"Tao!" Tao's mom yelled, "Dinner's ready!" Tao put down his pen and steadily made his way to the dining room. "How was school?" She asked. Tao shrugged and started to eat his orange chicken. "See anyone you remember?" He seemed to have not paid attention.
After dinner he went upstairs to continue his homework. Below him, he heard his parents talking, but he could only hear mumbles, he walked to the edge of stairs and sat there to listen to them.
"Is he doing okay?"
"He's fine, he's just a little overwhelmed."
"A little? He wouldn't speak all of dinner!"
"Do you want to talk to him?"
"I tried during dinner to talk to him, like you helped me, not, you shoul-"
"I mean not over food," he tried to calm her down. Tao walked down stairs and said to them, "Why did we move?"
"Your father got a new job here," his mother said.
"He had a job in China."
"This one's better sweetie."
"For money? Or for us?"
"Both, why is it one or the othe-"
"Because I left all my friends behind, and have none here."
"What about that friend of yours from 5th grade?"
"Madi..."
"Well, does she go there?"
"You don't remember do you.."
"Huh?"
"I used to like her, and then when I asked her, she said no. It ruined our friendship."
"But you've made up, right?"
"NO BECAUSE WE MOVED!" He shouted. "I USED TO HAVE FRIENDS, I USED TO HAVE SLEEPOVERS, PARTIES AND THEN WE MOVED!"
His parents looked at him, surprised to see how he had shouted, after being so quiet for so long.
"Before..." He put his hands over his eyes, a tear rolling down his cheek.
"You always said you were fine with the move..."
"No, YOU always assumed I was fine with it, you just ignored me. Why did I come down here in the first place? Oh look,Poor Tao, didn't learn how to express emotion!" He yelled!
Tao got up and stomped out of the room to his bedroom and turned on a light, continued to do his homework with a drop of water in the corner of the paper.
Street lights flickered, and all the lights in the house went off. Tao went to his parents and cried into his mother's shoulder. The lights came on, and his brain went out, falling asleep on the living room couch.
YOU ARE READING
Unwritten | A Novel
Teen FictionTao was devastated when he had to move out of his small town in the United States to China. But his dad lost his job again, so they were on the move. It had been five years since fifth grade, and he was confident about starting 11th grade on a somew...
