Some People

17/21

The whole day at school I was distracted. I couldn't stop thinking about my Dad, about Mum and Kevin's conversation, but mostly I couldn't stop thinking about Eliza.

"Remember," Mr Stafford's voice rang around the classroom. "Open classrooms this afternoon will be until 6pm, so bring your folks and show them what you've been doing all term,"

Then an idea hit me. Perfect!

Foot jiggling, I glanced towards the clock.

2:56.

2:57.

2:58.

2:59.

When the final bell rang, I all but sprinted to my locker and packed my bag in record speed, and I was knocking on the Rose's door before it ticked onto 3:06.

Stepping up onto the porch, I rapped smartly on the door and took a step back, waiting.

Seconds ticked by.

I knocked on the door again, and took a step back once more.

Still no answer.

Where were they?

I checked my watch. 3:12.

Well. They obviously weren't coming.

A little part of me - a small, unpleasant part of me - lifted a shrivelled hand to it's mouth and whispered in a raspy voice into my ear, what if she-

But I batted it away and began my walk home at a brisk pace.

Mum looked up from the kitchen bench somewhat guiltily as I came in.

From the corridor I took off my blazer and hung it up on the stand. "Hey Mum, do you know where Kev and Eli-"

But then I stopped. I had walked into the kitchen and seen who else was sitting there.

I walked into my house - my house that I had been sharing with Mum since I was six years old - and saw a man. A man casually seated on the kitchen bench, a man who ruined my life to put it simply.

He smiled. "Hey, Arch,"

Hmm. Turning around on my heel, I exited the house. Not today, Satan.

If only. In reality, I stood in the kitchen, mouth open as I gawked at my father.

He scratched his head. "S'been a while, hasn't it?"

Sure. I'd call ten years while you were meant to rot in prison 'a while'.

Dad swallowed, his Adam's apple bobbing. His dark eyes awkwardly glanced at Mum then back to me, not knowing what he was meant to say.

Here's a few ideas to get you started, Dad: "Sorry for murdering your best friend's mother". "Sorry for leaving you and your mentally unstable mother to fend for yourselves". "Sorry for murdering those toddlers as well". Need I go on?

"How have you been, Arch?" His deep voice was the same as I remembered it from all those years ago. He still called me that stupid nickname that he always had, as if nothing had changed. He still had that same scar just on his left jaw, the same thick neck that I used to wrap my chubby arms around and he'd swing me around as we'd both laugh and-

No.

That Dad was gone.

I didn't have a Dad.

I looked back at Mum. "As I was saying. Do you know where Kevin and Eliza are? They weren't at their house when I knocked,"

Dad... Austin looked down with an... ashamed look on his face? I don't know, I was probably imagining it.