Two years before…
Leigh and my dad sat across from me, looking excited. They said they were going to share some “big news” with me. I figured Leigh was pregnant. She and Dad had been spending a lot of late nights together, and it wouldn’t surprise me.
It was great to see Dad so happy again. He still wasn’t the same as he was before Mom died, but he was happier. He now got out of bed on his own and I didn’t have to remind him to do things five or six times before he actually did them. Everything was going better.
I remember the day I talked him into joining the dating website. He kept saying he didn’t need someone else in his life, that he was fine on his own. And maybe eventually he would have been fine on his own, but I couldn’t take his depression anymore. I couldn’t take being the one to take care of everything.
He didn’t meet Leigh right away, it took months of first dates, but then one night he came home and he didn’t have the tired look he usually wore. He looked hopeful. And then the first date turned into a second and then late night phone calls, then weekly movie dates, then lunch dates, and then a year later they were where they are now.
I like Leigh. She was kind and everything my dad needed in a person right now. She knew he was depressed, yet she made him a better person. She wasn’t trying to be everything for him and me, she was everything we needed. Someone to help out and fill in the little gaps that Dad and I forgot about.
She never tried to pretend like she was my mom or pretend to be a wife to my dad. She seemed more like the “cool aunt” when she was around me. And I liked that. She made my dad happy and that made me happy.
“So we have some exciting news…” my dad began, his hand squeezing Leigh’s.
“I know!” I said rolling my eyes playfully. “Just tell me what it is!”
“Leigh’s moving in!” my dad said. His face was frozen with the hopeful look. Leigh looked at me, concerned. She looked doubtful, like she was expecting a bad reaction.
I smiled, surprised. “Really?”
“Only if that’s okay with you,” Leigh cut in quickly. “We don’t want to force you into something you’re not ready for. It’s just an idea…”
My smile broadened. “I’d love that.”
Leigh’s face lit up and so did my dad’s. It was the happiest I had seen him since before my mom was diagnosed. It was like the life he had lost when my mom died, was now being slowly restored—no – it was being remade.
***
Three weeks later, Leigh was moved in and everything was going good. The house was cleaner, the food was better, and my dad was happier. He didn’t have that haunted look he did every morning, anymore. Even after meeting Leigh he had it.
Leigh didn’t try changing the routines my dad and I had. She didn’t try changing anything. She went along with whatever we did. She didn’t try to talk me into cutting my hair, or redecorating my room. She encouraged my dad to put up more pictures of my mom around the house. She asked to see photo albums of my childhood. She was accepting it all, and I couldn’t have asked for anything better.
At home everything was as good as it could possibly ever be, all things considered. At school though… well things weren’t going the ways I wanted them too all the time.
I was passing all my classes, and everything was going smoothly, yet things were missing for me. While my home life improved, no one seemed to notice how drastic it was. When I told Karen about it she merely laughed and said: “I think you’re exaggerating, O. You’ve always been so put together and strong. I can’t believe how strong you were when your mom died. I mean, it’s great for your dad, but for you, are you sure it’s better?”
“Of course!” I told her. “Are you crazy? My dad was so depressed. Then Leigh comes around and makes everything better. She’s like a miracle worker or something.”
“Okay, O,” she said. “Just remember, you aren’t the center of your dad’s world anymore.”
I haven’t been for a long time, I thought. And just like that, the dreadful feeling was edging back through my body.
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Still on a semi-hiatus guys, but I thought I would update since I felt like it and have a bit of down time right now :) Hope you liked the chapter! Remember to vote and comment, we are so close to getting all bolds on the comments and votes. Thanks for your support and see you next chapter <3
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Falling Colors
Teen Fiction"The unfixable; the shattered; the torn; the broken. They all come here. It's my job to remake them, because once its broken there is no going back to the way it was. It must be remade." Six individuals. Six unique stories. Five exercises. One...
