Life So Hard By: advocatus diaboli
"To establish oneself in the world, one has to do all one can to appear established."
- Francois De La Rochefoucauld
We had been flying for about quite a while and it was getting pretty brutal. Sure, it was a pain in my ass (literally) to be sitting in this stiff, annoying chair for the past three hours, but I was wrestling with my own emotions and thoughts. I had a really... interesting summer. Brutally interesting, actually. I still had the bruises on my chest to prove it. I never thought he was capable of going that far, but I have the proof to show that he was.
Dad didn't know, of course. Telling him what happened to me while he was gone would of gone in directions that I wasn't comfortable with. I was really looking forward to this move, though. There was a hell of a lot of shit that I wanted to leave behind and very grateful that I now had the chance. I was definitely going to seize this opportunity to make things different. Different. Yes, things were going to be very different. I planned on being alone. By myself. I reasoned that there was no way for me to get hurt again. Also, no one could know. If no one knew, then nobody could backstab me... again. No way could I bare that situation again. High school is brutal to begin with, but when you have people backstabbing you, revealing your deepest, darkest secret, it makes high school a living hell.
No. Things would be different.
I was still quasi-struggling with that, but I had kind of come to terms with it. What I really was struggling with was telling my Dad. Should I? I don't know. A voice in the back of my head kept saying "Do it, you won't regret it. He will obviously still love you." But, I doubt. I doubt, definitely. Yeah, he's my dad, and I'm his son, unconditional love and all that mumbo-jumbo, but this is huge. Huge. I've seen the way he turns his nose up when he sees two guys kissing on TV. How he makes casual, snide remarks regarding homosexual couples. I think I'll wait. Yes, I'm looking for a fresh start, a good fresh start. I don't want this little `fact' ruining it, do I? I was so deep in thought that I almost didn't hear my father calling me.
"Andrew. Andrew! I want to talk to you."
"Hmm," I replied, "What's wrong?"
"Oh, nothing's `wrong'", he said, with a little smile, "I just wanted to explain my behaviour over the summer. I was working a lot, and not around much. I know I promised I'd be better, but I think you can appreciate my reasoning." While saying that, he was fishing around in his pocket for something. I grew suspicious of what was going on. I looked at him intensely, trying to figure out what was going on. My eyes lit up and my expression was priceless (I'm sure) when I saw what he took out of his pocket. Keys! Keys to a car. Keys to my car. I had a car. I looked at my father in complete shock.
"Are you serious? You got to be kidding."
"No," he chuckled. "Not kidding. You earned it, sport. I was supposed to have the summer off, but I worked it to get this for you. You earned it."
"Thank-you," I managed to say, "so much. This is amazing."
"Some things you need to know. We'll be doing a lot better for now on. But, we're not going to go crazy, either. Your car's been used, gently. It's in good shape, although it's 5 years old. That makes it a...2003. Wow, it took me to long to do that math in my head, I must be getting old." He chuckled. A big smile was on my Dad's face, and on my face to.
The plane landed shortly afterwards, uneventfully. I'm definitely not a fan of flying, but I've developed a system. I don't panic until I see the flight attendants panic. If the seat-belt signs flashes, I calmly put it on and observe them. If they are sitting in their special seats at the front reading a magazine, then I don't need to worry. Obviously, nothing is wrong. On the other hand, if they're sitting there and clearly are worried, or trying to hide it, then I have a problem. I'm not a fan of flying, like I said, but I'm comfortable with my system.
When we got off the plane and made our way to the luggage carousel. Naturally, a crowd had developed around the carousel. We were smart and observed from a distance. When the time came to get our luggage we'd just squeeze through the crowd, grab our stuff and get outta there again. Luckily, my luggage bag was one of the first ones off the plane. I grabbed it and headed back to my Dad. "Well, just a matter of time, eh?" I said. "We hope. I'll be pissed if I find out my luggage is in Mexico, Europe, or something." He replied, looking irritated. We waited, and waited. Finally, after almost 20 minutes of waiting, we saw his bag pop out of the conveyor belt. There were only two couples left. Quickly we grabbed the bag, flashed them a quick, worried smile and left. As we headed for the doors I looked back and saw that the conveyor belt was slowing down and turning off. The two couples looked really upset. As the doors opened to the warm California air, I saw them walking over to the service desk.
I turned around and saw California for the first time in my life. It was beautiful. Not a cloud in the sky and must have been a beautiful 25 to 30 degrees celcius.
"What's the plan? Taxi?" I asked.
"Nope." Was the only reply I received. I quickly ran after my Dad, surprised that he was starting to walk into the sea of vehicles.
"Where are we going?" I asked, confused with what was going on.
"You'll see." Is all he said. Confusingly, I followed him until we stopped in front of a red Pontiac Sunfire. I looked blankly at him, not getting what was going on. My dad looked at me, smiled, and went to hand me the keys...
"Crap! Oh. I'm so sorry. I forgot, you can't drive yet."
"You mean... this is it? This is so awesome! Thank-you so much." I hugged him, "I don't care if I can't drive it right now, and this is so amazing. I'd love to just be in the front seat! I hopped in the passenger side, and we started driving.
