The Day I Changed

The Day of

14th November, 2009
14:30

It was a bad day at school. The usually cheerful and social girl has become quite the opposite. I had not interacted with anyone in the school today. Anyone who tried to talk to me left scowling. I'm just not in the mood to be active today. I couldn't bare to stay at home either. I decided it's better to leave for school instead of searching for a place to hide and cover my ears.

We come back from school to find mom and dad sitting on the couch along with a man in formals. He was my dad's close friend. I stood at the entrance as Cyn ran towards Mr. Richards. Instead of standing up and swinging her, he just hugs her. He greets me.

"Come in, Mia." My dad says trying to sound normal." How was your day?" He asks.

I ignore him and walk towards my room which is upstairs. I call Cyn in and shut the door loud enough for them to hear.

Cyn looks at me and asks, "What's going on, Mia?" She asks me in her baby voice.

"Nothing, Cyn." I say.

Today was not a good day for me. Just last night, we were informed by our parents that this family is going to be torn apart. But, it's for the best.

Dad has been pretty aggressive and irresponsible since the past few months. As it turns out, he doesn't love my mom anymore and wanted to live a solitary life. However, he would want to take up half the responsibility. He's going to take either Cyn or me with him.

I don't think I will be able to go through the melancholy of leaving my mom and sister behind. That is the reason why I've been ignoring him since the last night. But I don't think it will work. I can't let my irresponsible father take away my sister from me either.

I wasn't that unhappy about the separation. I would wake up in the middle of the night and see my father fight and accuse my mom of the things she had never done. I'd come back from school to find my mom crying in her room.

I'm so done with this. I don't wish for my mom to go through all of that anymore.

Seriously though, I find it suffocating when I get home. My mom never loses hope. She thinks everything is going to be alright. She's forgiven him a hundred times and every time she did that I would undergo uneasiness as to how to behave with him. How can I forgive him ?

He's rarely home. Always on his business trips. Anything wrong happens, the blame comes on my mom. If I score a bit low, or slightly misbehave, he starts scolding us both like he was the one who brought me up all along. I'm fed up of this. He doesn't even know what my sister , my mom or I like. In fact , he doesn't even care.

Finally, the day arrives and I can't stay the same anymore. I just can't.

All these days I've lost all my confidence and so has Cyn. I can't let her lose her hope.

I ask her to freshen up and come back. She wears a pretty blue frock which is her 'lucky frock'. She is hardly holding her tears when she sits next to me on her bed.

"I don't want to leave you or mommy." And as she says that the tears roll down her cheek like a waterfall.

I hold her hand and wipe her tears. "Remember that I will always be by your side no matter what. You're gonna stay with mommy, okay?"

"No, no." She says choking on her tears.

I give her a tight hug and lead her downstairs for the judgement.

Our parents look at us as we get down. I quickly glance to see if there's a sign of hope on her face. I see none.

Cyn and I sit next to our mom and wait for Uncle Ben to speak.

"Listen, the least I can do is let you decide on where to go, Mia. As you're the eldest of the two, I assume you've already made your decision. I know it's not easy but..you get what I mean." He says looking at me.

"Yeah, I get it." I say looking down. Last night, I'd checked up everything or anything I could possibly do. It takes me a few seconds to answer as he gazes at me waiting for our decision.

"I ..wi- will.... go-o." I stammer.

"Noo, Mia will not go, please Uncle Ben, do something." Cyn says as she goes to him.

"I don't want her to be with dad. He's not good at taking care of her. He doesn't even care about us. How could you do this to us Uncle Ben? How could you blindly support him? Don't you know what we've been through because of him? Are you going to take Mia away from me? Do you think I can live without her?" Cyn cries.

Uncle Ben turns to her and opens his mouth as if he were trying to reveal the truth about Santa Claus's existence. But she stops him before he tries.

"No, Uncle Ben. You can't do this to us. Are you going to chose to help your irresponsible friend over us sisters?"

My dad's expression turns serious and he stares at Uncle Ben waiting for his reaction.

"I'm sorry, honey. I was blinded by my friendship. I'll try my best to see that you get to stay with your mother and sister." He says getting up. He glares at my dad as he opens the front door." And you better behave, Michael."

That's when I realized that my sister has the ability to manipulate and get the things in her own way. She has that cool trait which I ,apparently lost. I'm really happy that she hasn't lost her true self. That was what I liked about her. No one gets to mess with her.