Amy had been trying to get her life back to normal and just forget that night. She kept telling herself that she had everything she needed, that's what she said to everyone else too but for that split second that she let her mind wander; she always wondered what it would be like to finally have a father, but she didn't let herself think about it too much. She wanted to move forward, with the people who'd picked her.
Amy's father had been almost stalking her, waiting outside her house, constantly. Amy hadn't said anything at first but she was starting to get sick of it.
"You need to leave." Amy said, closing the door of her house behind her, as she left for school.
"Amy." The man said.
"I'm going to call the police." Amy said.
"Come on, just listen to me." The man said, trying to keep pace with Amy.
"Why should I listen to anything you have to say?" Amy asked, stopping to finally look at the man.
"Look, I know I screwed up but I'm trying to make up for lost time, I'm trying to fix my mistakes. Please just give me a chance." The man said.
"You had sixteen years to try, but you never did. It's too late now." Amy said, beginning to walk away from the man.
"I wrote you letters and tried calling. I did try to get to know you Amy, but your mom didn't let me." The man said, not chasing after Amy anymore.
Amy stopped in her tracks and turned to look back at the man. "What? My mom would never do that."
"She did, ask her." The man said.
Amy didn't respond, she just kept walking but what the man said, hit her like a ton of bricks. Had her father actually tried to reach out to her? Did he really care? And if he did, why would Amy's mom keep that from her, when she knew how much knowing her father had meant to Amy.
Amy met Karma at the bus stop. She just sat on the bench while Karma stood in front of her and just stared at her.
"What's wrong?" Karma asked.
"Huh?" Amy said, snapping out of her thoughts.
"What's wrong?" Karma asked.
" You know how my dad is practically camping outside my house?" Amy said.
"Yeah." Karma said.
"He was there this morning and he told me that he'd tried contacting me, but my mom never let him get through to me." Amy said.
"What?" Karma asked.
"Yeah, but I don't know.." Amy said.
"Do you believe him?" Karma asked.
"I don't know what to believe anymore. A part of me wants to believe he's telling the truth, because then I can finally let myself get to know him but the other part of me, doesn't want to believe my mom would do that to me." Amy said.
"Maybe you should ask her." Karma said.
"Yeah I think I will, but I just don't want to upset her if it's not true, you know?" Amy said.
"Yeah, but you need to know the truth, you owe yourself that, Amy." Karma said.
"Yeah." Amy said.
Karma sat next to Amy on the bench, put her arm around her as they waited together for the bus. Amy was completely lost but at least she wasn't alone.
Amy walked around school like a zombie, flooded with thoughts of her dad and what things could've been like for them, what things were actually like for them. Amy was standing at her locker, taking books out and thinking; she didn't even notice Shane, till she closed her locker.
"Hey stranger." Shane said.
"Hey." Amy said, with a weak smile.
"What's going on? You look like hell." Shane said.
"Thanks." Amy said, rolling her eyes.
"What's up?" Shane asked.
Amy didn't say anything at first, thinking about whether or not to tell Shane, but eventually she decided to tell him. He was her best friend, besides Karma and maybe he could help her.
"What I'm about to tell you, you can't tell anyone. Okay?" Amy said.
"Okay." Shane said.
"Gay Scout's honor?" Amy asked.
"Gay scout's honor. What's going on?" Shane asked, getting curious.
"Okay so, when I was four years old, my dad left my mom and me and never came back. I thought about getting in touch with him, maybe trying to find him but eventually I just decided against it." Amy said.
"So are you thinking about looking for him?" Shane asked, as Amy and he walked to class.
"I don't have to. He showed up at my house a couple of weeks ago. " Amy said.
"Wow." Shane said.
"Yeah." Amy said.
"What did he say?" Shane asked.
"He told me to give him a chance, that he wanted to right his wrongs and I've been ignoring him. So he started practically living outside our house, just so he could speak to me." Amy said.
"So what did you say to him?" Shane asked.
"I told him to get out or else I'd call the police." Amy said.
"What did he say?" Shane asked.
"He told me he'd tried to contact me over the years and my mom didn't let us talk." Amy said.
"What?" Shane asked, in a high-pitched voice.
"Yeah." Amy said.
"What did your mom say?" Shane asked.
"I haven't spoken to her." Amy said.
"Wow Amy. I know all this is very complicated and confusing but I'm here for you." Shane said.
"Thanks." Amy said with a smile.
Amy didn't know how to speak to her mom about all this; she didn't want her to feel threatened. Amy didn't want to argue or fight, she'd believe whatever her mom had to say, between her parents, she'd pick her mom.
Amy sat at the dinning room table, thinking, when Farrah walked up to her.
"How was your day?" Farrah asked, taking a seat next to Amy.
"That's something I wanted to speak to you about." Amy said.
"What's going on?" Farrah asked.
"You know how dad's always outside the house?" Amy said.
"Yeah, I think we'll need a restraining order or something." Farrah said.
"Yeah well, today when I was going to school he said something that screwed with me." Amy said.
"What did he say?" Farrah asked, getting a little concerned.
"He told me, that he'd tried to contact me over the years but you hadn't let us talk. That's not true, is it mom?" Amy asked.
Farrah didn't say anything; she just played around with her wedding ring.
"Mom?" Amy said.
"I was trying to protect you." Farrah said.
"How could you do that? How could you make that choice for me! You knew how much getting to know him meant to me and you still didn't tell me? You let me believe he didn't care." Amy said.
"He doesn't care, Amy." Farrah said.
"You shouldn't have just decided that. If you didn't want to talk him, that was okay but how could you make that decision for me!" Amy said, standing up.
"You were five, maybe six years old Amy." Farrah said, trying to calm Amy down.
"Fine, what about the ten years after that, why didn't you tell me then?" Amy asked.
"We'd moved forward, Amy. I married Bruce and you and Lauren were finally getting along, we've moved on. I didn't want to ruin that." Farrah said.
"I can't believe you." Amy said, walking away.
Farrah just sat at the table, not knowing how to fix this, any of it. She wished she'd stayed home that night, that she was the one to answer the door. She would've pushed him back out of their lives and now it felt like there was going back.
Farrah was lost in her thoughts, when there was a knock on the door. She got up from the dinning room table and started walking slowly toward the door. She took a deep breath to open the door, steadying herself to be ready to meet whoever was behind that door.
"Farrah?" The man said.
"Jack?" Farrah said.
Farrah hadn't seen her husband in years but he looked exactly the same. It was as if, the past twelve years had never happened, it felt as if they were married again. Nothing had changed, even though everything had changed.