Moving from Los Angeles to Miami was not something at the top of my bucket list. After all, I had lived in LA my entire life. All of my friends and family were there and not to mention… My dad.
You know that shitty moment when parents begin to disagree so much they eventually begin fighting and and screaming and walking out of the house in the middle of the night? Well, that's my life.
It all started about six months ago. I guess from what my mom told me, her and my father had been fighting for months before that but kept it on low radar for my sake. They fought about little, stupid things first. The bills, who needs to do the dishes, blah blah blah. Then it got more intense. They fought about harsh things. I'd sit in my bedroom and listen to it sometimes. They'd fight about how if my mom never got pregnant my dad would have left her. Like I said, harsh. I ignored it because I figured it was the heat of the moment. They were just mad and they'd kiss and make up later, I'd tell myself they didn't mean it. Turns out, I wasn't that smart despite my straight A's in school.
I hate cheaters. Always have, always will. I mean, if you can cheat on someone that obviously means you're done. If you have the heart to cheat on the person you're with knowing what a betrayal it is and how hurt they'll be;
1. You don't have much of a heart at all.
2. You can't possibly be in love with them anymore.
So back to the point. Don't cheat. If you're considering it and want to do it, end your current relationship. Save someone the heartbreak it'll lead to. Don't make that person constantly hate themselves wondering what they could have done to make you more interested, to wonder what she had that they didn't. Just don't. You get my point now, right? Cheaters, their scum on the bottom of my shoe. Awful people.
My dad cheated on my mom. It made me hate him. How could he do something like that to hurt her? When he married her he made a lifelong commitment that he would love her in the bad times and the good, in sickness and in health. He promised. What made it worse was he wasn't even man enough to tell her. That idiot gave his mistress the house phone number in case of emergencies. When he didn't answer his cell phone while he was in the shower, she called the house.
My mom answered to the girl trying to persuade my dad to swing by. She informed the girl that it was his wife, Penny, not my dad, Lester. The girl hung up immediately without another word. When my dad got out of the shower my mom had already packed a bag. She told him she was leaving him and asked if he had anything to say for himself. He stared at her wide eyed for a moment before clearing his throat. The last thing my father ever said to my mom was "You don't make me happy anymore. She does."
I was asleep when my mom came to get me. It was 3 in the morning and I had school the next day. She turned on the light and began throwing stuff into a suitcase for me. I sat up and rubbed my eyes.
"Mom? What the hell are you doing?"
She ignored me. Still to this day I don't know if she was ignoring me, didn't hear me, or didn't know at the moment. She continued to throw stuff in. She stormed into my bathroom and began grabbing things from there. I blankly watched her. My dad watched from my bedroom door.
"Dad?" I asked. He looked at me with a guilty expression. "Why is mom doing this?"
He hesitated before speaking. "Your mother is leaving me. I think she is taking you with her."
We stayed in a hotel for a few nights. I don't think my mom knew what to do. I wanted to stay with my best friend Cassidy. I was heartbroken that my parents were leaving each other and I was even more heartbroken that my dad cheated. My life suddenly made no sense to me.
Eventually my mom moved us in with her best friend from middle school, Debbie. I loved Debbie. She was practically my aunt. We stayed with her for the total of about a month. It was fun. I continued to go to school while my mom worked during the day. When we came home we'd always do something fun like have a girl's night in doing pedicures or we'd go out for dinner and a movie. I'm not sure if my mom was trying to distract herself from the divorce or me. Maybe it was both.
In the middle of that month we spent at Debbie's, my mom confessed to me that she had been talking to this guy she used to date. His name was Tom and he was a year older than her. They were the "it-couple" in high school. High school sweethearts. He lived in Miami which is where my mom grew up. I guess this guy was loaded. He worked for a huge worldwide company and he worked at the head of it.
My mom told me old stories about dating him and told me when we figured out where we were going to permanently live she would show me pictures after she shipped the rest of our stuff in.
Every night Tom and my mom would FaceTime on her laptop. She introduced me so every night I'd poke my head in and say hi to him.
He was a funny guy and really easy to talk to. He had this fatherly vibe and spoke in a soft voice. Besides the times I would poke in, I didn't really know what they talked about at the time. I overheard my mom telling Tom about the divorce and he told her he had a divorce two years ago.
He was married to a woman for 5 years and after about 3 years of marriage his wife got pregnant. They had a son together named Parker who is now 4 years old. Tom and his wife ended up getting a divorce because their marriage wasn't working anymore. Chanel took Parker and Tom hasn't seen him since. He doesn't even know where they are. He tried to go to court and get custody of him but the court appealed for Chanel.
