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JAKE & SAYA ──────────── ' broken before it began '
—JAKE LOVED HIS FAMILY. Most people do. He wouldn't trade any of them for the world, and had no qualms about spending his days off of school with them. It wasn't out of the ordinary for his parents to request a family-weekend, but the tension suffocating the dinning room wasn't typically a part of that ritual.
His brother sat beside him, just as uncomfortable and somehow more tense than he was. His father was sitting across from his brother, and his mother was somewhere in the kitchen.
His dad's sight was set on the table below him, and Jake could tell from the way his shoulders moved that he was fidgeting with his hands on his lap.
A knot formed in Jake's throat as he thought of what this dinner could possibly lead to.
The request for the Sim sons to keep their schedules empty for that weekend seemed like an innocent once. When Jake's mother had come to his room right before he'd gone to bed on Sunday night, asking him to make sure he was free for the following weekend, he had thought nothing of it. If anything, he was grateful. It'd been a while since his father had been home long enough for them to spend a weekend together.
Engaging in that family time now, however, Jake wished he hadn't kept his schedule free.
His mother appeared behind her chair, placing the last dish on the table before taking a seat herself. Despite all the food being set out, steam dampening the air as it rose off each plate or bowl, not a single person reached for even a crumb.
"Am I wrong to guess you two have something to tell us?" Jake queried, slicing through the silence and temporarily alleviating the pressure on everyone's chests. The tension soon returned as his parents shared a look, making Jake's mind race with baseless assumptions.
"Oh my God," His brother breathed out. The three other people at the table looked to him, confused by the eldest child's wide eyes and parted lips. "Are you getting a divorce?"
"What?!"
"No!?"
Jake and his brother sighed in relief. The disbelief from both of their parents made it clear their marriage was still going strong, but with a separation off the table, Jake truly had no other idea what could be weighing so heavily on the couple's mind.
"Jake, Jasper," His mother began, leaning forward on the table to take both of her sons' hands in hers. Their mother focused intently on the two while their father kept his attention elsewhere— almost with guilt. "There's no easy way to say this. We know how much this place means to you— to all of us. We wanted to tell you sooner but we couldn't figure out how."
