Ruby placed first again in the last track meet of the year, and yet again Mother failed to show up. Father was more forgivable since he had work. There were no more waffles each morning, and plenty of silver-packaged Pop tarts.
"What were you doing last night?" Ruby asked Mother.
"Cooking your dinner, cleaning our house while you stayed out late again."
"If by staying out late you mean the final track meet, then your absolutely right." Ruby tried to dig at Mother with a venomous tone .
Mother's eyes widened slightly, "Shoot. Was that last night?"
Ruby found no need to answer that. If she were the parent, she wouldn't have said shoot. She would have said shit. She would have actually felt guilty and would apologize profusely. But then again, she wouldn't have forgotten or 'forgotten' in the firstplace.
"I'm sorry."
"Sure. Whatever." She bit at her tongue, then gave up on surpessing. "You're so horrible." She added silently, to say the least.
"It might do you well to learn to hold your tongue."
"Come off it, it's not like I said anything so bad. I do censor myself in your royal presence."
"Ruby!"
"And it might do you well to care or atleast show up once in a while." She flattened her tone, biting with her disconnect.
Mother's eyes flashed, not because of this argument, but because of this one and the one before, and all the ones before... and maybe, Ruby thought, the divorce. "The way you talk, you're just a dilemma waiting to happen!"
"Really? I'm a dilemma waiting to happen? I don't think so." Ruby's cheeks were the colour of her name. "I'm not waiting to happen anymore. I'm happening right now."
YOU ARE READING
Dilemma McNair
Teen FictionRuby "Dilemma" McNair is remarkable. She doesn't excel in school or in any of the ways that her parents dream of, but she is, however, skilled at some things. Like causing trouble, making commitments, track and field and listening to strangers' advi...
