It All Started With A Piñata

Chapter 1 - The Unscrewing

"Sterling, wake up! It's almost eleven!"

"Hmmmmm?"

"We need to be at the airport before twelve and we still haven't checked out!"

I turn over onto my left side but Mom pulls the sheets right off of me.

"Sterling - get up. Now."

I grumble and reluctantly pull myself out of bed. The carpet feels rough and itchy under my feet and I want nothing more than to get back into bed.

"Alright."

The room is overwhelmingly bright as I scramble to the bathroom to get ready. 

"Leave the phone out here. You don't have time."

"But I have to do my business anyway! It's multitasking!" I holler back.

"Sterling, I'm not in the mood. Hurry up and get dressed."

"Fine."

I pull my bermuda shorts on and a striped tee over my head. Angrily, I brush my teeth accidentally nabbing my chin a couple of times. I've never felt so sloppy.

"I'm going to go grab something to eat," I say, exiting the bathroom. I need to walk somewhere to fume.

"No you're not. We're checking out soon. You're going to have to eat at the airport," Mom says, fastening an earring on.

"Can I have a snack then?"

"You can have a granola bar. That's all I have."

"I don't want a frigging granola bar."

"You don't get to complain. If you had gotten up earlier it wouldn't be a problem."

"If you had woken me up earlier it wouldn't be a problem."

"Sterling that is enough!" Mom booms, her face flushed with anger. "You're acting like a child. Start acting like you're eighteen."

"Stop treating me like I'm a child!" I retort back, my voice inching higher.

"SHUT UP!" Mom yells. 

Then she's silent for a minute, her eyes intensely locked with mine. I don't think I've ever seen her this angry. A tiny woman with soft brown eyes and a gentle smile, Mom looks like someone who would volunteer at a soup kitchen. But the people who really know her are very aware that she won't accept crap from anyone.

Mom's face twists into a full on snarl. "Sterling, I am sick of your complaining and self pity. You sit there like you expect someone to serve you. You're an adult now. There are people who have nothing and you act like you have the worst of it. I don't want to hear it again!" 

"Well you and Dad treat me like shit too. You go off to your conferences and leave me alone like I don't matter. You- "

Before I could finish my sentence, my father enters the hotel room.

"Why are you shouting, Sterling? Is everything alright?"

"Let's just check out, there isn't time." 

Mom grabs her suitcase and storms out the door. Dad and I quickly follow after, silence overtaking the rest of the afternoon.

~

Dad makes me apologize at the airport gate. After grabbing a turkey club at a burger joint, I mutter a quick "I'm sorry" and my family sits in unresolved tension until we board the flight.

"So it's all fine, then?" Dad asks, concern crinkling in his crow's feet.

"Yes, I already said it was fine," Mom snaps. 

She gives me a strange look like she can tell that I'm still angry with her. I don't care. I turn my head away and shove my headphones on. There. Now I won't have to talk or listen to anyone for the rest of the journey.

I'm tired of living. I'm sick of travelling and how ridiculous my life is. It all started when I was five, when my parents started running their business, Piñata Palooza. Then, we were just a small family struggling to pay the mortgage. But then their business took off. Somehow their piñatas became popular, as absurd as it sounds. They started travelling to conferences, sales pitches, business meetings, roping me in for each step. I hated it, and I still do. The stupid dinners with annoying rich kids and boring conversations with random people. Being stuck with a nanny in a hotel room while my parents did their work. Never settling down long enough to make friends. Being home-schooled. But most of all, I hate how proud my parents are of Piñata Palooza. How much they talk about it drives me crazy. 

I knew Mexico was just going be the same old routine. But this time, I was certain I couldn't take it anymore.