What's My Place in All This?

Chapter 2

When I get home the first thing I do is run up to my room, setting my bag down on the floor and closing the door behind me. Footsteps go up the stairs. No ones supposed to be home yet. My door opens. It's my dad.

"Hey bud." My dad sits on my bed.

"You know you're not supposed to slam doors in this house." He says. Great. I haven't even been home for 2 minutes and he's already scolding me on stuff.

When I don't answer, he lets it drop.

"Everything okay?" He asks. That's a first. My dad actually caring about me and my feelings. It won't last for long. So I'm not gonna tell him much.

"Yeah. Everything's great." I don't make eye contact with him.

"What time is Zack coming over?" He asks. Funny.

"He's not." I answer. Zack and I got into a fight during lunch. He wanted to throw milk at Kenny and I stopped him. Throwing milk at someone who's lactose intolerant isn't funny. Getting his close soaked in milk for the rest of the day? Zack thought it would be the funniest thing ever. I'd rather throw milk at him instead of Kenny.

"Why not? Did something happen?" My dad asks. He's not really worried. He couldn't care less if I lost or gained friends. Now if I was Sam...He'd wanna know everything. Cause no one hurts his daughter. Although I guess anyone can hurt his son.

"No. Nothing happened. We're just not friends." I leave the room and go down to the living room instead. He follows.

"If you need help making friends there's plenty of people at the dojo that you can hang out with." This makes me madder than I was before. Why ask what happened between us when you can make a comment about your stupid karate dojo?

"I don't wanna learn karate. I don't wanna join the dojo. And I don't wanna talk about it." I grab a bottle of water. I can tell he's about to yell something like 'Don't use that tone!' or 'You're being extremely disrespectful!' But he holds back.

He sighs loudly, making sure I know he's disappointed.

"I'm going back to the dojo to set up for today's lesson." He grabs his keys. I go up to my room.

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Dad and Sam are gone for the rest of the night and my mom is watching Tv downstairs. I lay in my bed staring up at the ceiling. My phone is blowing up with notifications. But I don't care. I already know what they're all about. Now that I quit being friends with Zack, he's gonna find a way to make my life horrible. The notifications don't stop, but I start ignoring them as I turn to my side, slowly falling asleep.

Doors opening and footsteps in the house wake me. I force myself to sit up and check my phone. Just as I thought. Zack posting embarrassing pictures and videos of me. I take a deep breath and delete instagram. Just for now. Everyone is home, but 0 out of 3 people check on me. It doesn't matter. I don't wanna be around them either. I fall back onto the bed and in 5 minutes, I'm asleep.

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The next day isn't any better. I'm alone for the entire time until lunch, when Zack comes up and sits next to me.

"Hey. Yesterday was stupid. Let's forget about it." He says. I look at him.

"Come on LaRusso. I already deleted everything I posted. I miss you man." It's not a sincere apology. I know that. He just wants me to do all his dirty work for him again. But as much as I know I shouldn't be friends with him, I accept his apology.

I'm addicted to Zack. The way he makes me feel so special. Unlike my family. The way I can tell him about anything. At the moment he's all caring, on my side, totally going along with me. Until we get into a fight. Then he uses everything I tell him against me. And I stop being friends with him. Then he apologizes, I go back to him, and It's all over again.

I disgust myself.