Chapter 5

The next day Jo and I went to school. Everything seemed to be going as normal as possible. We went to class like we always did, we did our homework like we always did, and we talked to the people like we always did. Let’s just say that we did everything like we always did. Little did I know, my whole life was shifting uncontrollably beneath me.

I sat next to Jo in our history class right before lunch. The clock sitting right above the dark chalkboard�"Miami still hadn’t updated to real white boards�"read 11:45. Five minutes until lunch then there was a small ounce of freedom. The class sat impatiently waiting for the high pitched bell to alarm. I always thought that was strange. We always looked forward to lunch, but really was there anything good about it? The food was disgusting, the only person I talked to was Jo and I could talk to her in most my classes. Really lunch was just another class I was going to that I had to fulfill. But still my finger rapped against the dark wooden table in front of me.

The classroom door sprang open with a loud bang. I don’t think anyone was expecting that because the whole class jumped. After the initial shock of the loud noise wore off we were able to look and see who was standing at the door. One of the two Vice Principals stepped into class. The balding man wore a tacky brown suit that came straight from the 70’s. He leaned into my teacher and started to whisper in her ear. Our teacher’s fashion wasn’t much better than the VP’s. Her graying black hair matched her black floral print dress that she would’ve had to have bought in the 80’s or from an old thrift shop which specialized in selling junk. The VP whispered into her ear and her eyes lifted into mine: “Collin, your father’s here.” The whole class turned to me as if I’d just been called to my death. This was a strange occurrence usually when a parent came they sent a note�"not a vice principal. Everyone knew that when a Vice Principal came something was wrong.

Fear rose inside of me as I lifted up from my seat. My heart pounded in my chest. I hadn’t seen my father in what seemed like weeks. What was he doing here now?�"at my school? My eyes shot to Jo who shrugged. She couldn’t have known any more than I did. My bag seemed heavier than most days it was as if all of my problems had piled inside of it. Still I ran all the way to the front of the school. As I turned the corner I recognized my dad.

Today He wore a fitted blue suit that showed off his slim figure. My dad was always complimented on how well he looked in suits. I guess that’s why they always asked him to go on business trips.  The dirty blonde hair was not combed like it usually was. Instead it was all tangled on top of his head. His full attention was on a picture of the first graduating class from my high school. They put a large plaque of all the kids and teachers from the school. It hung proudly on the entrance wall�"no one ever looked at it. Slowly my father turned as if he had heard me coming. My jaw dropped when I caught first sight of his face. A red and blue bruise covered the whole left side of his face. It was obviously from being hit by a hand. You could see the broken blood vessels and the swelling beginning to appear under his eyes. Dark red veins seemed to have ruptured throughout his eyes. My face hurt just looking at the painful bruise.

I ran over to him as fast as I could. His smile spread exposing straight white teeth that he had so long worked on. Luckily I looked more like him then my mother. My eyes stayed wide as I approached him. My eyebrows rose. How could this have happened? Is this why he was gone? Had he been in the hospital over the whole weekend? He answered a lot of my questions in one sentence: “I met Jerry.” My arms wrapped around his waist and I pulled him in tight. It felt good to have my father back. I always felt more protected when he was around.  My father and I were very close. He would always be the one I would run to when I had a problem. Sure- he didn’t listen to me all the time. In fact I’m sure he wasn’t conscious for most of the talks we had�"but he was a good listener at least. There was no other manly figure that I had in my life to look up to. Both of my parents were only children and both of their parents had died when they were a lot younger, before I was born. My family was all that I really had and looked up to�"it was all I knew. When I was younger, about twelve, both my parents started drinking. At that age I could see the change quite quickly. My mother started going out to bars and cheating on dad, so he took the travelling job for his work. That’s when my family seemed to fall apart. Dad was always gone and mom was always gone. I had to learn how to fend for myself. I’d come home from school and no one would be there. I guess that’s why I shut myself inside my shell. I had to fend for myself and for my feelings. Saying nothing always seemed to be the best choice.

