Jodi's P.O.V

Bruce finally came home in the morning. When I asked where he had been he just told me he had to think. Sometimes I wonder if he even sees me. When he looks at me it seems like he is seeing someone else, or not seeing anything at all. He is not the man I married. The man I married was a guy who was ready to take on a family and was going to be the best father he could, but now he was turned into a work-a-holic that is not open minded to anything or anyone. Sometimes I wish I could just leave, but I don't want to put my children in that situation. That is what is different between me and Bruce. He thinks about himself before anyone and I think of others first. I should have known that things were going to end up like this…

The next morning Kandy was the first one awake. She ran into Squid's room and jumped into his bed and crawled under the covers.

"Squid wake up, come on baby wake up lets talk." Squid rolled over and looked at Kandy. She could tell that he had already been awake and was crying.

"I yelled at Jodi and I made you have a bad time here when you came to visit me. I ruined my mom's life, and now I am doing it again. Things were just better when I was not around."

"Squid don't talk that way! I don't know what I would do without you."

"But I am here and you have to spend all your time inside talking to me and you don't get to do as many things with your friends."

"I enjoy talking to you on the phone. I would give up all my friends to talk to you on the phone. Stop beating yourself up about this! Its ok, Bruce wasn't ready to take care of a family, but now he is trying to make up for it. Maybe you should give him a second chance. Maybe he wouldn't be so anal all the time if you guys were on better terms."

"I don't want to give him another chance. He is rude to you; he does not listen to me. I just don't see how he could be a good father."

"Maybe he will never be a good father, but that is not an excuse he is still your dad and that is not going to change. Look at my dad, it took a while for me to forgive him but he is still my father and part of me is him, but that doesn't mean that I was mad at him. I was pissed he ruined my family and made me change my whole life, but I found good in it."

"Yah what was the good?"

"You, you were the good I met you and then I found a new best friend. You are the reason I am not crazy right now. I think you just need to talk to him. Let him know how you feel and then if you still don't like him that's ok. You are not required to like your father, but you do need to recognize that he does love you. If he didn't love you he wouldn't of gone though all the trouble to get you here with him. He probably just doesn't know how to show you he cares. My dad would beat me and my mom but that doesn't mean that he didn't love me. It just means that he got a little out of control when he got drunk. He would never remember after he would beat us and everyday he would tell me he loved me. Believe me I know what you're going though I was getting mixed signals from my family too."

"You're probably right; I just don't want to talk to him after last night. What would I say?"

"Tell him exactly how you feel. Tell him you're pissed he left, but try not to get carried away." Squid closed his eyes and pulled the covers up higher on his body and though about what Kandy had just said. He knew he had to confront Bruce sooner or later; he might as well do it sooner. Squid got up kissed Kandy on the cheek and went down stairs, he found Bruce sitting at the kitchen counter drinking a cup of coffee. Squid's stomach was full of butterflies as he sat down next to his father.

"Bruce can I talk to you?" Bruce was too deep in his thought that he had not noticed Squid was in the room. He jumped when he heard another voice.

"Sure Alan, what do you want to talk about?" Squid felt nauseous he thought about this moment his whole life, but now that it came he was scared.

"Why did you leave me and m mom?" Bruce looked down at his cup of coffee for a long time. Squid wondered if he had even asked the question, but then as he was about to ask again he got an answer.

"Your mother got pregnant with you when she was very young. She was only your age. I was a year older. Imagine getting Kelly pregnant right now and you had to marry her and then find a way to support your child. I was not ready to have a child, but I was going to try to stick it out for your mother, but then things started to change and I was young. I had no idea what I was doing and I started to see other women."

"Was Jodi one of those women?" Bruce's gaze never left his coffee.

"Yes, she was. She found out about me seeing other women and she dumped me. I was mad because I really cared about her, and I really cared about your mother, but your mom was beginning to not pay attention to me. She started blaming me for getting her pregnant. We fought all the time and you probably don't remember but I left for days at a time a lot." Squid did remember. He always thought that his dad was coming back, so that one time he didn't Squid was crushed.

"I would leave and go and try to find comfort. The only comfort I found was with other women, so when your mother and I had a really bad fight I left and I made up with Jodi. She forgave me, but told me that she would be nothing but a friend to me. I told her that I had left your mother and hat we could be more than friends but she refused. It was not until many years later that we finally became more than friends. She said that she felt for your mother and if that happened to her she would not want some other girl getting involved with her husband so early. She never met your mom, but Jodi has always been thinking of her." Squid looked at his hands. He did not know what to think of Jodi. He was getting mixed emotions. He didn't know if he could trust his father or if he was making all of this up so they would make up.

"Why do you hate my mom and me so much?" Bruce took a deep breath and for the first time all morning looked Alan in the eye.

"I do not hate you or your mother. Believe it or not I love you both. I do feel horrible for leaving the two of you, but I do not know what I can do for your mom. The only thing I can think of is taking you here, so you can live in a nice place for once. I was trying to do what is best for you. You might not understand now, but you will when you are older." Bruce put one hand on Squid's shoulder and walked away. This is not what Squid had expected. He thought that he would get more out of his father than you will understand when you are older. Squid was not ready for him to leave, but it was too late. He was gone. Squid walked back up to his room and got into his bed. Kandy was still there. He told her what happened.

"He just left? Why did you follow him or something?"

"I didn't want to, he was leaving and I didn't want to annoy him. I think it was best that I just let him leave." Squid hugged Kandy and kissed her.

"I love you. I haven't told you that in a long time and I wish I could be there everyday to tell you that." Kandy hugged him back.

"Just one more year baby, and then you can."

It was time for breakfast. Bruce came but was silent through out the entire meal. It seemed like Bruce was ignoring Squid. No one could tell why but it was clear that is what he was doing.

For the rest of the time Kandy was there Bruce ignored and avoided Squid as much as possible. When the week ended Squid had to say good bye again. Even though they had done this before and promised to visit each other again soon. This good bye was almost as bad as the first. There were tears from everyone, and things got rough, but they always stuck together and would continue to call everyday. Just hearing each other's voice made things better. School had started and that made things hard for the two, but they always found time. Squid went to school with X-ray and Armpit, and Kandy went to the same school she did last year. They were both seniors.