To Throw It All Away

Chapter Eight: Twisted

Dad made me pancakes for breakfast the following morning, but I didn't have much of an appetite. I ate about half of one, and then just sat there and sipped orange juice as Dad downed his entire plate. I hadn't slept a wink last night, tossing and turning as I thought about how much my mom and my sister hated me. As if my mood wasn't gloomy enough, it was raining this morning, which only spiraled me into even more of a depression. Dad quickly picked up on my sorrow. He'd always been the best at reading me.

"What is it, Mack?" I sighed as I fiddled with the silverware at my place.

"Mom and Maddie hate me..."

"That's not true."

"It is."

"It's not. They're just a little irritated right now, but they'll get over it. Some time away will be good for all of you."

"I just feel so guilty."

"Your mother has a way of making everyone feel guilty. Don't let her get to you."

The worst part about having divorced parents was that they often pointed fingers at each other, putting the children in the middle. Maddie flat out didn't care, but it bothered me a lot. While she was on good terms with our dad, she didn't yearn for time with him like I did. She was like a miniature version of our mom, and honestly didn't want much to do with him.

"Too late." He got up from the table and picked up my plate, then kissed the top of my head.

"We're going to go do something really fun today, to get your mind off of things. It's your pick. We can do anything you want. Movies, shopping, ice skating, anything." I knew he was trying to make me feel better, but I just wanted to sit around and mope over my terrible life.

"What about homeschool?" He chuckled out loud.

"Who cares? You can do school later. We're going to go have fun. I'm going to go shower and give you some time to think about what you want to do."

For a few minutes, I decided I was going to tell Dad that I appreciated the offer but just wanted to stay home, but as I thought about it more, ice skating did sound rebellious and fun.

The last time I'd been ice skating was when we were on the show. It was hard to enjoy myself back then because Maddie was being all freaky and paranoid about getting hurt, which made my mom all freaky and paranoid too. Today they weren't here though. It was just me and Dad, and we were going to have a blast.

Something my dad had never told me was that he used to ice skate a lot back in the day. In college, he and his friends would always take girls on dates to the ice skating rink so they could hold their hands. He was actually pretty good. Considering I hadn't done it in several years, I did okay too. I wiped out about six times, but after skating for a while, I got the hang of it.

When it was time to go, I decided to take one more lap around the rink. Dad was tired and told me he was just going to watch. I'd seen some kids twirling around on the ice, and I figured it couldn't be that hard. I could do turns in dance, so what made ice skating any different? I attempted to do a spin I'd seen this younger girl do, but next thing I knew, my face was in the ice and I was screaming in pain and clinching my left ankle that I'd twisted.