My father’s arm hugged me like just another one of the guys. After about two seconds he pulled me from him and pushed me further away as if I had crossed the line. He pursed his lips tightly together and his blue eyes looked down on me. He took a deep breath and spoke firmly: “Collin, I’m leaving.”

                ‘Oh, another business trip’ I thought to myself. “Where are they sending you?” I asked excited maybe he was returning to Japan. My father’s job always came first, but I’d grown used to that. He usually brought me back something cool so I wasn’t really opposed. It just sucked being all alone in that apartment.

                He sighed and put his hands to his waist. The jacket pulled back and I looked at his small hip bones: “I don’t think you understand. I’m leaving for good, Collin.” My mouth gaped open and my body froze. Was he actually saying what I thought he was? How could he be leaving for good? He was my father. He’s supposed to stay home and protect me from all the bad things. That’s what father’s do. “I can’t stand to live with that w***e of a woman anymore.” He exhaled and threw his arms out to the side of his body. His eyes pierced down on me as if staring would somehow make everything better.

“And I can?” I snapped back at him. Finally the anger in my chest was coming to my throat and moving up to my lips. The words I needed to say would soon be flying out.

                He seemed surprised by my reaction. I was even surprised by my reaction. “Well it’s not like you can come with me, Coll.”

                I fisted my palms and flattened my feet: “Why the hell not?” I screamed and the lunch bell chimed loudly throughout the halls. My chest raised and lowered as I struggled to hide the anger bubbling inside of me. I could feel bubbles of rage popping inside my heart: “You can’t give up dad” My eyes opened wide as I tried to plead with him. He wasn’t going to be giving in any time soon.  I lowered my voice, “What am I supposed to do?”

                “That’s really not my problem.”

                My nostrils flared and I squared up and took a stand. “To hell it’s not your problem. I’m your kid does that mean nothing to you anymore?” I screamed as loud as I could as the students started to walk through the hall. My body shook with the anger inside of me. I felt the tears at the corners of my eyes starting to appear. I tried to sniff away all of my emotions.  

The halls filled quickly for lunch. No one noticed my hall feud. The normal people chatted and giggled as my world was falling apart around me. How could they be so content? Me knees began to shake and my vision narrowed. How was I supposed to live without my dad? He was my protector, my savior, my DAD!

                My father held up his hands in defeat. “I’m sorry Collin. You’re a big boy I’m sure you’ll figure it out.” He pursed his lips together and he stroked my cheek softly.  “I’ll see you later, bud.” He began backing up away from me. It was going to happen now. He was going to leave me�"for good. I had to stop this I had to stop him. There had to be something else that could be done�"something, anything. A large group of people swarmed around us and I lost sight of him.

                Faces came at me right and left�"each with a smile�"each giggling. Shoulders pounded into me spinning me every which way. I was begging to forget where I was as the world shifted all around me. I spun around looking for my father. I searched every face on every student, on every person. I had to find my father I had to tell him that we could fix this. Life didn’t have to be this way anymore. He and I could get an apartment somewhere. He had to come back, he had to take of me�"someone had to take care of me. People ran into me continually until I had finally lost all sense of direction. I shoved through loads of people until finally I escaped. I was still too late. I caught the back bumper of my dad’s silver Toyota leaving the parking lot�"and he was gone. My eyes watched out the window. A small glimmer of hope still in my heart told me: ‘Maybe he’ll turn around�"realize his mistake.’

The crowd behind me was slowly disappearing and all of my flying hope had been grounded. He wasn’t going to come back. My father had left me here to fend for myself. My heart was beating out of my chest. Pain shot through my whole body as I looked at the bleak situation ahead of me. My hands shook furiously at my side. What would I do now? Like a robot I turned and headed to the cafeteria. It was the only sense of life that I had left in me. Humans had to eat�"that’s what I was right? I felt like a zombie just going through the motions of life. Every sense of life and being was ripped out of me in one single sentence. My mind was still baffled as I reached the cafeteria. My arm wrenched the door open and slammed it with such force it echoed throughout the room. Only a few heads in the large sea of people poked up to see what the noise was. I spotted Jo at our usually table�"the usual life. Fear deep in her eyes. She knew something was wrong the minute my name was called in class. I guess I knew too�"there was no way not to. My father had been gone for almost a week and then he randomly showed up at my school. Why did he even come to say good bye? Why couldn’t he have just left? Now I had to make sense of my whole pathetic life. I had to somehow file through daily life and try to regain control�"alone.

