Coming Home To You

When Lisa woke up at nine AM on a Saturday morning, she almost fell out of bed when she heard the sound of yelling come from downstairs, a female voice almost screaming obscenities at someone else. As another male voice joined the argument, she could only guess that her siblings had arrived and were now arguing with Dad about some sort of pointless subject that no one else could be bothered to touch on. It seemed like all Brian and Lizzy did now was argue with their father- and she couldn’t understand why they’d let her grow up with him.

As she changed quickly, intent on heading out as soon as possible and finding her friends at the beach, maybe even giving Blaze a call and seeing if he was doing anything. The two had connected over a little more than just Math- especially at having siblings that fought all the time. Whereas his were with each other, hers were more them against their parents. She’d already heard from what Jimmy had told her that Brian and Lizzy barely argued with each other, but because of the way their Dad had hardly raised them, they seemed to blame him for everything.

“Tell me why I shouldn’t go right over there and beat the shit out of him, huh? You are not ready to do this, Lizzy, you are not ready to have a child of your own!”

Lisa paused for a moment, listening to the muffled voices that were coming from down the stairs. Was Lizzy pregnant?

Fastening the top button of her shirt, she slipped out of the door and stood at the very top of the stairwell, listening to the voices that came floating up, a full blown argument happening right in the middle of her own home.
“I am not going to kill this baby, Dad! I can support it, and Zacky promised me he’ll be there every step of the way. I don’t have to get married to be a good parent- but you wouldn’t know good parenting if it punched you in the face!”

That was Lizzy, and as if her worst fears had been confirmed, Lisa gulped. So Zacky really was the daddy to this new baby.

“You take that back young lady! I did everything I could to keep you kids. With a roof over your head and somewhere to go to school- and now you pull this kind of crap on me?”
“Why should she? You were a shitty Dad who barely had time for his own kids. I was the one that looked after Lizzy while you went out drinking, I was the one that beat her fucking boyfriends up when they hurt her- and I was the one she came to first when this whole thing started!”

That was Brian. Obviously, he’d chosen to come here rather than have Zacky come to show his support, otherwise world war three would’ve been happening in her own kitchen.
“I tried, Brian, I tried so hard to give you kids what you needed!”
“Well obviously you didn’t try hard enough!” Brian paused for a moment, before he began to talk in a softer voice, his breath catching in his throat.

“Every other kid in my class in the fourth grade had a parent to come in on careers day. Every other kid had a parent who actually turned up to the parent-teacher conferences; every other kid had a parent who cared! That’s the difference between the two of us and you. We are, and will be good parents, because unlike you- we actually care about our children”

Lisa paused for a moment on the top of the stairs, and suddenly, her cellphone buzzed in her pocket, dragging her away from the slightly emotional argument that she had been listening too. It was Blaze.

“Meet me on the beach? I came by your house but I heard yelling…Bxx” was all the message said, but it was enough for Lisa to tap out a quick reply and slowly slip down the stairs, deliberately avoiding going anywhere near the kitchen so she wouldn’t get dragged in on the argument that was brewing beneath her feet. Slipping out of the back door, she skipped around the side of the house and ran through the driveway until she was safely on the street that led her down to the beach. She could already hear the seagulls screeching and the rest of the world acting as though nothing else was going on.

“Lisa! Over here!”

Blaze was standing beside the railing, waving at her like an idiot, and she felt her cheeks tinge red as she waved back, quickly dodging the traffic to run over to him.

She’d already figured out she’d had a major crush on him, and even though she wanted to talk to Lizzy about what to do, and if he kissed her what she should do with her tongue, because who knew where the fuck that was meant to go, her sister was pre-occupied. Wasn’t that what a sister was meant to be doing though? Teaching you what boys wanted? Obviously someone had told them- because you couldn’t figure it out for yourself.

That was like taking AP Calculus when you couldn’t add seven and nine together. Impossible.
“So what was all the yelling about in your house? I saw your brother yelling at your dad and I figured they’d found something knew to aruge about…” Blaze asked, walking with her down the slope that lead to the sand and ducking under the long boardwalk of the pier. Lots of high school kids sat under here, mostly to get drunk or high- or both, especially in her siblings’ case.

Both Brian and Lizzy had recounted the night when Avenged Sevenfold, in their early days, had crashed down here and by the morning, Jimmy had been arrested, Brian had been attacked by a dog- and Lizzy had slept with Zacky for the first time.
An eventful night for all she had concluded.

“My sisters pregnant with my brothers friends baby. They used to date, and he was engaged, but then she left him. It’s all confusing and I don’t want to get involved”
“Won’t they be worried that you’re gone?”

“I don’t know and I don’t care. They don’t care if I’m gone, they’re all wrapped up in their own problems. No one really seems to have time for me these days” Lisa whispered, rubbing her toe into the cold shadowed sand.
Why did she have to sound so pathetic?

Blaze didn’t speak for a moment, but suddenly, she felt him put his hand over hers on the rock she was balancing herself on, and squeeze it gently. He didn’t say anything to begin with, but he didn’t let go, not even when they looked at each other.
He was holding her hand! Oh my god, oh my god….!

“If you feel like that…just know that I have the time for you, Lisa. Any time all the time. Because I care about you- even if you feel like they don’t”

Notes