As he drove me to our new home, I was taking in the sights. My head kept darting from left to right, and back again, looking at all these different streets and buildings. I made a mental note that "Pine Avenue" seemed to be the street the mall resided on. I was consumed with my surroundings that it took me a second to reply to my father's calls. "Yeah?" I replied, after about the third time he called my name.
"We really need to work on your listening skills, heh." He spoke, with a slight smile on his face. "I just thought of something. Want to see your high school? You'll be starting the day after tomorrow." I thought for a second, and gave an excited
"Sure!" After about five more minutes of driving, we pulled up in front of a massive building.
"Preston Senior High School!" my father announced. The school was on my side of the car, so I was able to get a really good view. I was amazed at the sheer size of the building. It made my old high school of about 700 strong look like a kindergarden class. You couldn't really call it a campus high school, but there were benches along a path that ran through the grounds and some trees scattered around, providing shade.
My eyes made their way to the front of the school, where I received a shock. I saw two figures leaning against the wall, by the front doors. They had their backs to the wall, and had one foot kicked back against the wall. They were wearing hoodies, so I couldn't see their faces and they both had a cigarette in their mouths. I watched as they inhaled deeply and blew out a cloud of smoke. One of them was just finishing their cigarette. They threw it to the ground and stomped on it. I was slightly relieved that they were done torturing themselves, but was sickened when they grabbed another and lit up once again. I felt physically sick at the thought of them chain smoking in the front of my future school. With all my might I ripped myself away from the sight and looked at the road ahead.
"Let's go home, please." I barely murmured. "Ok." Dad said, simply. He had seen me transfixed on those two individuals and figured out what was going on.
Ever since the... incident when I was young, I've had a hatred for cigarettes. Just couldn't stand them. If I was in a room and someone lit up, I'd get up and leave. I hated them with a passion and to a lesser extent the person that was using them. Back in the day, my prime in high school, I had basically got everyone in my grade afraid of cigarettes. I insisted that none of my friends smoked, or at the very least, make it so I never could tell they had smoked. That's pretty powerful stuff, considering I was a pretty popular kid, until it all went to hell, of course. After that, I swear people took up the habit just to piss me off. They knew my history, and yet they insisted on blowing smoke into my face. Those bastards.
Before I even realized what was going on, we pulled into the driveway of our new home. The house was huge. Well, at the very least it was big. The biggest house I've ever stepped into (let alone lived in). I took a quick glance down the street and noticed that on both sides of our house, and on both sides of the street the houses were about the same size. Quite a few houses were bigger and only a few were smaller. A few even had gates!
"Dad! We so totally need to get a date! That would be amazing!" He just laughed and told me to get my ass in gear and come inside. I ran inside and wasn't disappointed. The floors were all made of beautiful polished oak. I noticed a deck in the backyard. I dropped my luggage and ran outside. The backyard was beautiful. We had a massive inground pool that was completely surrounded by the deck. I looked around and saw the deck wrapped around both sides of the house. There was a tonne of grass also, and there were plants growing all along the fence. I walked back inside and went to grab my luggage. I saw a woman in the kitchen and could only stand there in shock. She was making some food, dinner I assume. She had her back to me, cutting up some stuff. Cucumbers, I think. She began to move around the kitchen, preparing other assorted things. She definitely knew her way around the kitchen.
"Hi." I said, simply.
"Oh, hey!" She turned around and said, with a big smile on her face. "You must be Andrew. Your father has said so much about you. Do you know who I am?" I was shocked when I saw her. I had only seen the back of her, so I was surprised when she turned around. She must have been only about 25 years old. I couldn't help but look at her chest. Not that it did anything for me, but she definitely was doing well. It took me a moment to compose myself (my God, she might turn me, yet!) but was finally able to pull myself together.
"Umm... oh, yeah. Elizabeth? My Dad told me about you. Well, it was nice meeting you, but I got to go up to my room and, umm... get my stuff unpacked."
"Oh, ok. If you need a hand with your luggage, just ask." She said, smiling. "I pretty much took care of all your stuff when it arrived last week. I hope you like how it's been setup. If you don't, we can fix it, together."
"Yeah, sure. Thanks." I said and went upstairs. I walked into my room and was amazed at what I saw. Everything was put away, with neatness and precision. My clothes were all neatly folded and hidden away in a bunch of drawers built into the wall. My closet was perfect. All my jeans were on the right, perfectly folded and placed on the hangers. My sweaters were beside them, and my dress shirts and such were on the left. I looked around my room and noticed that my desk was setup against the wall. My bookbag was on the chair. I opened it and saw it was already packed with all the things I'd need. There was looseleaf paper in there, and some notebooks.
I lay my luggage down beside my bed and I flopped down on it. Before I knew it, I was sound asleep. It must have been the next morning when I woke up because it was bright out. I rubbed my eyes and changed out of my clothes from the day before. I started to open the drawers until I found some shorts and a t-shirt. I chuckled to myself at the thought of what I was picking out to wear. Sure, summer in Ontario was pretty warm, but a long sleeved shirt and jeans were common. Unless the summer was ridiculously hot and it rivalled the hottest places on Earth.
