"What the hell is wrong with you?" Clara demanded, in her hand she held about four pay stubs from the college.

I looked at her from the couch and rolled my eyes. "Snooping in my room I guess?"

"My house, my trash!"

"It's not trash, it was inside a notebook on my book shelf." Her anger wavered for a second, as if I had accused her of something and she wasn't prepared for it, but it soon was replaced with rage. "So why were you looking through them?"

"Why are you working for the school? What are you doing because I know you're not a teacher."

I couldn't help myself. "What? I don't have a teaching degree? Well don't tell the school that, they won't let me teach advanced physics anymore with a high school diploma."

The stubs left her hand as she threw them to the ground. "Don't get smart with me! Why are you working at the school?"

"It's not really any of your business. I'm out of the house longer, and I think we both know that the more time we spend away from each other the better."

There was a knock at the door and I prayed that it wasn't Benny, he knew to stay away from the house but he had been picking me up for the past couple days and Clara's car was in the shop for the day, so he wouldn't know she was home. I had hoped I'd be able to beat her to the door but she was already headed to answer it.

At the door was a tall handsome man in a suit, I would have thought he was a lawyer if it wasn't for the the way Clara was dressed.

I suddenly became very aware of the fact she was wearing a new dress, makeup including red lipstick and heels, the biggest giveaway was the missing ring on her left hand.

"You look amazing." The man said, he seemed nice enough, and I almost felt bad about making him so uncomfortable.

I snorted. "Wow."

Her head snapped towards me so quickly I thought she might had snapped her neck. "Shut your mouth."

"Look I know my dad isn't coming back, and he abandoned you, but you're still married." The man looked confused but, and not just with my statement, but with even with just my presence.

"No I'm not." She said through gritted teeth.

"You want me to get your wedding ring and show him? How about your marriage license? Or the wedding pictures? Or even better all the bank statements with your conjoined account in my dad's name that you for some reason still use."

Her eyes were piercing, and it became apparent that she hadn't even lied and told him that she was divorced. "Who does he think I am?" I asked.

"I told you to shut up!" She hissed.

Ignoring her I directed my attention to the man at the door who was growing more and more uncomfortable as time went on. "Who did she tell you I was?"

"Uh, her foster kid."

"Well that's not a far stretch, but she's my stepmom. She was married to my dad for over ten years, still married actually. He abandoned us, and she still thinks he's going to come back, once I'm eighteen. We had that argument last night, apparently he's just waiting for me to be old enough that he doesn't have to be responsible for me. Then he'll come back." I stood from the

couch, and headed towards the door, avoiding Clara and slipping past her date to stand on the porch. "But I guess until he does you guys can do whatever you want. And speaking of my dad I need to go to the police station, you know, keep up on where they think they saw him last. Last I heard he was somewhere in Europe. But have fun!"

I pushed past them I wanted to say more but I knew that I had caused enough trouble, besides Clara was an experienced liar, she was going to be able to cover up whatever I said but at least I embarrassed her enough to feel better about the situation.

Benny's truck passed me a few blocks away from my house, seeing me he pulled a U-turn and came up next to me. "What the hell are you doing?" He asked.

"Walking." I snapped back.

"Fight with Clara?" He asked knowing the answer.

"What makes people cheat?" I kept walking Benny following slowly beside me.

"Can you get in the car so we can talk normally? I look like I'm stalking you or something."

I ignored him, there was so much rage within me that I couldn't even realize that I was walking down the street with a car beside me drawing a lot of attention to us. "Clara. She's cheating on my dad."

Benny's brows knitted together in confusion. "What?"

"She's going on a date!"

"I thought she was already doing that."

"What do you mean?"

He shrugged. "Well I just assumed she was, I thought you thought so too." When I didn't answer he sighed. "But is it really cheating?"

I stopped in my tracks to face him fully. "What?"

"Well, I mean come on, your dad is gone Toni, he's been gone for months."

"They're still married!"

"Well yeah." He rubbed the back of his neck trying to pick his words carefully. "But you don't think he's coming back, if I left and never came back wouldn't you move on too?"

He was being rational, I know he was but I was so angry that I couldn't think straight. "It's cheating."

"I'm not disagreeing with you, all I'm saying is that if he's not coming back is it so wrong for her to be moving on? Can you really call it a marriage if the person leaves and never comes back,

on top of that doesn't even tell you where he is?"

"They could get divorced."

He shrugged again. "Sure, but isn't it kind of hard to notify him of that when no one knows where he is? Besides he's only been gone for a few months, don't you have to be separated for at least 3 years or something."

"What are you a divorce lawyer?" I snapped at him.

Benny sighed once again. "Please just get in the car, I'm not trying to piss you off."

Despite my angry state I did as requested and jumped into the passenger seat of his truck and he pulled away from the curb taking off down the street.

"Are we talking about your dad now?"

"What does that mean?" I asked crossing my arms.

"It means that you have barely talked about I'm since he left, Clara goes out on a date, and you've said more about him in two minutes than you have in a long time."

"I was talking about Clara."

"And how she shouldn't be cheating on your dad. I'm sorry Toni but I hate the guy, I really hate what he did to you and I just thought you felt the same."

"I do hate him for what he did." I said honestly.

"Then why do you care so much about what happens to him. As far as you know he's off with another woman and starting a new family." He regretted it the second he said it. "I'm sorry."

I didn't like to think about why my dad left, or even what he might be doing now that he was gone, and because of that I never let my mind wander. Benny was being practical that's all, he was trying to remind me of what an asshole my was.

He ignored me for years, he humiliated me, let Clara into my life, took her side over mine, never got to know me and then left without another word. I shouldn't care what he's doing but moving on from it seemed to be something harder to do than I thought.

At my silence Benny added. "I didn't mean that, I just-"

"It's fine." I told him.

"No it's not, I shouldn't be making it worse, I'm sorry."

"It's okay." I told him. "Besides not talking about it doesn't bring him back, doesn't give me answers."

Benny looked at me with the kind of expression that told me that he didn't agree with me. He wanted me to talk about it, he wanted me to express how angry and upset I was but he let the matter go anyways.

My dad was a subject that didn't come up too often, but it was always there, lingering over our heads.

He left, there was nothing else to the matter. He left and we didn't know why. There were many theories as to why he left, but the bigger thing on my mind was whether or not he was going to come back. In my opinion if he left, then he wasn't planning on coming back.

My dad had managed to ignore me for most of my life and because of that things had pretty much been like they had been when he was here. The only difference was I didn't see him come home every night and I couldn't hear him and Clara talking through the night either.

My dad was gone and it pissed me off, but the truth was, life hadn't really changed.