![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/car.jpg?resize=640%2C425\")
<\/h2>\n<\/h2>\nby Kristy Gherlone<\/p>\n
I watch them together, though I\u2019m supposed to be in my room. They\u2019re sitting too close. Cigarette smoke trails in front of my eyes as I sit huddled in the corner.<\/p>\n
They talk to each other like they\u2019re good friends, but I don\u2019t know the woman with my father. She\u2019s pretty and young, but there\u2019s something ugly about her too.<\/p>\n
He faces her as he sits on the couch, strumming away on his guitar. The woman places her hand on his knee. Her thumb moves in lazy circles over the denim fabric of his pants before slipping in and out of a frayed hole to touch his bare skin.<\/p>\n
I can\u2019t breathe. I cough. The woman glares at me, then mashes her lips together until they melt into a smirk. Her eyes speak to me. They say, \u2018I\u2019m taking him. He\u2019s mine now. Just sit there and let it happen.\u2019 She turns back to my father. His eyes tell her that I\u2019m not important. She smiles. I hold my blanket over my nose and breathe in filtered smoke as I suck my thumb.<\/p>\n
My mother walks in. \u201cAnother guitar lesson?\u201d She asks. Her voice is strange.<\/p>\n
The woman takes her hand off from my father\u2019s knee and he stops playing.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes,\u201d the woman answers. She picks her bag up off the floor. \u201cI have to get back to work now. Same time tomorrow?\u201d she asks my father, like she doesn\u2019t need my mother\u2019s permission. Like she\u2019s going to be the boss now.<\/p>\n
He clears his throat, \u201cyeah, tomorrow\u2019s good.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBye,\u201d she sings to me. She pats my head like I\u2019m a dog before breezing out in a choke of perfume.<\/p>\n
My father puts his guitar down and gets up. He stretches and walks over to the fridge, where he reaches in for a beer.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t want her back here,\u201d my mother says. Her voice is shaky, as if she\u2019s about to cry. She whips a dirty plate into the sink. It shatters. \u201cI\u2019m not stupid! I know what\u2019s going on.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOkay, so you caught me,\u201d he shrugs and looks at the floor.<\/p>\n
My mother chokes, \u201cthat\u2019s just great!\u201d She snatches her purse off the counter, \u201cyou\u2019re not leaving me with this mess.\u201d She motions towards me and slams the door on her way out.<\/p>\n
My father picks up the phone. \u201cI told her. Come and get me?\u201d<\/p>\n
He\u2019s going through the drawers in his room, throwing things into his suitcase when I hear someone pull up and honk. I go to the window. That woman is sitting in the driver\u2019s seat of a car with no roof. Her hair swirls in the breeze, as if they are already driving away.<\/p>\n
I want to say something, but I don\u2019t exist anymore.<\/p>\n
He runs out and kisses the woman on the lips.<\/p>\n
She waves to me as they pull away. My father looks straight ahead.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I watch them together, though I\u2019m supposed to be in my room. They\u2019re sitting too close. Cigarette smoke trails in front of my eyes as I sit huddled in the corner.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3154,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[425,273,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-contemporary","category-short-short","category-short-story"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3153"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3153\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":65716,"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3153\/revisions\/65716"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}