Thrust Into His Arms

"Fine." She sighs, "Then how about this? You can stay home and get over it for as long as you want and then resume schooling after."

Get over it? I scoff.

Will I ever? "That is the best that we can allow. Giving up is not an option." I roll my eyes at the stern, bossy tone. "Fine." I reluctantly agree to get her to stop talking as she is sounding so decisive on that.

I do not think that I would be able to go anywhere near a school building again. Forget prestigious rich brats. Elite or not a school can be bad. Take my middle school for example. Those kids would outright commit murder and get away with it if they were even half privileged.

"When are you going to come home? We all miss you. Percy have been throwing lots of tantrums since you left. That is his own little way of saying that he misses his sister."

"Awwwn. My sweet little munchkin." I purr affectionately. "I am missing him so damn much. I would’ve asked that you put him on so I can hear his baby talk but he must be asleep now.

Tell him I miss him and that I love him."

"Won’t you be coming back?"

"Not now. I really like it here."

"Alright, we will come to you then." She joyfully announces. "You little liar,

you are not in Aventura. You Are in Fort Lauderdale. We know exactly where you are." My eyes widens in shock.

"How do you guys know that? Are you robotically tracking me?"

"Yes. Surprised right? I don’t know why I had doubts about where you said you were for some reason. Who knew that it would be right?

We have been tracking your location through this call."

"That is an infringement of privacy. Am I like a criminal now?" I yell, raising my voice so Dad can also hear me. That would have been about right if I was.

"More or less honey. I will be there soon personally. We could make it an unplanned family vacation as it has been a while since our last one."

"Don’t." I say in a warning tone.

"We will. Its going to be fun! I hear the place has nice Beaches. Is it true? Oh I love Beaches. I can’t wait to be there." She gushes. "I will take a leave from work. Your dad would also too. It is going to be cheese and sprinkles!"

I inwardly groan, biting on my lip to refrain from cussing. I cannot tell if it is just a threat or if she means it. I’m not going to test it out to see which one because I know very well how crazy she can be.

"I will come home." I grit out with difficulty. It is like I’m being forced to swallow a bitter pill. Mom hums in suspicion. "I smell something fishy." She says.

Why are you now conceding? You are hiding something aren’t you?"

"Don’t get those funny ideas. What would I be hiding?"

"I don’t know. You tell me." She said. I sigh, "The day after tomorrow.

That’s when I would be back."

"No Hon, it is already 4am in the morning. Be here by 4pm later. It is only fair that you leave there as sudden as you went.

If that is not fine by you then we can come over there and have that family vacation. I will start packing soon. And I’ll go get one of those sexy bikinis by morning. A one-piece or a two-piece, which one do you think would suit me best, darling?"

"Do you have to wear a bikini?" I heard Dad ask. Mom takes offense to that. "What. Am I silly old and unattractive?" I imagine her eyes flaring.

"I didn’t say that."

"Stop it you guys. You got it, 4pm it is." I say dreadfully. "Good. You made the right decision." I did not make a decision, you guys forced it on me. I was fancying the idea of staying here until the Christmas holidays. "I would have loved to come over though.

There goes my last chance of wearing a bikini this year." She feigns sadness and regret.

"Do not even think of playing any hooky." She warns. "If you are not back by then, we will report you missing and plaster all of your embarrassing photos on the news. You’ve got until 4pm—6 at most. Have a safe trip. Bye. We love you!!" They both chorused at the end before the line goes dead. I collapse on the bed mulling over having to return home.

"Great. Just great." What believable lie explanation would I come up with to Margaret and Richard’s mom?

Foolish, stupid me. I should not have taken the call! I spent the remaining couple hours until dawn screaming into the pillow, flailing my legs and beating myself up about it. You stupid, damn fool!

"You are leaving?" Margaret asks in hard surprise as I inform her. "Yes." I faintly respond. "I got a call the nursing home last night. They said my grandma’s dementia is getting worse.

Her window of lucidity is getting shorter. I don’t know how much longer it will be before she does not remember me anymore." I explain sympathetically. Was that too much? You must be wondering why I said grandma. Well that is because I had already lied that I lost my mom when I was a kid and I lived with my stepdad whom I had thought to be my dad until I found out that he wasn’t.

My mom had me before she met him, and he apparently must have liked her well enough to pretend to take me as his child too.

Cool and unbelievable right?

I am still surprised at how I had cooked up such a big, fat lie. Mom and Dad would faint from shock if they hear this. Lies are indeed protection like mom said.