Struggles of a Single Father (Book 1 of the Struggle Puff Series)

Chapter 30

Edited – 03/13/2020

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August – fourteen-years-old

"You guys ready for your first day of school tomorrow?" I asked as I stared at the three teens that sat across from me.

We chose to celebrate their last day of summer break at the café. Keeping it simple, we ordered a few pizzas and sodas, and were now sitting on the couches talking.

"Dad, we're not kids anymore." Tilisia pointed out, "Ain's about to be a junior and Cadence and I are going to be Sophomores."

"You're still kids to me." I grumbled.

Tilisia rolled her eyes and Cadence laughed. Ain on the other hand stayed silent and expressionless.

"Oh, come on." I pressed, "I know for a fact that Ain's excited. He loves school for some odd reason."

He snorted in response and rolled his eyes. "Not really." He muttered.

He was trying to be quiet, but he caught everyone's attention.

"You good, Jackson?" Cadence asked, calling him by his last name like she liked to do.

He shrugged but said nothing causing Amy to groan.

"Ain, please don't start this again." Amy said with a tired sigh.

"No, wait. Please start this." Cadence held her hand up to Amy, "I wanna know what's got you all wound up."

I shook my head at Cadence who intentionally ignored me to avoid my judgmental gaze.

"Of course, you'd want to know what annoys people. Makes your job easier." He muttered bitterly.

"Ain. Chill." Tilisia nudged him with her elbow, "Just tell us what's going on."

"Can we discuss this later? We're trying to have a good time." Amy was glaring at him at this point which had us all even more confused.

"Why? It'll be the same result even if we wait till later. It'll have to come out sooner or later." He spat.

They were having a glaring contest from across the table, making everyone uncomfortable.

It was moments like these that I remembered they were siblings and not parent and child.

"Can someone please explain what's going on?" I finally asked, tired of feeling like a bystander in this silent argument they were having.

Ain leaned back in his seat with his arms crossed, still glaring at Amy.

"Why don't you just tell him, Amy? You're supposed to best friends, right?"

I looked over at Amy, who was no longer glaring, but looking down at her hands.

I looked between them and then at Cadence and Tilisia, who looked just as helpless as I felt.

"I'm guessing I'm the best friend in this situation?" I chuckled awkwardly.

"It's nothing." She tried to say.

Ain barked out a humorless laugh, "Nothing? You're really going to call this nothing?"

Cadence got fed up before the rest of us, "Give her a break. I mean, damn. You're barely giving her space to talk."

His glare was now turned on her, "Why should I give her space when she's basically abandoning me?"

Realizing what he said, I saw him get choked up, but before he could break, he got up and walked out.

"Ain!" Tilisia quickly ran after him, followed by Cadence.

Then it was just me and Amy.

"This definitely wasn't the back to school celebration we were hoping for, huh?" I was trying to make light of the situation but failed miserably.

"Carter, I need to tell you something." Amy whispered out, still not meeting my eyes.

"I assumed as much." I replied with a chuckle, leaning towards her and placing my arm around her shoulders, "Ain said it himself though, I'm your best friend. You can tell me anything."

This time, she looked up at me. Her eyes were wide and full of sorrow.

"I... I got a job offer to run a branch of the Westin hotel."

My eyes widened, "That's great! This is what you wanted from the beginning. I'm so proud of you." I pulled her into a hug, but rather than relief, I felt something else weighing down on us.

I pulled back as I made a connection to her mood and the news she gave.

"Where is it at?"

She looked down before sighing, "It's in Portsmouth, New Hampshire."

"Oh." Was all I could say.

I was conflicted. On one hand, she had been working for this position since before I met her. She went from being a simple party planner to being an integral part of the hotel running. This was her dream. But on the other hand, I didn't want to lose one of my best friends.

"You know, if this is what you want, you should do it."

She slumped forward in her seat and placed her hand in her hair.

"I'm guessing that's not what you wanted to hear."

She shook her head, "It's not that I didn't. Honestly, that's exactly what I wanted you to say."

"Then what's the problem?"

"I want to do it so bad. This is what I've spent over a decade working for, but it feels selfish if I take it." She sat up and turned her body towards me, "I want it and it's important to me, but I also have Ain and he's even more important. The only options I have is to uproot him from Georgia to bring him with me, or he permanently moves back to his parents. And he hates both of those options."

"Who wouldn't?" I joked. She was about to cut me off, but I raised my eyebrow at her, "Let me finish. You're basically saying that he either has to leave his life and friends behind or her has to go live with people that don't really care about his feelings and would revoke his freedom. Let's be real for a second, those options suck."

She groaned loudly before letting it erupt to a scream.

Her chest was heaving after she let out the frustration that had clearly been pent up.

"Feel better now?"

"No!" She yelled, "I have no clue what I'm going to do. I've been waiting for this since I was nineteen, and now that the opportunity is finally here, it feels like everyone wants me to just forget about it."

"I never asked you to forget about it."

"Then what, Carter? What are you trying to ask me?"

"At the moment, I'm asking you to calm down because you're taking your frustration out on the wrong person."

That seemed to get her to chill out because she decided not to reply.

I grabbed her hands and enveloped them in my own, making sure to not break eye contact, I decided to be straight forward.

"I'm really not asking you to do anything. You're in a tough spot. If I were to ask you anything, I would ask for you to be open to an idea I have. It's not super intact yet, but I have a pretty good idea of what we can do."

She nodded, so I let go of her hands and pulled out my phone.

Meet Amy and I back at our place. I have an idea.

I quickly sent it to Tilisia before pulling Amy into a tight hug.

"We'll figure this out." I said gently, "I promise."