As the month continued they carried on sharing stories of what has happened since high school. Eventually my mom and Tom decided to make plans to meet up. He was going to fly all the way out to LA just to spend the weekend with us.
He came out and it was fun. Debbie spent the weekend at her boyfriend's house so my mom slept in Debbie's room and Tom slept in my mom's room. We went out to fancy restaurants and he paid for us despite our protests. He took my mother shopping to get a fancy dress, heels, and jewelry to match and took her out to dinner and a movie. I could tell when Tom came out that they really liked each other.
I even suspected they were dating but kept my mouth shut until I was sure. That night when my mom came home Tom went to bed and my mom crept into my room. She closed the door and said she wanted to talk with me.
She told me her and Tom began dating after a week of them talking. He made plans to come out here so they could see if they still had that connection they did in high school. They did.
Tom asked my mom at dinner if my mom and I would move to Miami with him. I could enroll in the high school they went to, my mom wouldn't have to work and could stay home, and we could all be a family together.
I wanted to protest. Although I wasn't speaking to my dad, and I didn't think I ever would again, I still didn't know if I was okay with my mom moving on yet. Especially moving on with me. I mean, was I even ready? Do I really know Tom that well? I looked up to meet her gaze and I noticed something. My mom looked happy. For the first time in a very, very long time my mom looked genuinely happy.
I pondered the situation once more and decided that if my mom finally found something that made her happy, it made me happy too. I told her I was in 100%. When she left my room I couldn't help but feel sad. My entire side of the family lives in California and everything I've ever known is here. We've lived in the same house since I was a baby, all of my friends are here, and I had to move on from that.
I shoved all those thoughts out of my head and went to sleep. I needed to make this work for my mom. If I was going to do that, I had to give the situation the most positive outlook I could.
We were completely moved in at Tom's house by the next weekend. I thought it would be longer. I mean, the last month was incredibly hectic. My mom left my dad, we stayed with Debbie, and now we moved in with my mom's boyfriend? Crazy. Although, I was wrong. Even though I was trying the whole positive outlook thing, I was positive I would hate Miami. I mean, its humid, there are gators, and swamps. Should I need to continue?
However, it was the complete opposite. Tom bought a baby blue painted beach house. It was literally a 35 foot walk to the beach from the house. The beach was clean and beautiful, not a swamp. There were pelicans and dolphins, not gators. However, I was right about the humidity. I'll adapt to it though. My room was huge. Probably the size of the kitchen in the last house. The walls were painted a cream color and there was a beautiful glass chandelier hanging in the middle of the ceiling. And the best part? I had a balcony that overlooked the beach. It was insane.
Tom bought me all new furniture. I protested at first because I had furniture at my dad's house. Tom didn't want me to have mismatched furniture that my dad bought from different Goodwill's across LA. He told me it would be a favor to him. So I let him. My room was absolutely perfect. It looked like the type of room that you saved on your Pinterest under the board "dream home."
Tom didn't lie about my mom not working either. He had her quit her job and told her she could be a stay at home mom. My mom always wanted to do that but my dad could never afford it on his income alone so she had to work. She was going to cook and clean. Sadly, my mom is not a very good cook. Because of this, Tom enlisted her in cooking classes. That was how she would occupy her time during the mornings. She also signed up for yoga to release stress and tension. Then she enrolled in a book club at our local library. My mom loves literature and always told me when I was little she dreamed of publishing a book one day.
Everything was going great. It was summertime at this point. I had finished school before we moved so I wouldn't have to start for another couple of months. I was going to go to a high school a couple blocks away from my house called Marino High. I was excited to make friends but nervous at the same time. I wasn't incredibly social. However, Marino was supposedly the top school in Florida so it would look great on my transcripts when I apply to college next year.
Over the summer I just spent time with Tom and my mom. We got to know each other more and we did a lot of family bonding activities. He would take us to do fun things like indoor rock climbing, to the waterpark, and one weekend we drove all the way down to go to DisneyWorld. It was a great summer. Before I knew it, it was the day before school started. This is where things got messy.
Hey everyone! If you just read the update I did for the story I just want to say thank you so much! When I went back a reread the story from the beginning I realized I hated it so I wanted to redo it instead of taking it down because I know a lot of you really like this story! Let me know what you think in the reviews. (:
