My father had passed recently, the investigation came up with almost nothing, So the only logical explanation was Self-Infliction. It left me with absolutely no family to speak of, at least not biological…
My father's life long friend had taken me in free of charge into her home, she seemed really sad when she heard that he had been massively in debt, as if hell hadn't already done it's work. The payments are now up to her responsibility. I walked by the kitchen where she was talking about it to her best friend, she was sobbing uncontrollably….
It's been around a month now, I now feel like it's ok for me to go back to school again, I have just two months till graduation and I need a date to the prom, save up money for tuition, and find out what happened to dad.
"Ugh! I hate getting up early.." I said as I put my clothes on to walk out the door, I was just about to head downstairs when someone stopped me, I'd like to point out that I am not the only tenant in this house.
"Oh...Hey Jenny" I said slightly awkwardly, you could tell by the face she made that she was in her "Jenny" mood.
"Ugh, Save it, Loser!" she snarled back. I'll take the time now to describe her, she was… well for the lack of a better word, "extremely bitchy" she was always in a sour mood, and didn't care for anything but herself, to which she has been given the nickname "Princess", but she was always very fond of that name. She was tall, only like two inches shorter than me (I'm six-one by the way), her legs made up over at least seventy percent of her body, despite having an hourglass figure, she was disproportionate. She had the frame of an ant, and possibly the mother of all back pains. She was a very pretty girl, long chestnut brown hair that went down to her lumbar. Shimmering electric gray eyes, it was too easy to get lost in those eyes. The eyes of the most painful puppy eyes look possible. Her typical attire was a tight blue shirt and very pink panties. She always looked very young, despite being twenty four, if she told people she was eighteen they were likely to believe her.
"Jesus, what's your problem?" I said obviously annoyed.
"Living here with you, that's what!" This is why I didn't jump on her.
"Well I'm sorry" I said a little angrily, she then grinned at me
"Shouldn't you be at school or something?" she asked,
"Shouldn't you be looking for a job?" She gasped audibly, and then turned angry,
"Oh you don't want to play this game with me, smartass!"
"Hey, you're the one who started it!" All of a sudden, something smelled really good.
"What are you making that face for?" she asked,
"Mmm, something smells good!" I replied,
"Yeah, it's probably the breakfast downstairs that's waiting for you dummy!" she looked really annoyed, "I still can't believe she makes you breakfast every day, it's been over a month since your dad died!"
"Hey she's a nice lady,"
"Ugh yeah, a little too nice if you ask me!" she then walked away into the bathroom, I then walked downstairs to the kitchen where I now will introduce you to my landlady, Debbie. On the contrary to Jenny, Debbie was the most kind hearted person ever born, she was again tall, a lot more curvy than Jenny, but in my opinion, a hell of a lot prettier. I don't know how to describe her, except for a typical "Mom look". She had shoulder length brown hair, a well nurtured face, and gray eyes that were so full of compassion. But her best feature to me was her smile, she had one of those warming smiles that were filled with eternal reassurance. Whenever Debbie was happy, the whole Universe was happy. She always wore an ankle length silky indigo bathrobe that revealed a bit too much. Unless she was going out somewhere where she wore a simple red shirt and simple blue jeans. Safe to say, she had a very maternal style.
"Good morning Sweetie!" She said in her very floaty voice, Sweetie, her favorite nickname for me and all of my guy friends, for the girls it's either Sweetie or Dear(she was such a Mom). "I made you some breakfast,".
"Morning Debbie," I said, "I'm kinda in a rush right now, sorry" I never ate breakfast, I know it was stupid, but I liked being in a hurry, to which she never approved of.
"Aren't you waiting for Erik?" she asked, I was, but I still wanted to leave before Jenny comes downstairs, "I made your favorite, Butterscotch pancakes with Baaaacccoooon!" I know it sounds childish, but DO NOT judge it till you try it, it's amazing!
"Oh, man...I'm sorry Deb i gotta go and wake him up," She looked sad but understood, she then took me into a hug,
"Ok Sweetie, have a good first day back, I'll see you when you get back home."
"You too Deb," I said half embarrassed. She was not my biological mother, but I still loved her for taking me in.
"Oh wait!" she said, I quickly turned around, "My friend Diane said that she needs some help with her garden over the summer, she's willing to pay them, maybe you should give it a try!" I did have experience in gardening, so I thought it would be cool to check out,
"Ok sure! I'll stop by her house after school." I said and then finally walked out the door.
Right next to my house is where my "best" friend Erik lives, Erik is a complete isolator, he spends most of the time in his room playing video games, or other things behind closed blinds, he was a complete loner and didn't have many other friends apart from me, I liked the kid and I always felt bad for him. He was nearly a foot shorter than me and much chubbier, he had very curly red hair, simple bored green eyes, and a very monotone voice that can become squeaky when he's mad, he also has very thick circular glasses, rabbit-like buck teeth and his face is absolutely covered in freckles, I always joke with him by saying he looks like an older version of Chuckie from Rugrats, he always gets annoyed about that so he tells me I look like Mr. Spock from Star Trek (Which to me is annoyingly accurate, yet still illogical). He usually wears a green t-shirt with blue gym shorts (Not that he works out but, you know). I walk up to him and he looks totally miserable,
"Hey man! What's up?" I ask him, he just looks at me with a blank expression.
"Dude, I just hate school…" he says as he facepalms himself,
"Yeah, I hear ya bro, only a few more months of this man," I said trying to cheer him up,
"Lets just go man." he said dryly. And so we did. On the way to school, we saw my other best friend Mia walked out of her house, she then ran towards us as soon as she saw us, while trying to hold all of the books she was carrying.
"Hey guys, wait up!" she yelled. We turned around to see her stumbling her way over to us.
Mia lives on the house across the street from me and Erik's, but I still never got to go inside. Unlike Erik, Mia was a complete bookworm, she was one of the best in our class and was happy to say it. She was a very quiet and conservative girl, she never did anything big outside of school and was very grounded at home, she wasn't "shy" but more or less: less talkative, she mostly hung out with one or two other people in class or by herself, it was kinda sad really. Most people thought that she looked rather average, But I thought she was insanely pretty, she was shorter than me but taller that Erik (Damn, that's rough buddy…) she had a petite build but was definitely not flat and tiny. She had beautiful brown eyes that just poured out infectious emotion, a very straight shining white smile that always warmed my heart, her jet black hair was always held up into a ponytail with a pink bow, and she wore a modest amount of makeup to make her look a little older, and these small little hoop earrings. She never wore anything revealing, she always wore a purple polo with a white t-shirt underneath it and simple bootcut jeans, very rarely i've seen her wear shorts or skirts. And these floral Ked sneakers. She was very nice, always optimistic and very shy when it comes to relationships, she was the textbook definition of "Sweet and Innocent". The reason why she was super conservative was because of her mother. Her mother was a very strict entitled Catholic women who felt as is if her daughter should be kept hidden from the world and be an innocent woman for her whole life, she forbids Mia from doing after school activities, listening to certain types of music, having sex before marriage, skip church (of course), and invite anyone over to her house or go to others too (Hence why i've never been in her house). She had once tried to talk to me via phone call when we were thirteen and her mother pulled the plug on us and...scolded Mia so loudly that I could hear it from across the street. I honestly have no idea why she is allowed to have a cell phone, but Mia told me that she doesn't have internet access and her mom checks her text messages. I wish we could hang out more, but it will be hard until we come up with something, Mia stopped in front of us and her eyes beamed with joy at me,
"Andy! I'm so happy you're back!" she practically yelled, It was honestly adorable how filled with glee she was.
"Hi Mia, it's great to see you too!" I replied half laughing, she then asked Erik,
"Hi Erik, how was your weekend?" as cheerful as she is, he still had a bored voice,
"I mostly stayed in my room…"
"Oh that's nothing to be ashamed of, I love my alone time too!" she smiled and grabbed my arm,
"I'm really sorry about your dad Andy." she said reassuringly, I was slightly taken aback.
"it's fine, I appreciate your concern, but I'm ok."
"Oh, by the way," she interrupted, she seemed very happy about what she was about to say, "I need someone to help me study for finals coming up, I was wondering if you could." I was perfectly on board with that idea, but I had other things to do first.
"I'd love to, but I need to catch up in French first. If I finish early I will,".
"Great! I'll see you then, you know where I live, come and see me!" She then gave me a sultry look, winked at me, and walked away to class. By this time we're now in the school hallway and Erik and I are watching her walk to class. Our thoughts were interrupted by a loud snort.
"What are you to losers looking at?" I turned around to see the two people who I missed the least. Roxxy and Dexter, I replied back with no hesitation,
"I believe we're looking at the combined IQ of two,". Erik then just started screaming the noise everyone makes after someone got burned (or "roasted" as the kids say). Roxxy tried to cover her laughter with a look of disapproval, but her dimples gave it away. Dexter on the other hand gave a look of confusion.
"Huh?" he said in his deep voice, Roxxy stopped her previous face and looked up at him with a look of "oh my god you're a fucking idiot!"
"He's calling us stupid," she said clearly exasperated. Dexter then turned to me with his fists clenched.
"Who you callin' stupid?" I looked up at him uninterested.
"I could tell ya, but I'm afraid you won't understand…" I said, he then grinned at me,
"That's what I thought shrimp, you should be scared!" Oh how he loved to torment everyone. Dexter was the captain of the basketball team. He was at least six-five, his arms and hands were huge, he could almost wrap his whole hand around my head (and i got a pretty big noggin if ask me,) but he had tiny legs in comparison, his legs were of a sixteen year old girl, but his arms were of the Incredible Hulk. Perched on his unrealistically large torso was his micro-head with a stupidly large chin that stuck out. He had tiny black eyes with short blond hair, he's a perfect combination of the Marvel villain Thanos, and the video game character Duke Nukem. He may be the best thrower on the court, but he's dumber than a bag of rocks, to put it in perspective, he's twenty-five and the only reason why he's still here is because he's a great player, I've once been told that he has gotten kicked in the balls by a junior cheerleader during his senior year playoffs, and he had to stay out for the entire season to let his balls drop. He constantly comes back to redeem himself. Speaking of cheerleaders, Roxxy is the captain of the team, and it wasn't hard to see why, Roxxy really made the perfect bombshell, she was a good four inches shorter than me, making her almost a full foot shorter than Dexter, she had long shiny blonde hair, piercing sapphire blue eyes, and always had on glistening lip gloss. She was rather busty and had no problem showing it, she normally wore a tight fitting pink tank top, and very short gym shorts that exposed an inch or so of her cheeks when she bends over. Her attitude was very similar to Jenny's, she was very entitled, she had no respect for anything apart from what she does, and treats every guy like shit, except for me slightly. Whenever I say something witty or stupid, she quietly giggles and I have caught her staring at me a few times, but looked away when I noticed her. The only reason why she dated Dexter was for her protection. Now with him on her ass constantly, she feels the need to insult me.
"Didn't your dad kill himself or something?" she asked, I then went on a tangent,
"At least I had a dad growing up!" I shouted back, "And I don't live in a fucking trailer!" she gasped loudly,
"Oh, you're so dead!" she then glared at me, "This isn't over Andy!" then she and Dexter stormed away.
I now for the first time in over a month had opened my locker, the most notable difference was all the writing on the door. The door had been completely covered with little notes in different colors with different handwriting, most of the messages ask "where are you", someone wrote "he's dead", the largest one says "HIS DAD DIED!" which is followed by at least twenty apologies and some "LOL's". But one in very neat pink cursive has a row of four on the front.
"Oh my gosh I'm so sorry."
"When will you come back, I miss you."
"I can't stop thinking about you Andy, Please just give me a sign,"
"I Love you, and I miss you…"
The rest were just a bunch of little pink hearts, people really just went crazy by commenting on this writer, things like
"Awww you two are so cute,"
"Jesus, get a room!"
"HUUUUOOOOHHH!"
"Andy and this chick sitting in a tree…"
"Ugh...gross"
"OOF!"
"OH Aight ANDY! You got some p_!"
"I miss him too…."
Man I needed to repaint that door, twice! But I needed to get my stuff first, I opened up the door (to which I had to use my key since I long forgot my combo) and the smell of unopened month old metal just hit me straight in my nostrils, ugh welcome back buddy! I put my stuff away and went to French class. My school had a weird schedule. Each day had only two classes for every five days. It has the same pattern every week, so each class we have twice a week. Because each class was three hours and first period was cut off at lunch, which was half-an-hour, and went to the second period until 2:00 when we left for the day. However, Erik and I had modified schedules, meaning we had second period off because we already had most of our credits. My only class today was French.
I walked into class fifteen minutes early(sorry Debbie) and I immediately had everyone in the class jump out of their seats and bomb rush me like paparazzi on the red carpet. I was surrounded by twelve to fifteen kids all asking me questions at once, I was trying to stay something, but someone else did it for me,
"C'est assez, give 'em some room!" said a voice in the background, everything went quiet for a few seconds, and then everybody moved away from me and went back to what they were doing before. All but one person came up to me now, I could tell by the click of her heels that it was my teacher, Miss Bessette; she put her hand on my shoulder and spoke with a sympathetic voice,
"Andrew, it's so good to see you!" she said in her reassuring tone, "I'm sorry for your loss…" Miss Bessette was one of those teachers that had favorites, and both luckily and unluckily for me, I was one of them. It was bad because I typically got picked on by my classmates, but I was lucky because Miss Bessette was a great teacher. She was just a smidge shorter than me, in her heels at least. She had golden brown hair and shimmering emerald green eyes, she had a very french appearance with a few spotted freckles around her nose. She had on your simple teacher button shirt and short pencil skirt with stockings and high heels, She definitely had an accent, but her English was almost perfect, whenever she says something in French to someone or under her breath, it's typically something bad or a curse word. She usually is smiling at me, but right now she looked concerned,
"Thanks Miss Bessette, I've kind of gotten used to it now." I said politely,
"Andrew, if z'ere is anything I could do for you, please let me know." she replied,
"Yes actually," I objected, "Is there anyway for me to bring my grade back up fast enough?" Her face brightened up as I said this.
"Oui, I am going to talk about zat during class today," she then gave me a sassy look, "Just try and stay awake long enough to hear it."
"Ok ma'am" I sniggered, knowing very well that she made a joke about the class. I'll take the time now to tell you a little bit about myself now, I was eighteen at the time and I'd like to say that i'm a good looking guy, I'm six-two(roughly), I have wavy darker brown hair(as opposed to the light brown of Jenny and Debbie) that stuck up in the front, giving me a large amount of visible forehead, I have chocolate brown eyes that I've been told are too merciful, at the time I weighed one hundred and eighty pounds and didn't go to the gym as much. I wore t-shirts and sweatshirts with funny captions on them, blue slim jeans or white cargo shorts and a black leather pair of Chuck Taylors. I was your stereotypical teenage boy, I enjoyed playing video games, I eat like a pig, and of course, I was obsessed with girls. I was pretty smart, I had made high honors for eight of my eleven years so far, I had (and still do to this day) a keen interest in Astronomy and Physics, I'm just a total space nerd. My sense of humor was either explicitly dirty, very witty, or just obnoxious puns and dad jokes. I was a know-it-all, and a class clown at the same time. My voice was very deep, it vibrated throughout the room whenever I spoke, making it very hard to keep secrets while speaking. When I was just six years old, I was diagnosed with ADHD, But it definitely has its perks, I could double task with ease, I was ahead of everyone else by a mile, and as Miss Bessette just said, I never fall asleep in class. Most people sleep up and down, not me, once I'm awake, I can't go back to sleep until later. My hyperactive mindset made my class schedule very irritating, that's why I made my second period a free period. It took a little bit of persuasion, but I eventually convinced the counselor to let Erik leave early too.
Today, during French everyone stared at me like I had spoken out in a courtroom. Miss Bessette had to call out the class multiple times, but some people just didn't bat an eye away from me. Miss Bessette asked if anyone needed clarification on anything, the kid sitting next to me just blurted out,
"Yeah, if disappearo resurrected himself or not,". I gave him a look of disapproval but he just stared at me with a blank expression, which he had been doing throughout the whole class. Miss Bessette of course had my back,
"I didn't quite get zat, John." she said rather sternly as she walked passed in between the our rows, avoiding eye contact.
"Nothing ma'am.." He replied quickly,
"Repeat what you said please," She said right after, still facing the board.
"You asked if we needed answers, and I'm suggesting that you should let Andrew ask that question instead," he said. Miss Bessette still faced the front but stopped moving,
"I assume zat you are complementing Andrew of his excellent knowledge, yes?" John looked down at his paper now, clearly embarrassed,
"I'm not sure Ma'am." he mumbled, Miss Bessette now turned around and slowly walked towards our desks,
"Well here is one zing you can be sure of," she then leaned down over his desk, rather annoyingly, giving me a full on display of her ass, I was almost certain that she did this on purpose, "Leave all bitterness to your home, zere is no room for it in my classroom, do I make myself clear?" she had a large amount of threat in her voice at the last part, John looked genuinely nervous,
"You do ma'am" he sputtered out, he didn't look at me again after that, everyone now had looked at him instead. After the lesson, Miss Bessette had said that she was offering after school lessons for extra credit, things were turning around for the better. But the class was over, meaning the end of the day for me, I walked through the crowd rushing to the cafeteria trying to get to the front door. I eventually did, Erik was outside waiting for me, I walked up to him and he looked a bit more cheerful,
"Hey Andy, how was your first day back?" he asked, I then let out a big sigh,
"Ugh, I don't even want to talk about it…" I said running my hand through my hair.
"Wanna come over, I got this new game that I think you'll like," he said, even though I liked games too, he was way more into them then I was.
"Actually dude, I can't. I got a job now!" he looked at me interested,
"Oh really, where?"
"I'm helping Debbie's friend Diane with her garden over the summer, I think you've met her before?" I asked.
"Yeah I have, she was at your house when I visited after the funeral, she seemed funny." he said happily.
"Yeah, well see ya man!" I said as I walked away.
A few blocks north of school, next to the church, was a decently sized two story home with a large garden on the side, Now I didn't know all that much about gardening, but it was great to see Diane again, I always liked her as a kid and I wanted to give a good impression of myself, I walked into the side yard and saw her sitting in the patch digging with a spade, she then got up, picked up her long shovel and walked toward me. Diane had been Debbie's friend since middle school, but people in college had always confused them for being sisters. She looked a lot like her, but still had enough differences to tell who's who, Unlike Debbie, Diane had shorter hair that went in a swoosh, she was a tad bit shorter and was slightly skinnier but she had a larger rack. She had dark gray eyes, high cheekbones, and she always looked young, she was in her mid to late thirties, though she looked like she was in her late twenties. She had on denim overalls with a white shirt underneath, gardening gloves, and a white farmers hat with a blue ribbon around it. Just like Debbie, she was full of love and compassion, but a lot more goofy. She was definitely a clown, she was just super silly and fun to be around. She looked at me with an impressed smirk and put her hands on her hips,
"Well there's a handsome young man!" she said in a quirky way.
"Hi Diane, it's so great to see you again!" I said happily as she wrapped her arms around me,
"I hardly recognized you at the funeral, I'm sorry we didn't talk more." she had a very reassuring look in her eyes as she said this,
"I just can't believe how much you look like Debbie." I said, she rolled her eyes and looked away,
"Pfft please, I'm not nearly as pretty as Debbie!" I looked at her in disbelief,
"What? No way, you're equally as pretty as her!" I exclaimed, she then brought her other arm around me and blushed,
"Aww, a charmer as well!" she then gave me a sultry smirk, "I bet you have to beat all those girls at school with a stick to keep them off ya!" I laughed at the comment.
"Actually, I don't really get a lot of attention." I said awkwardly, she looked at me in surprise.
"Really?" she asked,
"Yeah, they like assholes." I said outright, she gave me a knowing look,
"Don't worry, they'll get over that phase soon, trust me." she said.
"Anyway!" I said loudly, "I came here because I wanted to start working for you."
"Oh great!" she exclaimed, but then looked at her shovel "Unfortunately, we have a bit of a problem," she then lifted up for display, showing a very large gouge in the middle of the handle, making it bend sideways, "My trusty digger gave in on me yesterday." she said sadly.
"Gees, what happened?" I asked
"Oh it just wears out over time, it just decided to break on me now,"
"I think Debbie has a spare shovel in her garage, I'll go check there for ya," I said,
"That would be great, thanks!" She said, Well, now I had to go back to Debbie's house to get the shovel.
The walk between both of their houses was only about ten minutes (Five if you run), so I could probably handle walking around town with a shovel. So I got to the house and entered the garage, I have a button for the door on my keys, so I didn't have to bust my ass to open the door. Debbie's garage was probably the most organized space ever made, she was very anxious sometimes, and one of her ways to cope was cleaning the house. Her white SUV was in the middle of the room, every tool, shovel and machine was placed either by size or times of use. It was a bit too perfect. The garden shovel was right behind the snow shovels. I took it off the rack and wiped off all of the dust on it, it looked like it hadn't been used in years. I was observing it from all angles, checking for any cracks, until I heard a grunt from behind me,
"Ahem!" and then heard someone stomping over to me, I didn't even have to turn around to know who it was, but I turned anyway, to see Jenny staring at me with a questioning look and her arms crossed, "What are you doing with that shovel?" she asked,
"What is it to ya?" I asked back, I didn't really want to deal with her shit right then,
"Just what are you doing?" she asked back in a more demanding tone, I now relented.
"I'm taking it to Diane's house, I'm working for her over the summer." I sighed, she didn't change her look at all,
"Diane gave you a job?" she asked incredulously, "She never offered me any work!" Hmm, maybe there's a reason for that…
"It's physical labor in her garden," I said, "She probably assumed that you wouldn't be interested." Although it would be entertaining to see her complaining and covered in dirt.
"Ugh, in this heat?" she whined, then groaned, "Yeah now way, screw that!"
"What are you doing out here? You never come out here." I ask, she then perks up and smiles,
"I was looking for some batteries, don't we keep a box of them in here?"She asked, I looked around and found a small box on the right side shelf.
"Yeah check that box on the shelf over there." I said, she then turned to the shelf and roamed it with her hands.
"Where is it?" she asked, I then pointed down at the bottom shelf,
"It's right there." I said, she then bent down right in front of me, all I should say that I was more than a little distracted. I shook my head clear of those thoughts, best to keep them behind closed doors Andy! She eventually got back up holding about nine double-a's in her hand,
"Jesus, what do you need so much for?" I asked,
"None of your business loser!" she replied, "Just take you shovel and beat it!"
"Fine, damn!" I replied back, she then snickered,
"Have fun busting your ass for Diane!" And then walked away laughing. My god she was a bitch, If she wasn't, oh boy…
Once I got back to Diane's house I felt much better, I gave her the shovel and she smiled, a smile that warmed me up again,
"Oh good, now we can get started." She said, "Your job is to pick out the vegetables in the pits." I knew how to do that.
"Ok sounds fair." I said,
"But only leave the crops that are long and hard: cucumbers, eggplant, carrots, some squash." Yes you thought (that's what she said) too. "And make sure to get rid of all of the bugs and worms too,"
"Gotcha!" I said and got to work. The whole patch she had was mostly filled with cucumber plants and seeds, it had a lot more bugs than one would call normal. It took around twenty minutes in total. It was sweltering hot out so I decided to take my sweatshirt off. I couldn't help but notice Diane staring at me the whole time while she was planting the seeds after I pulled them. After around three minutes after me, she finished watering,
"WOW! the garden looks great Andy!" she exclaimed, I was rather beat, I was covered in dirt,
"Yeah it does." I said, she leaned down and picked up one of the cucumbers, she looked at like a kid being happy about a dog.
"Wowie, what a monster!" she said, the cucumber was unnecessarily huge, it was at least fourteen inches long and six inches wide, it was also full of lumps, making it even more engorged.
"So why are only keeping these?" I ask, she then looked confused,
"I-i umm...it uhhhhh" she tried to avoid eye contact. "it's umm"
"Does it sell more or something?" I asked, she then shook her head.
"YES! that's exactly it!" she yelled, then looked at it again in the same way as before, "They sell more…"
"Fair enough" I said, it was now nighttime, "Ok well I should probably go home now,"
"Ok handsome," she replied, "Come back to hang out with old me anytime!" she then gave me a kiss on the cheek and walked inside.
When I got back home, I heard yelling from the kitchen. I looked over to see Debbie marching around while on her phone, she looked very pissed off, nevertheless yelling on the other end
"I'm telling you, I don't know where the money is!
No I had no part in this!
Don't call back again!
Was that a threat?!" she now stomped on the floor and screamed at the top of her lungs,
"JUST LEAVE US ALONE!" she then slammed her phone on the table and threw her face onto her hands. I then slowly walked toward her, I was stopped halfway.
"I'm ok Sweetie," she said muffled through her hands. "It's about your dad's debts.".
"Come on Debbie, Let me help!" I shouted, "For God's sake, this is my father we're talking about!" she then walked up to me and hugged me tightly,
"Oh Andy, you're so stubborn, just like your father." she said softly, "Just let me handle it." Her softness never failed to calm me down,
"Ok Debbie, Good night." I finally walked up to my room and collapsed into bed, Not even fully prepared for my long adventure ahead...