My dialogue is pitiful .-.
......
"Hey Man!" James exclaimed as he walked towards his best friend in the crowded high school hallway.
When the two finally met up they fist bumped eachother laughing in rejoice. James and Matt had each gone out of state for summer vacation. It had been really weird for both of them. They had been best friends since infancy and had never been separated from each other for for more than a week, let alone two months of summer vacation.
"How have you been?" Matt asked with a sad smile on his face. Over the summer he had learned that James' parents had decided to split. James was an only child and him and his parents were extremely close. He wasn't the typical teenager that loathed his parents. He aspired to be like his father, the coach of the New York Yankees. He loved and admired his loving mother, that was attending night school to finally follow her dreams of being a pediatrician.
"Dude," James said as he hit Matt a little too hard in the shoulder. "I'm fine." But they could both tell that he wasn't.
"Well, you want to meet up at the baseball park? I really need some practice," Matt said trying lighten up the mood.
"Yeah, I'll see you there at 6."
And with that both boys walked out of school, in opposite ways, towards each other's house.
But, James didn't want to go home. Instead he went to aforementioned baseball park, three hours early. He just couldn't face his parents anymore. He didn't want to feel the ever present awkwardness surrounding the three of them. His parents couldn't even look eachother in the eye. They both put up a happy front for James, but they couldn't hide the giant elephant in the room.
Their mornings were filled with simple hellos. Their dull conversations went something like this:
"Goodmoring."
"Good morning, how'd you sleep?"
"Good good.
" Well good luck out in the field."
"And you at school."
And that was it. It was as if they had never been married for for 25 years and were merely acquaintances. James hated every minute of it.
His parents had never spoken like that to eachother. They always held conversations and talked always. It seemed like they would never get tired of simply talking to each other. And their conversations always ended in I love you. A morning before the split would have gone like this:
"Good morning honey!"
"Good morning love."
"Are you ready for "work"?" My mother would say, air quoting work.
"Yes, I'm ready for "work". My father would say with a smile. "Just because I'm living my dream and working my dream job, doesn't mean I don't work love. Don't worry, soon enough I'll be air quoting "work" for you too."
"Hm.. I don't know. I thinking of switching my career. The medical field just isn't for me."
"Love, you been going to school for four years now. Why would you decide to just quit now? What would you even switch to?"
"Stripping."
"Wh-what?!" Almost spitting out his coffee onto our dining table, my dad would have looked bewildered at my mother.
More than satisfied with her reaction, mother would burst out laughing. In between bellows of laughter she would say I love you and with a loving smile he would say it back. His parents were happy. He was happy. They were happy together, as a family.
Where had it all gone wrong?
