Choose Me

Acquaintances

The worst part of visiting Aunt Helen is the long plane ride and the fact I'll be working in that boring coffee house. How it hasn't closed down, i still don't have an answer. Yet, a part of me never wants it to. I stop thinking about it before i start crying.

"Christina! Apúrate, desayuno esta listo, your father didn't give you any money for plane food so drink up!" I don't get why the whole speaking Spanish world has to yell across the house, or maybe it's just my mother ... and her side of the familia. 

My dad left my mother about 3 years ago and ever since she's on this health kick to try and make him realize what he's missing, even though he still comes over and they have angry divorce sex ... I'm just down the hall. I stuff my last pair of pants into my third luggage and come face to face with the smelly green smoothie my mother has prepared for me. I'm all for her trying to prove a point but don't drag me into this juice everything crap. "Dios mio, esto huele a vómito de bebé." I mumble as she stuffs another carrot in the juicer.

"What honey?" Her face lights up, to avoid the cold shoulder the rest of the time i'm here i put on a smile and tell her it smells delicious and she informs me it's the sweet corn she decided to add.

She stares, waiting for me to take the first sip and i hold it in my mouth for as long as i can. Most of the corn didn't get through the blending stage properly and just became chunks mixed with every vegetable known to man. I feel my gag reflex punch me in the throat for attempting to swallow and it comes rushing out into the garbage. The aftertaste is like what i would imagine floor cleaner would taste like. 

"Oh, come on. You are over reacting." She takes a sip and her face pales. It takes her time to swallow and i raise an eyebrow. "McDonald's on the way, my treat?" I roll my eyes and head for the stares. I think I'll brush my teeth again ... and again. Before i close my door my mother yells, yet again, to get the door. That's dad.

As he walks in they share awkward looks then remember they did have a child. "Ready, sweetheart?" I wish i wasn't but i am. The whole summer abroad to a house completely sealed from humanity, an hour drive, or so it feels like, through dirt and pollen just to get to work in the smallest and quite awkward coffee house. At least my cousin Elise has a house in the city. To most, that may seem like the perfect vacation and i may come off as a spoiled brat who should be happy she even gets to go there but don't be fooled by the word vacation, it is nothing but.

"Maybe i can ask Grace if i can join you in New York? You don't make her do much." Grace is my dad's PA and i absolutely love her. She laughs with me and make inside jokes about mom and dad's secret affair. Come to think of it she's about the only close friend i have. She's the older sister i never got. But to her I'm the boss's daughter, she already has two older sisters and three younger.

"Funny, Aunt Helen loves spending time with you and you always come back with such nice school clothes. In New York it's hot and humid, smells like air pollution and oh the people, so many people. You'd hate it there." Translation I don't want you to go because i never really go to New York, i just stay here and bang mom till we start arguing again and tell you a fake story about New York. It's fine dad, i get it. Can't get anything on the market so you come back to the same store and ask for the regular. "This time, why don't you try and make friends." Why, so i can leave them three months later?

"Yeah, no."

"I promised Christina breakfast on the way. There's something wrong with my juicer." Or maybe it's the crap you put in it mother. Dad and i look at each other as if we were thinking the same thing and we head to the airport. I don't even get to finish the fake breakfast meal from Mickey D's and before i know it, I'm carrying my own luggage to check point. I hear screaming and the ground shakes as running girls pass by. I wonder if it's Ariana Grande again. I'd like to get more than a three second glance at her this time.