Aquatic Ties

On the way to dad house, I have my radio playing load as I thump my hands against the steering wheel along with the music, I'm not really listening to. I never play my music this load, but I have my reason. I don't want to talk to Xavier. Is that so wrong? I can't stand hearing his voice, only to know that his dad told me I was supposed to end up with his oldest son....But when it came down to it, I don't want anyone to tell me who I am to be with. For crying out loud, I still had a thing for Mark.

Taking a deep breath, I turn down the music a little. "You are in control of your life. No one else." I tell myself out loud, just before I pull into dad driveway. But as I do, I see a silver car pulled up behind dad truck. "Who is this?" pulling to the curb, I get out of the car and grab my bag. The front door opens up and dad walks out. "Hi dad,"

"Hey darling," he says with a smile on his face. Just then a woman walks out from behind him and kisses him on the side of the face. He smiles at her.

I can't help but notice his smile almost touches up to his eye. As if she made him happy. When was the last time did I see him smile at another woman like that? Mom, when they were still married? It's depressing to think, how fast mom fell off the rails. I don't really remember the base of why they divorced, I just remember mom drinking and crying. Had dad cried and drank, those weekends and week days I wasn’t with him?

"I'll call you," the woman says as I get closer to them. When she comes down the stairs, she smiles at me. "You have a great dad," then she gets in her car and drives off.

I watch after her, and it's like I'm missing something. "Who was that dad?" looking up at him, he is blushing. -Since when does he blush?-

"That was Amber, my-" he trails off and looks away from me. "Come on inside, we need to have a sit down,"

"This isn't going to be like those Mob movies, we watch is it?" I ask teasing him, as I follow him into the house.

We go into the living room, with family pictures of him and I spending time together. Softball, soccer, track, archery and other family things with his side of the family. "Brook, I don’t want you to get upset about this," he says as he sits in his chair and I take my spot on the sofa. "But that was my girlfriend Amanda." his voice is so soft it's almost hard to hear him.

This wasn’t much a shock to me, I mean him and mom had been divorced for a few years now it was bound to happen. "Okay," he looks up at me, as if he expected me to throw a fit about it. But I just shrug it off. "Dad, you and mom have been divorced for some time. I expected this to happen. It's not like I expected you to become a monk or anything like that."

He smiles at me his broad smile. "That's good to hear, because she wants to get to know you,"

Shaking my head, I point to my bag. "Remember, last week was hell week. Now I have to do College papers to get into a good College, I told you this some time ago."

"It's just dinner, it won't take up to much of your time." he pats me on the knee with a smile of a proud dad. "Now tell me, your mom said something about you acting all happy. She thinks it's caused by a boy. Is this true?"

"I don't know what you are talking about, boys are nasty and have cuddies," I tell him in a child voice.

"That's my girl," he says with a big smile. "What do you think of your mom being pregnant again?"

I feel all the blood drain from my face. "Mom didn't tell me, but it explains why she been so happy lately." putting my elbows on my knees and just have my arms dangle.

"Oh, I thought she told you," he walks from his chair and comes over to me and pats me on the head. "It's not the end of the world kid, I'm sure all of you will be happy," there is sorrow in his voice.

"Hey dad-"

He shakes his head, as he heads into the kitchen. "I'm not here enough for you to stay here Brook, you know that. And you know I would love it if you lived with me full time. But this might be the best."

How was it the best? This was the steadiest place I had. Everywhere else was so rocky, I didn’t know where to stand, just to stay balanced. "Okay," I whisper.

*****

The dinner went--okay? Okay that would be a lie, I felt like I was in the wrong skin for all of it. The place we ate at, was so freaking fancy I had to dig to find a dress. DIG! The best I could find and that still fit me, was a one off the shoulder blue dress. As for the shoes, I just went for flip flops. Needless to say I have no real nice shoes when it came to it.

When we got to the place to eat, Amanda said she would take me shopping. Dad said it was okay. Thankfully dad knows, I like shopping as much as I like getting my nails painted.

Getting home, I changed and feel into bed and got to work looking through colleges. Dad checked on me before he went to bed.

Somewhere into going college websites, my phone starts going off about one in the morning. Looking at the caller I.D. I press to pick up the call and wedge my phone to my ear and between my shoulder. "Hey, what are you still doing up?" I whisper, as I hear my dad snore down the hallway.

"Applying for colleges and thought I should check up on you. What are you doing?" he whispers back, so most likely his parents were asleep as well.

"Same thing,"

"You applying to CM?"

"Eh, I'm on the fence with Camber Met. They really don’t have anything I'm interested with,"

"If I got in, then would you be interested in going?"

"I might be accepted into another school, if you are accepted into that school." I remind him, as I finish up for the college emailing and checking for the night. Closing my computer, I set it on my night stand and get under the covers. "I just want to remind you that."

"Yeah I know," he whispers.

Looking at my alarm clock, sleep hits me all of the sudden. "I'm going to go to bed," I tell him.

"Okay," he whispers and with only a few seconds going by, he doesn’t hang up. "Hey, when are you coming back?"

"Sunday like always. Good night," I tell him, then I hang up my phone and curl up in bed.

*****

The weekend flies by. I mean, yes the weekend goes by, but it went by faster than normal. Maybe it was because of Amanda being over at the house so much. She tried to get me to hang out with her and to put a pass on my future, but I locked myself in my room to get done with all my college stuff. But that didn’t stop Amanda from bothering me and dad had to finally tell her to leave me alone, cause I was busy. Dad knew what I wanted to do with my life, so I loved him for standing up to the strange woman that I never met or heard about until now.

"I'll see you in two weeks," I tell dad as I give him a hug and jump in my car. It's all going great, until I'm an hour from home when my car dies. "No, no, come on start," I tell my car, as I try to make it turn over, but it doesn’t. Thumping my head against my steering wheel I growing, that there no chance a truck will come out and help. Pulling out my phone, I call the one guy that will come to my rescue, aside from dad and considering dad is the other way, I don't think it would be fair of asking him come all this way, only to take me to mom house.

Pressing number four, the phone rings a couple times, then Mark picks up the phone. "Sup fancy lady?"

"Can you come and rescue me?" I ask leaning my chin against the steering wheel.

"Where you at?"

Faintly in the background I can hear a door close. "My car broke down on the way back to mom house."

"Okay, I'll get there soon."

"Thank you and please don't speed on my account."

"No promises," then the line goes dead.

*****

Hour later Mark comes in his truck. Getting out of my car, I pop the hood, as he does the same. "So did you have fun at your dad house?" he asks hooking everything up.

"Aside from dad having a new girlfriend, it was okay." I tell him shrugging my shoulders.

"So your old man has a new lady? About time, how do you like her?"

"I agree dad should had girlfriend before," I shrug my shoulders again. "And eh, I guess she okay. She was up in my ass, trying to get to know me, and she knew I was trying to do college stuff. Oh and guess who pregnant," Mark head snaps to me so fast, I'm surprised he didn’t just snap his neck. His eyes are almost as big as his head. "Not me you dork, my mom pregnant,"

"And how old is your mom now?" he asks before he gets in his truck and I get in my car. A minute or two and then my car starts up. Getting out, he takes his jumper cables from my car and his truck.

"Way older then she should be having kids," I tell him.

He closes my hood for me. "Well you want to go get some pizza before you have to face that mess?"

"Pizza sounds really good right now,"

He smiles at me. "Then it's a date, follow me and I will lead the way to pizza heaven."

"Awesome," getting in my car, I wait for him to turn around and then follow him. "Wait, did he just say date?" I can feel my face heat up. -Am I REALLY this boy crazy?!-