Survival Skills: for Dating || ✓

Survival Skill 2: Thou must call for desperate measures

(R E W R I T T E N)

Survival Skill 2: Thou must know when thou must call for desperate measures

Rex Parker

Earlier that day:

Peeling my eyes open, I saw the blinking LED 11:00 am on my alarm clock. I couldn't help but smirk.

This, my friend, was why I love Saturdays.

I wanted to sleep in later but the growl of my stomach managed to keep me awake. A man's gotta eat, I guess. The sun was already blazing out as I pulled on my shirt. Feels like today's gonna be a good day. I gave myself a quick glance at the mirror and my smirk grew wider.

Yep, I still got it.

Walking downstairs, I was already deliberating which cereal I was going to eat for breakfast this morning. My mom was an excellent cook but like me, she wasn't really a morning person. If people expected her to cook breakfast, they should also expect a burnt house by noon. I chose Captain Crunch as my cereal of choice as I retrieved it from the top shelf. Just as I turned to our kitchen counter, my eyes widened as I spotted Dad reading the newspaper.

Shit. Shouldn't he be at work already?

Mom's wide grin invaded my vision as she stepped in front of me. "Rex, your siblings are going to visit this Christmas season. Isn't that great?" I could practically hear the desperation of wanting this family together in the shrill voice she used.

"Great," I said, trying to portray enthusiasm on my mom's behalf.

Jill, my elder sister, was twenty-four and was currently a successful interior designer. She barely visits anymore due to her career life which was why Mom's excitement was understandable. Petite in height and eldest in age, Jill hadn't changed one bit since high school. She was still the bubbly popular chick everybody wanted to talk to. Mike, my older brother, on the other hand, was the exact opposite of Jill and me. A law student at the University of Illinois and a self-righteous nerd, Mike was never the type to be social in high school. He didn't look the part though. At the height of 6'4 and a massive physical build, Mike looked more of the football player than me. He was just too busy getting into Star Wars movies and Greek Mythology books to see that he had quite a potential in the field.

Last Christmas was the most depressing our family had. Neither Jill nor Mike was able to come and to add to that was Dad and I's constant arguments regarding my future. I couldn't really blame Mom for being excited of this news with the hell she had to experience last time.

"I know," Mom gushed as she led me to the counter, "Jill's even planning to visit here for your Graduation."                

"Awesome," I said half-heartedly as I poured my cereal from a bowl I retrieved at the side.

"And Mike's finally gotten some free time for his family," she said, "College's been beating him up badly."

Before I could respond, the thing I dreaded the most happened. "Speaking of which," Dad interjected, folding his newspaper neatly and tossing it to the side, "Where do you plan to go on college?"

My spoon stop mid-air as my gaze steered towards Dad. He was looking at me in his no nonsense look again and I knew exactly where this was going. "You already know this Dad," I said apprehensively, "A talent scout had already approached me and I was thinking of going to that University because they offered me this football scholar - "

"Football?" Dad repeated as if it was the first time he heard it. We had this conversation hundreds of times already and I hated it each time.

Dad used to be a sport's buff. I got my athletic genes from him and I was the only one who got it in our family because Mike was too busy reading books and Jill couldn't even touch a ball. After the traumatizing memory of seeing his older brother, Uncle Owen get a leg injury during a College basketball playoff. Dad who was seventeen years old at the time, watched as Uncle Owen's career went to a downfall because of a knee injury that managed to ruin his career. Uncle Owen was in and out of rehab because of his drug abuse and depression due to his ruined dream. From then on, Dad decided that a sport's career would never last and it has more chance of ruining someone's life then making it better. He even declined the football scholarship offered to him and decided to go with a boring business degree. It was a tragic story but the thing was, I wasn't Uncle Owen.