Without Chance

Chapter Three: Secret Mission

I thought about him all weekend as I sat around playing video games. Saturday was okay, since my dad worked all day, but Sunday seemed to drag. He seemed to want to do something together, but he didn't seem willing to bring it up, so he didn't say anything. Neither did I. Two guys, living in the same house, sitting in the same room for fourteen hours, neither saying anything. Awkward. I'd love to say that was unusual, but welcome to my Sundays.

I wished he and I had some common ground, but we liked literally none of the same things. The only thing we had any common interest in was baseball. Only he loved to watch it, and I loved to play it. I couldn't stand watching someone else play. What was the point? He liked to do jigsaw puzzles and I liked first-person shooters. He liked going to the park for a jog, I liked watching horror movies. We had nothing.

I was excited for Monday morning, and was up before my dad came to wake me, a fact which really surprised him. I was already mostly dressed when he opened my bedroom door.

I finished pulling on my shirt and almost laughed at the expression on his face. I'm usually sprawled out across the entire bed, blankets doing their best to tie me into knots when he came in each morning to wake me for school. He used to tease me about it. Not for a long time though.

"Already up, I see," he said, trying to mask his surprise. "That's great! I have breakfast ready when you're up for it." I nodded.

"Thanks."

Breakfast in silence, the drive to school in silence. Already this was getting tedious. I decided to throw him a bone when he dropped me off, just to shake things up. Just before I climbed out of the car, I looked over at him.

"See ya later," I told him. He actually smiled, again with a hint of surprise on his face.

"Three o'clock on the dot," he replied. I gave him a small smile back, and closed the door. There. That ought to make his day.

"Ryan!" I looked up to find Chance sitting on the low stone wall that ran along the front of the school, separating the walkway from the flowerbeds. I grinned at him.

"Hey!" I replied, heading over and sitting beside him. "What's up?"

"That your dad?" he asked, gesturing in the general direction of my dad's sedan.

"Yeah, that's him." Chance nodded at my reply. I looked over at my dad, who was leaning over to look at me through the side window. His smile had disappeared. I couldn't quite pinpoint his expression before he sat back and drove off, but it wasn't a happy one. Weird.

"You guys aren't very close, huh?" he asked. I looked over at him, confused.

"What do you mean?" I asked, not sure whether I should be offended or not. He shrugged.

"You guys weren't talking when you pulled up. Then you turned, said one thing to him, and he looked surprised. I pay attention."

"Yeah, we don't talk much," I replied.

"I don't with my dad either," he said to my own surprise.

"You guys aren't close either?" I asked, genuinely curious to finally get something personal out of him.

"No. We had a huge fight a couple of years ago. He won't even come to see me now." Ah, separated parents and a father that wouldn't even visit his son. That explained a few things.

"That sucks, man," I said with all the eloquence I could muster. "How about your mom?"

"Oh, she talks to me sometimes," he said casually. I could tell this subject was painful for him though. "She's always so sad though. Sometimes it's hard to listen to it. She used to be so happy." Boy, that sounded familiar.