The Seaside Café

Chapter 8- Does My Presence Make You Uncomfortable?

Chapter 8- Does My Presence Make You Uncomfortable?

Jace's Point of View

“Jace, how’s your senior year going?” Alec asks me as he, my mom and I all sit at her dinner table Friday night.

“Ah, yeah, okay, I guess,” I shrug, silently cursing my father or extending his trip until Sunday.

“Yeah? Well, that’s great,” Alec replies, noisily sipping on his red wine.

“Yep,” I vaguely agree, stabbing my pasta with my dulled fork. My mom is super weird and doesn’t let me eat with what she called ‘sharp and dangerous’ silverware when I’m at her house. I know, it’s really, really stupid, but yeah.

I’m not exactly close to my father, but I really wish that he was back home already. I mean, he left for Seattle something like ten days ago, but he was supposed to be home on Wednesday, one week after he left. He called me really late on Tuesday night though and fed me some bullcrap story. Apparently he wasn’t ready to come back to California after his business trip, so he took a small detour and went to Vegas on Thursday and he’ll be back home on Sunday. It’s not that I miss him or anything- as bad as that sounds, but I really am getting sick of staying here with my mom and Alec. It’s stupid and awkward.

“You know, your mother loves to brag on you. She says that you have a 4.5 GPA?”

“I do,” I boredly confirm, picking up my glass of juice and swish it around. You see, I think my mom thinks that I’m seven years old versus seventeen. I mean, I’m drinking grape juice for crying out loud. That’s one of the many, many, many reasons I made the choice not to live with my mom. Like I said, they divorced when I was only two. The screwed up thing about it though is that from ages two to fourteen, I lived with my mom from January to June and my dad from June to December. When I turned fifteen though, my dad told me that he wanted me to permanently with him and that was around the time my mom started dating a lot, so I agreed with no hesitation. So for the past two years I’ve been living with my dad permanently and visiting my mother every few months or so.

“That’s really good,” Alec proclaims. “I didn’t even go to where you are. I stopped when I was sixteen,” He explains.

“Oh, that’s pretty cool, I guess.” I lie, staring down at my plate.

“You know, because school is only compulsory until you’re sixteen in France.” He adds.

“Mhm, yeah, so I hear.”

“Compulsory means required,” Alec expounds, like I’m stupid or something.

“Yeah, I know what compulsory means.” I assure him with an awkward glance up at him.

“So, Jace, are you dating anyone yet?” My mom asks, interjecting and promptly changing the subject.

“Nope,” I retort, shaking my head and stuffing a piece of the pasta in my mouth. I may hate coming to my mom’s house, but her pasta is pretty good. Also, when I’m at home, dad never cooks so I eat a bunch pizza and takeout.

“Well, are you looking? Or do you not want a girlfriend?” She interrogates. 

“Erm, I mean, I guess I wouldn’t mind a girlfriend,” I admit. “Like, I’m not, you know, desperate for one though.”

“I think it’d be good for you,” My mother informs me. “You’re alone all the time; it’s just not very healthy at all.”

“I’m not alone,” I argue. “Anna’s always at the house and usually so is dad and Heather,” I defend.