Skeletons

Chapter 14

"Dad, what are you doing here?" I say buckling the seatbelt to his old car. "Came to pick you up kid," he replies, starting the car back up. The sound is a loud humming, almost a roar like the car has a mind of its own.

"Does Mom know?" I croak out slowly still taken aback by seeing him as if he were some celebrity. "Oh yeah sure she does," he replies his voice is tinged with insincerity which I choose to ignore. "Where are we going?" I say trying to act nonchalant "Well I thought we could go to 7/11...get a slushie." he replies "Yeah sounds good, I haven't had one in a while." he nods "Then we could go to my place. It isn't too far from here and you'll be able to see your room." I get excited at the mention of my room, maybe he convinced Mom to let me stay over every once in a while.

"My room?" I question him "Oh sure your room why?" he smirks at me "I just didn't know I had one." my voice cracks a little because of my excitement (or puberty but mostly excitement) the car grows quiet but my mind is anything but. How could he convince her to let me go to his house after school unsupervised, let alone live with him? I mean sure they had been cordial with each other but the past week she had danced around the subject of him with such skill you would have thought she was a professional at it.

"How the hell did you convince her to let me go to your house?" the words gush out of my mouth before I have time to censor the mild vulgarity. "Heh I am very convincing" he replies, his eyes fixed on the road.

We pull into the 7/11 parking lot and walk into the store. Like usually I am hit with that sickeningly sweet aroma that holds me tight in its grasp pulling me towards the slushie machine as if I am a sailor and the slurpee machine is a siren completely taking over my thoughts, god I missed these.

"Ya' liked cherry and blue raspberry swirled together right?" he says as we make a stop at the machine. "Yep" I reply watching him fill the slushie for me leaving no room for air at the top. He hands it to me and proceeds to fill up his own; Blue Raspberry. He walks over to the checkout the second his slushie is full. I quickly swallow the sip I was already drinking and follow behind him. He pays and we walk back to the car.

The drive back was quite mostly due to the fact we were drinking our slushies, my father also smoking a cigarette in between sips, not paying enough attention to the road as he probably should be. The radio is quietly playing until a song comes on that grabs my Dad's attention. It goes 'teenage suicide don't do it' the lyrics catch me off guard so when I see my father slightly chuckle and move his empty hand to the dials for volume and power on the headboard I assume he was going to change the station or turn it off completely because I mean what kind of song is that? But no he turns it up so it's blasting through the speakers.

"Odd song choice isn't it?" I say "Oh kid you don't even know..back when I was a little older than you this song was all the rage, the whole suicide epidemic made this band Big Fun release this, had the teenyboppers going wild for a good few months back in 89'." he sighs and shakes his head. "This was me and your Mom's song" he slightly smirks to himself "Good times...good times" he mutters under his breath. "Suicide epidemic?" I let my curiosity take hold of my better judgment. "Oh yeah definitely there were a few at Westerberg" he replies a sudden smile spreading across his face; something you wouldn't expect when discussing suicides of people who he was probably close to. "Oh that's awful" I say feeling bad for even bringing it up. "Eh Heather Chandler was a bitch Kurt Kelly and Ram Sweeney were a bunch of dopes with nothing to give to the world besides eh" he pauses "date rapes and aids jokes" he shakes his head and laughs.

The rest of the car ride is quite besides from my father humming along and tapping his fingers on the steering wheel to the beat of the song. I stay silent, mortified over the fact I even asked such an idiotic question.