The Road Trip.

The Road Trip: Chapter Ten

"How long have I been asleep, lil' rielle?" 

The hoarse voice made me jump. I turned my head suspiciously when I realised it was only my father. No wonder he called me "lil' rielle". Nobody would ever call me that, definitely not a kidnapper. 

"Well um... Since last night til' now," I replied, before glancing at the clock and realizing that it was already five-thirty. Since when did time pass so fast? I remembered I had to fix dinner tonight and I still haven't got any ingredients. While I was still deep in thought, my dad had already made his way to the sofa and settled down beside me. "Arielle, I'm sorry, but I have to talk to you," He announced. 

Oh, God.

It was definitely something serious, because he never calls me by my name if it were not for something important. I stopped eating my vanilla sandwiches and cringed my neck to listen to what he was about to say. Whatever it was, I knew it was a must for me to memorize everything he was about to relay to my ears. He got my cue and started on his long speech filled with a dozen of apologies. I swear, he have been apologizing non-stop since just now.

"Arielle, I know this is unfair to you but I'm really sorry for all this. I know you haven't been feelin' good about this and this was affecting you badly. Listen, Arielle, I'm sorry. This was between your mum and me, it didn't have anything to do with you. I'm going to go back to work on Monday, and I might not be able to spend this summer with you. I really regret that and I'm terribly sorry. Hope you're alright with that?"

He yawned sheepishly and looked as though he was going to continue with another long speech. Before he could start on another story of blaming himself, I leant in and threw my hands over his neck and gave him a bear hug.  He looked taken aback for awhile, but quickly wrapped his arms around me and whispered, "I love you, lil' rielle." "No prob, dad. I know you haven't been taking it easy either. It was selfish of me to think that you didn't care. Well, I'm sorry, dad," I whispered back before shouting into his ears, "Dad I love you," Then, I kissed him on his cheeks and we stayed that way for a moment.

Great.

At least I wasn't alone. I didn't mind if my dad isn't going to be free for me during summer, I was just glad that we reconcilled. "Oh, by the way, you don't have to worry about me being alone for summer. I... err.... I.... I'm totally fine with being home alone. Besides, we can spend dinner time together. I'd fix the meals," I finished up, winking at my dad and tried to act perfectly fine with the drastic change in my life. I still felt trapped even though I wasn't starving nor money deprived. However, I still can't help but feel distopia. I wanted to scream out loud.