Fatal Attraction

I quickly threw on my pair of skinny jeans, and a red tank. Walking down the stairs I ran my fingers through my hair, messing it up. When I reached the kitchen my parents were sitting at the table, already dressed for work. Both of my parents are doctors of a kind. My dad is the senior man on the Nero-surgical team and my mom is a delivering nurse. They usually left before I even woke up. I wonder what's going on now?

"Oh. Jess. Your up." My mom looked up from her cup of coffee long enough to catch my eye. She quickly looked away, as if she was ashamed of something. Either that or she's hiding something.

"Yeah. I usually wake up before I go to school." I said, jamming a piece of buttered toast in my mouth. Finishing my meager breakfast I started out the door.

"Wait!" That was my mom again.

I stopped and turned back to walk back to the table. It was then that my father finally acknowledged my presence.

"Hello Jessica. How was your sleep?" He asked, sounding genuinely fatherly. Which is weird, since he barely even speaks to me at the best of times. When he does , it's usually in a bad way. Swearing at me, cursing my very existence.

"It was fine. Do you need something done or can I go be educated now?"

"I'd like to drive you to school, Jess." My mom said.

I just stared. My parents have always made me walk or take a bus. They say that I can't rely on them for rides, so I have to learn how to get by on my own. Something is definitely going on here.

My mom got up from the table and grabbed her car keys. We walked out the front door, me in front.

I climbed into the backseat, trying to get as far away from my mom as possible. All I could do now was will this car ride to be over quickly. Wasn't going to happen. Just when we started to back out of the drive way, my dad came out the door. He climbed into the front seat and shut the door. I was trapped.

We sat in silence for a while, everyone just staring into space. It was extremely uncomfortable. Just when I thought it couldn't get worse, my mom spoke up.

"Jess. I'm pregnant."

My mouth fell open. Pregnant! She's 43! How can she be pregnant? I didn't want to ask but they told me anyway.

"We decided to have another child, because we think it will help you be a bit less self-involved." My dad added. I could answer to that.

"Self-involved? You think I'm too self-involved? How?"

"Well, you never talk to us and-"

"I never talk to you because you don't care what I have to say! There hasn't been one word that you have ever said to me that didn't turn out to be you screaming at me! And I talk to Mom!"

"Yes, sweetie. But you don't talk to me enough. Whenever we start talking, you always end up staring off into space and completely ignoring me." Mom cut in.

"Like I was saying, you never talk to us and we would like a child who didn't disappoint us all the time!" Now he was shouting at me. Great. This is a good way to start out an already stressful day. Now I find out my parents don't even like me. I am very seriously considering jumping out of this car right now and walking the rest of the way to school.

I didn't reply to that. Instead I just let him continue to tell me what a failure I am and that I should really try to do better. I just sat there and didn't say a word.

When we finally got to my school, I jumped out as soon as the car stopped and raced to the front door.