Not yet guys. Just wait.
She's blonde. A perfect blonde, not fakeishly bright like Mom, but softer and more…natural, I guess? I don't bother looking at her roots, because there are no tell-tale dark streaks. Life's such a bitch.
Dad leads her into the apartment with lots of clinging and putzing around, oh Shika, this is so cute. He wants to make a stir so me and Kaj will come into the kitchen so we can meet this stranger that destroyed my parents' marriage. I ignore the scraping chairs on the linoleum and lower my eyes back to the page of my book. Kaj easily falls hook, line, and sinker. He barrels in and skids to a stop on the tile. Dad gives him his typical half smirk, but his eyes catch me watching from the couch. Shit. I retreat, chastised, to my Shakespeare.
Kaj clears throat awkwardly and his squeaky 12 year old voice nearly cracks. "Who-who's this, Dad?" My eyes betray me. They ignore Romeo and focus instead on the screech of a chair and a much higher voice than Dad's saying, "Just call me Temari." Fug. I raise my eyes again, and 'Just call me Temari' sees me lurking like some antisocial crab in the almost black living room, and strides-like a man, I might add-over to my sofa and extends her hand. She smiles at me, and yes, it reaches to her eyes, but her fingers shake a little with impatience. Oh. I know this type. Meet the kids, be all charming, and then screw the dad the second their little heads hit the pillows. She just wants to get back to him. Fine. I wouldn't be surprised if she was the kind of girlfriend who might actually pay me and Kaj to spend the night at a friend's house.
Touché bitch.
I lean forewords and shake hands with this she-devil in my apartment and I don't break eye contact as she stares down at me, a trick that Mom showed me on Take Your Spawnage to Work Days. She's be thrilled to know it paid off.
"Scar," Dad says, "don't be rude(oh like you're one to talk, Daddio!). Come in the kitchen with us." JCMT raised a waxed eyebrow and her tone is mocking. "Scar?" I slip past Kaj and into one of the wooden chairs. Dad nods, with a faint blush. Dad! Blushing! What the hell?
"Yeah, Scar. My friends all call me that. Sounds better than my real name, but you can just call me Shikara." I lean back on two legs, and when Dad nudges me down, I'm sitting as far away as possible from her. Kaj shuffles in like the gawky preteen he is and coughs dryly. JCMT smiles at me in a sort of pained way.
"Can I call you Scar maybe?" I don't even hesitate at this point. I surge up to my feet, nearly knocking the chair away, and then I stomp to my room and slam the door. Hard. Just so she gets the status quo, I add, "No, you freaking well may not!" I lock the door just as the floor squeals for the last time under the chairs and the front door creaks shut as SkankWoman leaves.
I stretch out on my bed. Perfect.
So Dad isn't too pleased with me. Great. He decides not to come in and yell at me, but the cold shoulder is even worse. I hate being ignored. I grab the phone off the table and call Mom in Boston. She answers a beat before the machine.
"Hi baby. How's my big girl?" My teeth grind together, but a whine comes out anyways. I hide in my closet. Even though I'm pissed, I'm not running the chance that Dad might hear me bitching about him and his 'girlfriend'(ew, eww, did I really just think that?) to Mom and go completely apeshit.
"Mommmyyyy, Daddy's got this girlfriend and she came to the apartment today and she's such a horrible bitch. Please please please please come back. Please Mom, I know he wants you to come back." My mother sighs. This sort of thing has happened before.
"Sweetheart, it's been almost a year. Let go. Temari's a good woman, and she'll makes your father happy." There's a crash and my mother's voice is suddenly coming out against the wood of the floor. I dropped the phone, and fumble frantically to pick it up.
"Mom, you know her? You know her? Mom-I mean- Mom! You know her?! How!?" Mom sighs again, and I can see her pacing in her condo, sitting on her dark blue sofa. I was conceived on that sofa. This patience that my mother has was something she learned from my father after fifteen years of marriage. With my dad.
"We went to law school together, the three of us. She was top in the class, graduated magna cum laude. In fact, I think she never let go of the fact that she beat your father in the law finals. Ask him about that sometime." Something about this sparks an old piece of trivia. I feel my eyebrows furrowing as the cogs turn. "Mom," I say slowly, "Mom, didn't you graduate third in your class, right after Dad?" I can hear her nod.
"Honey, I had a husband and two babies to look after. Not exactly the easiest time of my life. But honey, you're missing the point. Temari's smart. She's pretty. She knows how to look after your father, and very few girls ever manage that. Give her a chance, sweetie." I can't say anything. My mother verbally nods again. She even laughs a little. "I'll talk to you later, Shikara." Something else flicks in my memory. Mom never would ever call me Scar, not even when Kaj and Dad took it up.
I bound out of my closet and scan the caller ID until I spot the right number(yeah, it's the only one that was dialed like twenty zillion times in the last week). I type it into Google Maps and print out the directions while zipping up my hoodie. In less than ten minutes, I'm riding the subway to Brooklyn.
Temari lives in a brown brick condo, not steel grey like Mom's. I press her buzzer and she takes her sweet time answering. She steps out with her hair down in a green terrycloth robe. I suddenly realize that my dad, my dad, actually has standards about who he dates. Tall, well 'equipped', blonde. Temari leans against the door frame.
She invites me in. She makes me hot chocolate the way Dad told her I like it. She answers my questions. She makes me laugh. She even gives me a present. I unwrap after she drops me off at home in her car, well after midnight. It's a picture of her graduation with my parents. Dad and Mom are holding hands, but Temari is right there. I guess Temari's always been right there.
When she comes by for breakfast the next morning, Dad is sitting at the table(looking a bit like a bum, I might add). He hasn't shaved. His hair is down and tangled. Temari barges up the stairs, pounds the door till Kaj opens it and grabs Dad by the shirt and starts making out with him against the wall. I herd Kaj out so they can deal with the eggs burning.
Somehow, I don't think they'll mind much.