Escape From Reality

The Reality

"Bye Jacob." Chloe whispers before she gets out, the car door slamming shut behind her. I barely register it, too deep in thought and processing about the information I learned today. I vaguely feel the car start to move a couple of moments afterwards.

I stared out of the car window, watching the streets as my dad drove further down to my house. I watch as Chloe slowly wheeled the bicycle into the house, and I think about what she's going to do once she gets home.The events of the day are still reeling in my head like a cassette tape, fast and dizzying.

Suffice to say that trip to my dad's house had left us all dumbfounded. I think me and Chloe didn't expect the answers we received, and I was also still processing the fact my mum and dad had broken up because my dad had cheated on her.

I had always thought my parents divorce was just a simple case of falling out of love. viewed it as a thing that just simply happened, something I had to deal with, something that wrecked my life in so many ways. Sure I hated how it looked like they couldn't be in the same room without my mum crying afterwards or how when the divorce first happened, I detested the pitying looks people gave me whenever they walked past me.

But I never thought in a million years my dad, my sweet lovable dad, had purposefully broken my mother's heart.

"Don't drop me off too close. Mum doesn't know I'm with you." I tell my dad as soon as the house comes into view.

Dad slowly pulls the car to a stop and I get ready to leave before a question suddenly floats up in my mind, and I ask because I need to know.

"Does mum know?" I ask, barely above a whisper.

"About the dreams? No. But I think part of her knew there was someone else."

"I don't want to stop them." I mumbled, thinking back to all the times I spent inside that magical world. While my imagination provided a getaway, the dreams brought about a complete escape, I was there truly, I could physically feel the wonder and awe of it, and it was the most fantastical thing I had ever felt in my life. I remember the pure feeling of bliss as I ride through the air on my dragon and part of me doesn't want to give that up.

It was the happiest I felt since the divorce.

"I know but you have to. There isn't a choice about it. Promise me Jacob." My dad stresses and I promise him because I know he won't let me leave until I do.

My dad's car speeds away immediately after I get out, probably not wanting to get caught by mum, and I wheel my bike down the street, feeling the rain slowly pelt me.

My mum is home while I enter, and she gives me a smile, the corners of her eyes lighting up.

"Did you have a good time honey?" She asks.

"Yeah. Me and Chloe rode around the park until it started raining. Then we hung out in that small cafe near the school until they kicked us out." I shrugged nonchalantly, my cover story already planned in my head since the morning.

"That's lovely. Oh I'm so glad you made a friend." She makes her way from the kitchen where pasta is boiling on the stove, and wraps her arms around me. I allow her to do so for a few moments, before pulling away.

"How about you mum?" I ask.

"Same as usual for a waitress. Some customer spilled orange juice all over the floor of the diner and nearly caused a terrible accident with an old man." I chuckled at his mum's story before I looked up and saw the weary expression on her face.

It's because dad fell in love with someone else, I think sullenly before mum hurried back to the stove where water was starting to bubble over. It's because of my dad's infidelity that mum has to work odd jobs just to make ends meet. My mum never complains in front of me, but she holds a sort of sad look in her eyes, and now that I know more, I realise with a start that mum probably still had feelings for dad. I had always dismissed the glances she gives even when she tries hard not to look at dad, thinking it was something else. My dad is the reason why our life is such a mess. A bit of resentment grows in my heart as I watch my mum brush her hair out of her face.