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~MAXIMUM

CHAPTER NINE NO SECOND CHANCES

"Spencer called from Vegas, he found another case he has to work on, he'll be home later this week." Chris told me.

"Alright." I said. "Ready to be crushed?" I said gesturing towards the monopoly board.

"No, but I am ready to crush." He said.

I laughed, and we began our game. As the Reid family is full of smarty-pants, when we play monopoly it lasts days and it goes down to who gets the last tower.

He was on leave, and I had a week off of school so we hung out, waiting for Spencer to come home. We watched old movies like we used to when we were little. We didn't have cable back then, but we had a six inch TV and old beat up movie player. We used to borrow movies from the library. I loved all the cheesy black and white ones and Chris would watch anything. We played lots of board games and read books out loud like our mom and Spencer used to do. And of course, we played Monopoly.

Two days later, we were almost half way through the game (and I was winning!) when Spence called.

"Hey big bro, what's up?" I asked, I was feeling great. I hadn't been this happy since Scott died. Too bad Spencer was about to put a huge damper on my mood.

"Dad wants to see you." He said.

"What?" Chris asked from behind me.

"He was involved in the case I was working on. You can say no guys." He said.

I paused. Could I really face him? I was four when my father left. I never knew him for real.

Chris said no immediately, but I thought about it.

In the end, I decided he has his chance. If he didn't want me then, he wouldn't want me now. Sure, he said he did… but I knew in my heart he didn't.

"Tell him he doesn't get a second chance." I said.

I almost wished I could be there to tell him myself.

I wished I could be there to see the look on his face when I told him to get the hell out of my life, for good. I was angry at him for leaving. I knew Spencer and Chris always had been too. I didn't think Spencer would be spending much time with him either.

When I looked at how much our lives had changed in all these years, I realized things could have been much worse for us.

Spencer could have not supported us well, we could be in foster care, we could be junkies, or living in the street.

But we were really lucky. We were able to make a live for ourselves.

We had a decent sized apartment with a half-way good view, I was going to college, we were all smart, Spencer and Chris had successful careers. We had plenty of friends. We were really lucky.

And I don't know why, but this made feel like everything wasn't so bad.

I had been seeing the glass as half empty. Just because I lost Scott, I had given up. But I had to go on. I had been through bad times before, and I had made it.

I wasn't going to ruin all that now and let one thing ruin my life.

I was going to live.

I reconnected with my friends, who were very happy to find that I was okay again.

One of my friends, Jenna Taylor, cooked my brownies and told me if I ever needed someone to talk to, she as there.

Jenna gave me hope that I could still enjoy things like brownies. That I would be able to enjoy those small things still. I mean, after all you have to start small. Baby steps.

I realized how much I had missed them all and how much I had really needed to talk to them.

I was almost thankful to my dad for trying to reconnect, if I hadn't said no, then I wouldn't be here right now.

And I was really glad to be there right then.

Glad to feel joy.