I headed downstairs and found that Elizabeth had made us breakfast. The bacon smelled delicious. There was a stack of toast on the table, with a bowl of eggs beside it. As I sat down, Elizabeth put a plate in front of me and began to pile the food on.
"I hope all this is suitable? Your father mentioned you're a little picky when it comes to your food."
"Yes, Elizabeth." I replied, "This is all perfect. I'm usually ok, unless you put something weird in front of me, ha."
"Hey! You promised me that'd you drop that! We both learned from that experience." My Dad playfully yelled at me.
"Do I want to know?" Elizabeth asked, intrigued.
Me and Dad replied "No!" in unison. All of us burst into laughter, it was good. This was good.
Dad and I went out for the day. We went pretty much everywhere. We picked up all the odds and ends that we needed, that Elizabeth hadn't picked up. And some last minute things that we had left behind or didn't have, for one reason or another. Also, we ended up doing some "minor" clothes shopping. I emphasis minor, because it was anything but minor. Throughout the entire process, dad intentionally kept me unaware of the prices of the jeans and shirts that I was trying on. I went into the change room to try on some tight jeans (sexy, if you ask me) and I snuck a peek at the price tag. I nearly had a heart attack when I saw it. A whomping $69.99 is what they wanted for these things. I finished zipping them up, and had to make myself comfortable. Damn, these are tight. I opened the change room door.
"Wow. Those are definitely coming home with us tonight. The chicks will be all over that!" I couldn't help but laugh at the last part.
"I don't know Dad. They're kinda uncomfortable."
"Nonsense! We're getting them. Come'on and get changed, we got so much more to do!" I knew how stubborn he could be, so I sighed and changed. We ended the day with a dozen pairs of jeans, a dozen sweaters and countless pairs of shorts and shirts. I flinched when I realized how much Dad had spent on me today. I quickly did the math, adding up the totals from all the different stores, and realized he spent almost $1000 on me today. As I sat in the car, as he drove us to a restaurant, I spoke up,
"You know, Dad, there's nothing wrong with the clothes I have already. I don't need all this. We can return it all this weekend. It's not necessary..."
"Nonsense, you deserve it. I don't want to hear another word about it. Understand?"
"Yeah..." I replied in a defeated tone. Shortly afterwards we pulled into the parking lot of a fancy steakhouse-type restaurant.
"We're eating here?" I asked.
"Yeah, why wouldn't we be?" he replied.
"Nothing, never mind." The car pulled into a parking lot and we proceeded into the restaurant. We walked in the front doors and the restaurant had quite an atmosphere. There were road signs all over the walls, and pictures of a variety of celebrities. It was that kind of restaurant, you know? We went to the podium to be seated. For some unknown reason, our waitress was wearing a cowboy hat, whatever. We were led to our booth, and we sat down across from each other. Idle chat followed, discussing the various pictures surrounding us. Minutes passed and our waitress greeted us.
"Hey! My name is Diana! I'll be your waitress today. What can I get for you?" she practically yelled at us.
"Umm... I'll have a coke and a cheeseburger." I nervously told her, unsure of how this crazy woman would react.
"Sure!" she yelled into my face.
"For you sir?" She turned to my father. He ordered something, I don't even know what it was. All I know is that it was expensive. A good $16.99 or so. She whisked out menus away and told us our meals would arrive shortly.
"I know what your trying to do." My Dad said, looking at me.
"Pardon?" I studdered, caught off guard.
"You intentionally ordered one of the cheapest things on the menu."
"No!" I said, getting defensive. "You know I can be picky. I just want a burger, nothing much."
"Exactly," he said, looking at me with that knowing glare. "You want `nothing much'." I rolled my eyes, sighed, and replied,
"Look. Whether you like it or not, I'm used to not having my way very often. When your work picked up, I stopped going out with my friends. It didn't bother me that you spent my 16th birthday at the office. I'm used to those kinds of things. I don't hold it against you, I know you were doing what you thought was best for me. I'm just uncomfortable with you spending all this money on me. Ok?"
"Yes son, I understand. I didn't realize you felt that way. I'll be more sensitive to your feelings for now on, ok?" He spoke, looking into my eyes.
"Yeah, deal." I said, smiling.
I lay in bed thinking about our conversation at dinner. Maybe it isn't such a big deal? Dad obviously has the money now, so maybe I should stop feeling so god damn bad about it, and maybe... I don't know... use it to my advantage. Wow. Did I just think of that? Jesus, that's pretty brutal. I guess I need to sleep on this little dilemma. My last thought of the night was being slightly worried about school the next day, as I slowly drifted off to unconsciousness...
Ok! So, that's Chapter #2! Sorry it took so long, hopefully turnaround won't be so long again. It's a lot longer then chapter 1, which is what I wanted. This is about the pace I'll be keeping for now on! The usual applies, scottish_newfie2290@hotmail.com for comments and suggestions! The next chapter will start to get really interesting! New characters are introduced, and the plotline really starts to pickup!