Dear August

|Twenty-Two|

"Bye!" I wave at Luca from outside the door of my apartment as he drives away. He waves back and smiles wide. I open my door to see my mom sitting on the couch waiting for me.

"Hi sweet heart," she turns and smiles at me. "You have a good time?"

I nod my head and set my bag down on the kitchen table.

"Yup, fell on my ass on those skates about thirty times."

She smiles. "Well I'm glad you're home on time. I actually need to talk to you about something."

I take the carton of orange juice out of the fridge and go to drink it but then she eyes me. I sigh and roll my eyes and grab a glass from the cabinet.

"What's up?"

She sighs. Uh-oh. Sighing isn't a good sign when my mom needs to talk to me about something.

"So I had a phone call while you were gone," she gets up from the couch and stands in front of me, crossing her arms and leaning against the counter.

"With who?" I take a drink of my orange juice.

She sighs once more and pinches the bridge of her nose with her thumb and forefinger.

Fudge.

"Your father called me. He wants to come out here and visit you."

Double fudge.

I stay still and silent, staring at the dark hardwood floor beneath me. My hands begin to shake, the liquid inside the glass sloshing around. I set the glass down more harsh than I meant to and attempt to wipe the sweat off my hands.

"Why?" I ask, my voice shaky as well.

"He just wants to visit with you. He misses you."

"I don't care. He doesn't care about anything why should I?"

"He's your dad, Riley."

"I don't care. He was August's dad too and he didn't care about her. I'm not seeing him. I don't care if he travels twelve hours out here I refuse to see him," I say. I quickly walk to my room and shut the door.

Sighing, I plop myself down onto my bed.

Of course the night I tell someone about my dad he calls and wants to see me. Is he like an evil witch or something and knows when people are talking about him?

My attention turns to my picture board, where photos of my mom and I, friends and my sister were hung up. And one small photo of my dad.

A tiny, picture, of him when he was in his teens, standing in front of his first car. I'm not even sure what possessed me to hang it up. Maybe because it's from a time before he hurt all these people.

I glare at the picture and stick my tongue out at him.

Why did August have to look so much like him? Same freckles dotting across their noses and cheeks, same honey colored hair, similar smiles and noses. Only thing thats different was the fact that she had moms blue eyes and I have dads brown ones. Funny how genetics work.

I grab my phone from my back pocket and dial August's number. August my sister that is.

I know she's not gonna pick up, and nothing in me is telling me she might. But I'm doing what they do in movies when a son or daughter dies and the parents call just to hear their voice again.

The line rings a few times and then I'm met with the robot lady's voice. I lay my head down on my pillow and curl my knees up to my chest as I put the phone on speaker.

Hey it's August. Sorry I missed your call, you can leave a message if you want but odds are I probably won't listen to it. But hey! At least I know you called. Okay. Bye.

The high pitched beep sounds and I stay silent for a little. I don't know why but I feel like I should say something.

I take a deep breath in.

"Hey... August. It's Riley," I say softly. "Um, I know you'll never hear this. I mean who knows maybe your ghost is here and you're listening to me say this right now. You always threatened to come back and haunt me as a poltergeist or something whenever I made you angry. Anyways, just calling to hear your voice one more time," I trail off and stare at the picture of dad. "I'll probably be calling again sometime soon. Okay, I love you... bye."

I press the end button and toss my phone to the door of the bed. Why was that less awkward than an actual voice mail I would have to leave? Maybe cause I know no ones actually gonna listen to it.
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Hiii
Sorry for the very short filler chapter, but I wanted to post something today.

Happy New Years by the way! Hope you guys have an amazing year, and you're thriving as a person!

Don't forget to comment and vote! Ily 🥰❤️