indentations - benny rodriguez

ch. 2

~ indentations ~

Parkers parents didn't question their daughter leaving early, arriving home late. Maybe they were caught up in their jobs. Maybe they didn't notice. Maybe they did know, but they didn't care.

Parker didn't want to know.

Her parents were never that interested in her life, they acted as cooks and money-makers, but never parents.

Parkers older brother became her best friend, her parent at times. The schools never questioned when her brother signed off on her field trip forms, or took her out of school early to get ice cream.

But he was gone, stuck in Chicago. Parker couldn't help the lump in her throat that formed when her brothers image popped up in her mind.

Or when she saw his picture on her wall.

It was a polaroid, her brothers arm draped around her shoulders and his smile was wide. A younger Parker was grinning madly, enjoying the flashing of the camera. She was ten in the picture, her brother fifteen.

You could tell they were siblings, the copper hair with slight curl, the slight tan, the freckles splashed across their noses. Everything about the two was identical, other than their eyes. While her brothers were a bright green, Parkers were a light brown. Identical to their mother and fathers respectively.

Parkers put the polaroid back on her bulletin board, letting herself flop onto her bed.

The hinges squeaked under her weight and the mattress sagged.

Her day played before her eyes, the people she'd met, the game she played, and the boy who invited her.

Parker hardly registered the yelling coming from the living room. It had been going on for days, her parents fighting over the house, the move, everything.

Her father grew up in the valley, and he initiated the move. Her mother didn't want to leave Seattle. Parker was indifferent.

A soft knock on her door broke her out of her head.

"Come in?" Parker sat up on her bed.

The door swung open, revealing a smaller boy clad in cartoon pajamas and a blanket draped over his shoulders.

Parker rushed to the door, picking the boy up under the shoulders and shutting the door.

She let her brother down on her bed. The boy didn't say anything, Parker let the boy rest his blonde head on her lap.

Another thing her parents were arguing about, the boy. The boy who was not her mothers child.

"Goodnight Leo." Parker flipped off the light switch.

The boy mumbled a response.

"'night."

~*~

The popsicles from the local convenience store weren't half bad, but according to Benny, Parker had selected the worst flavor.

"Orange isn't good. Cherry is the best." Benny said while licking his red ice pop.

Parker rolled her eyes, taking a bite off her orange pop. "I don't know, orange is pretty good."

"You only say that because you haven't had cherry." Benny shrugged, leaning back on the bench of the dugout of the sandlot.

"I'll get cherry next time then." Parker suggested, shouldering off her flannel.

Then Benny did something unexpected, he held out his ice pop.

"Bite for a bite?"

Parker eyed the popsicle, then she plucked it out of his hand. She hesitated to take a bite.