Inseparable

Chapter 11

I let out a sigh of exasperation as I flopped onto my tiny bed, remembering to duck so I wouldn't bump my head on the top bunk. My other brother, 12 years old now, used to sleep with me in my room. But then he got older and so did I, things change, and now I'm here. And we don't have the financial capabilities to buy a new bed for me so I've grown to love my bed the way it is. If only my parents could do that...

I stared up at the bottom of the top bunk as I clutched my phone hopelessly to my chest. I can't believe that just happened. We just had our first argument. Why did it start in the first place? How did it happen?

I scrolled through Twitter on my phone, obviously bored out of my mind and too tired to think about the argument we just had. I tweeted "forgive and forget?", hoping Ross would see it soon. I closed my eyes, deep in thought, and tried to sleep. Instead, I heard footsteps coming up the stairs. My door opened and in the threshold of the shoddy door stood my parents. Pleasant surprise. 

They walked in and stood there, waiting. Wow, okay, they expected me to apolegize first? My mom spoke out in Chinese, breaking the tension. "Ni zhe zi tian zai nar?" Where have you been. 

I sighed again to try and show them that I didn't want to talk to them and said, "Mei qu nar." Nowhere.

"Oh so you were walking in streets like he ye (peasant)?", my dad intervened. 

"No." 

"Then where you go?" 

I sighed. There was no point in lying. None of them would've seemed credible. So I prepared myself to tell them everything that happened this past week. The subway encounter, the hotel, the Statue of Liberty, everything. And I told them. And with every word that came out of my mouth, their faces looked grimmer and grimmer with fear, anger, frustration, and impatience. 

"Ni zen me hwai sher?" What's wrong with you, my mom burst out. 

"You stay at de hotel with boy? You sleep with boy? Lei ham sup lo! (you perverted bastard!)", my dad screamed out. My mom whipped out her hand and slapped me across the face. 

"Ni li kai jia li lai gen nan har shui jiao? Dou bu zhi dao yang cheng shen me xi guan, yang de mei yong! Ni shen me xiao har?" You left home to sleep with boys? I don't even know how I raised you, it was useless! What kind of child are you?

Ouch. That stung. "I didn't sleep with boys, I slept with their parents and quite frankly, they're much better parents than you guys are!", I screamed back. Tears threatened to drop from my eyes and I tried to blink them away, but it made them leak out. I couldn't fight the tears anymore, I couldn't refuse to cry anymore. I pushed them out of my room and slammed the door. My broken-down door had a broken doorknob that all these years, my parents never bothered to fix. To take away my independence, likely. I pushed my wardrope against the door and searched blindly through my drawers as fat teardrops clouded my eyes and blurred my vision. I wrapped my hands around a pair of scissors and collapsed onto the floor, rolling up my sleeves. And I cut.