Mistakes : A College Bully Romance

were moving around, how tense their shoulders were, I knew something wasn’t right. Something was off here, and I needed to know what it was.
Once dinner was ready, we gathered around the small table in the corner of the kitchen. Its fourth side was against the wall, so there were only three chairs. I sat opposite my dad, and Mom was between us on its other side. She’d made chicken and rice, along with some beans that frankly smelled delicious, but I wasn’t very hungry, not when I knew something was obviously going on.
I wasn’t stupid. I might not have been the sharpest tool in the shed, but I wasn’t oblivious.
“When are you guys going to tell me what’s going on?” I asked, breaking the awkward, heavy silence of the room. I hadn’t even touched my food yet, and honestly I didn’t know if I wanted to. It smelled good, but my stomach was in knots.
“What do you mean?” Dad asked, feigning a smile. He’d already shoveled some of his rice onto a fork and was about to eat it, but his dark eyes were on me. “Nothing is going on.”
I gave him a look. It was a look that said I wasn’t impressed or convinced.
“We should just tell her,” Mom spoke, glancing at Dad. “We said we would once she went to college—”
“Yes, but not like this,” Dad insisted.
Mom had other ideas though, for her head whipped in my direction. “Your father and I are getting divorced,” she said, saying it bluntly, as if she weren’t telling me that my parents had planned on splitting up once I went away to college.
I blinked, the news hitting me like a brick fucking wall. “What?”
Dad set down his fork, sighing. “We planned on telling you, but…like I said, not like this.”
“We want you to know that we both love you, and that will never change.” Mom’s words flew right over my head, mostly because I was shocked. Shocked and…confused. I knew they bickered, but didn’t everyone? Didn’t that just mean they both had strong opinions on things?
“I don’t get it,” I said, sounding faint. And, you know what? I honestly didn’t get it. I understood what my parents were telling me, but I didn’t know why it was happening, why now. They never seemed unhappy. I thought, until now, we were one happy family. A happy family that struggled when it came to finances, but didn’t most households in America do that?
My dad coughed, causing my eyes to snap to him. “Sometimes, Kelsey, people grow together, and sometimes they grow apart.”
“Did you try to grow together?” I asked. Deep down, I knew I sounded stupid, like a child and not like an eighteen-year-old, but I didn’t care. This…they were supposed to be my family, my normal family. Ash had grown up without a father, and she’d been cynical ever since. I didn’t want to be like that.
I might act out now, but in the future I wanted to settle down. I might not have realized it at the time, but I did now. Mom and Dad were my role models, and I…without them, what was I supposed to do? Who was I supposed to look up to? They were my family, and now they were telling me they were falling apart.
The worst part? I didn’t have a say in it. I couldn’t fix it, couldn’t fix them. Whatever rift had caused them to want to divorce was not something any single person could fix. If the two in the marriage wanted out, there was nothing anyone else could do.
“You know what? Never mind,” I spoke quickly, jerking my chair back as I got up. The chair legs scraped against the floor, and my mom winced. She’d hated that sound for years, and usually I was better about it, more conscious of it. “I need air.” I headed to the front door, slipped on whatever pair of shoes I could find—my mom’s ratty tennis shoes that she wore when going on runs—and left the house.
They knew I’d be back. I wouldn’t be gone forever. This wasn’t me running away—this was me trying to put it all together in my head. In order to accept what they told me, I needed to be away from them. I needed to think.
I needed…at this point, I didn’t even know what I needed. I just needed out.
We lived in a quiet neighborhood, the kind where cars couldn’t go fast and everyone knew everyone else’s business. The kind of neighborhood that had sidewalks and people going door to door to try to sell things. I chose to walk around the block, again and again. Because it was instinctual, because, just for a split-second, I felt like I was back in high school, my feet wanted to take me to Ash’s place, but I knew I wouldn’t find my best friend there. Her mom, maybe, but I didn’t feel like seeing Helen Bonds.
I was acting childish. I knew I was, and yet I couldn’t stop myself. I was an only child, Mom and Dad were literally all I had, save for some extended family I never saw unless it was Christmas. They were it for me, and now they weren’t going to be together.
No. You know what? I had every right to be upset over this.
How long had I been living in a lie? How long was I unaware of my parents’ unhappiness with each other? I was too focused on my own life, on Ash and her drama, to realize it.
I ended up circling the block twice. After the second time, I headed up the driveway, going around the house to where the driveway turned to gravel. My rust bucket, Old Faithful herself, sat near the house, missing me. I ran a hand along her hood, wondering if my life would ever be