder.

“So yesterday wasn’t so great?” he questioned.

“No,” I said thickly. The tears were going to start and I really didn’t want that. I’ve cried enough over this whole split. “I don’t even want to think about it. It’s all bullshit.”

“Okay, then let’s not think about it. There’s some things I can think of to keep your mind off it,” Hunter said suggestively.

“Oh yeah.” I leaned into him and he captured my lips with his own. He proceeded to keep my mind off it well into lunch time. I pulled away from Hunter and pushed him off of me on the couch we
were making out on.

“I’m hungry. I’m gonna order a pizza.”

“Good idea. That took a lot of my energy. Order it half pepperoni, please.”

“Got it.” I grabbed my cell phone and ordered a pizza for us and sat down on Hunter’s lap. “So that was fun…” I wrapped my arms around his neck and placed a quick kiss to his lips.

“Yeah it was. I enjoyed it.” He pulled me into a mouth searing kiss. I smiled when we pulled away. This definitely helped take my mind off of everything that was going on.

The pizza came soon and we sat down and ate it while watching some TV. It was nice just hanging with Hunter and not having to worry about anything. My mom came home a little before dinner time and Hunter left.

“I feel like I haven’t seen you a lot. Why don’t we go have dinner?” my mom suggested.

“Okay,” I answered unsurely. I really didn’t want to go have an awkward dinner with her too.

It wasn’t as awkward as it was with my dad but it still felt weird. It was nice that for once I actually got to sit down and talk with my mom. We really hadn’t talked in a real long time. I was happy when we got back home.
--

A few weeks later it was Marisa’s birthday. We were heading over to Uncle Jim’s house to celebrate it with the family. I dragged Hunter along because there was no way I was going to deal with Marisa all alone. Marisa had already had a party with all her friends so it was just family today.

It was a pretty warm spring day so the adults had congregated outside on the porch talking about different things. The kids were hanging around outside. Hunter was swinging Paul on the tire swing a little ways away from the swing set that Marisa and I were sat down at.

“So I heard your parents were getting a divorce…” Marisa started. It was weird to hear her talk so nicely. She sounded genuinely concerned.

“Divorced?” Nobody had really said the word. No one had used that to describe what was happening even though I knew. “Yeah, they spilt up,” I said quietly. I pushed myself on the swing a little.

“It sucks, huh? I mean it sucked when my parents split and I was still young,” Marisa said sincerely.

“Yeah it does. They haven’t even told me they’re divorcing. I mean I know that because my dad moved out but…” I trailed off.

“It gets better though. I mean it’s definitely weird at first but it’s not so bad now,” Marisa
confided. “I mean two Christmases and two birthdays equal twice the presents.” She smiled and I smiled back.

“Yeah, that doesn’t sound too bad.”

“Exactly, and it’s so much easier to get what you want and sneak around.” I shook my head and smiled at her.

“Of course, that’s what you would think about,” I commented.

“Well, it’s true.” She shrugged. “And with a boyfriend like Hunter, I would be sneaking around to do god knows what in the middle of the night.”

“Marisa!” I screeched, my cheeks heating up. “You’re too young to even know about that stuff.”

“I’m thirteen now!” Marisa said obstinately. “I’m not a kid anymore. I know things.”

I scrunched my face up in disgust. “Yeah but I’d rather not talk about…that,” I emphasized.

“Fine,” Marisa huffed. “I was just saying.”

“I got it.” Despite the strange turn of the conversation and the fact that it was with Marisa of all people, I felt better. Marisa had divorced parents and she said it got better. Things wouldn’t always be this messed up. Things would settle down and go back to being as close to normal as possible. It’d be fine I just had to make it through till then.

Hunter and Paul came running over to us then as Paul climbed up to slide down the slide.

“Ladies,” Hunter greeted. Marisa flashed him a megawatt smile. I knew she was thinking about all the things she could do to him. “Why is she looking at me like that?” Hunter questioned me worried.

I couldn’t help the blush that rose to my cheeks. “Marisa, stop.”

“I’m not doing anything,” she said innocently but her face told a whole different story.

“What did we just talk about?” I said exasperated. God you turn thirteen and suddenly your mind is always in the gutter.

“Do I want to know?” Hunter questioned.

“Time for cake!” Someone yelled from the porch. This caused Paul to start running as fast as he could toward the house.

“No you don’t,” I said seriously giving Marisa a look.

“You don’t want to tell him how…”

I cut her off. “NO! It’s time for cake. Can’t have cake without the birthday girl, let’s go.” Marisa smirked but she got up off the swing and sauntered over to the house.

“So what were you guys talking about?” Hunter questioned as we followed behind Marisa.

I shook my head. “It was just Marisa being Marisa.”

“So you were talking about how hot I was?” Hunter answered.

I laughed. “Yeah exactly, except in a thirteen years old sex obsessed mind,” I said quietly. Hunter’s eyes widened a little.

“Oh yeah.” He raised his eyebrows.

“I didn’t just tell you that,” I said a bit mortified. He chuckled as we reached the porch and the cake was brought out. Everyone started singing Happy Birthday to Marisa. She blew out her candles as soon as it was over and everyone clapped as pieces of cake were handed out.

The day hadn’t been so bad despite it being the first family gathering without my dad.