If people didn’t see the door incident they all saw my next move. With my black sneakers I kicked one of the trashy orange plastic chairs with as much strength as I could muster inside my weak extremities. It screeched across the linoleum only to tumble and crash into two more empty ones a few yards away. The sound was horrendous and incredibly loud. There was no way that anyone missed the noise echoing through the large dining hall.

                All the faces stared at me waiting to see if there was going to be a fight or something. I sat next to Jo like I did every single day of my life. She had gotten me a plate of the disgusting cafeteria food. She pushed it tentatively to me, hoping to not provoke an outrage or something of the sort. Forcefully I grabbed it and started stabbing away at the food. She jumped when I grabbed the plate but she just leaned back in her chair.

She spoke softly because she knew most everyone was watching and listening now: “What did your dad want?” She asked with worry in her tone.

                I snorted at the thought of the situation I was now in. I threw the fork down into the food and leaned back in my chair. I wiped my mouth with the back of my arm and my eyes shot up and caught with Phoenix’s like they had the day before. The same crowd was surrounding him and his same eyes watched me carefully. They had to have seen my pain even with his usual swarm groveling at his feet. Quickly he stood up from his table without taking his eyes off me.

This time I broke our gaze and returned to the conversation that Jo was trying to have with me: “He’s leaving for good�"divorcing my Mom.” Jo gasped and put both of her hands over her mouth. I tried to pick up my fork again, but pain shot through me weakening my body. I clenched my jaw and with my left foot I kicked the empty chair next to me. The movement still didn’t make the pain away. I just felt like I had to hit something. Someone or something had to feel the same pain I was feeling whether they liked it or not. So I stood and with all the force I could muster my hands went under the table and I pulled it up, flipping it completely over onto the floor with a loud crash. Food splattered the people in front of me drenching them in red spaghetti sauce from my lunchtime feast.

                Jo lee yelped and stood backing away from me, just as my father did. The drenched table’s occupants stood also�"in rage. I bent to pick up the other empty chair next to me so I could throw it across the whole room. The anger was starting to come out now and it felt good. Warm hands grabbed my elbows stopping my movement all together. There was a no powers rule at school for the Oreson’s and any other Heroes, unless there was an emergency. Phoenix must have thought this was an emergency because he was to me within seconds.

My hands clenched around the cold metal of the chairs legs. Phoenix grabbed it from me and with one hand wrenched it from my grip�"I’m weak, what can I say. I swung my arms behind me trying to hit anything�"anyone�"so I could get that chair back. Finally my elbow connected with something�"Phoenix’s strong abs. His hands grabbed the side of my arms again and they spun around in place to face him. I began kicking and hitting all at once. My feet kicked at his shins and I beat on his chest with my balled up fists. He really had no choice at this point; his arms wrapped around me and began carrying me. He carried me by my elbows straight out of the cafeteria to the sports field. I continued to kick and punch as he escorted me from the crowded room. Jo lee followed us like I knew she would. As we passed by people chuckled and whispered about me. I didn’t really care what they thought of me at this point. There really wasn’t a point anyways.

Phoenix tried to set me down only to be met with failure. I tried to run away from his but he grabbed my wrist and pulled me back into him. His heated hands tightly wrapped around my wrists and pulled them into his chest. “I’ll take him.” He said to Jo she didn’t really have a choice either. She wanted me to be safe and she figured the best place for me to be was with Phoenix. His arms wrapped tightly around me and I was soon weightless�"flying through the air. 

Author's Note

Any help will be much appreciated. :D

Reviews

[Shayne Plunk]

*jaw drop* Amazing chapter! I hate Collin's dad so bad! XD And I'm off to read the next chapter.

(Hope all these reviews aren't gettin' on your nerves. *sweatdrop*)