Beside You

Damn You Australia.

"Your mom and I-uh...it's over between us, Kathleen. We've been fighting a lot, these past couple of months, and it has just never worked out between us...she's happier moving on with Jack. There's no pretending anymore. It's just you and I, now, I'm so sorry..."

I can hear the hurt in my dad's voice and feel the tears sting my eyes. He pulls me into a hug and I breathe in the strong cologne mom loved on him. The realization--that there will be no more him and her, them and I, us--sprang up a new wave of tears.

"Shit, it's okay, Kath. It's going to be okay."

I look up, "How? Wh-where're we going to stay? Not here...?" Shaking, I try to blot my tears away.

"Australia, My family wants me to come home; I need to go home. I, really, can't live here, where everything reminds me of your moth-"

"WHAT?! IS THIS A JOKE?! AFTER LOSING MOM, YOU WANT ME TO LOSE MY FRIENDS, TOO?! LITERALLY-ALL I HAVE LEFT AND YOU JUST WANT ME TO LEAVE THEM?!" My eyes drain themselves of all the tears I had held back.

"Kath, calm down. It's not that easy. I ca-"

"YOU'RE A SELFISH DICK, JUST LIKE MOM!" My dad flinches at the sting of my words. Suddenly, guilt, anger and confusion were boiling inside of me. I ran upstairs before I could say any more stupid things.

I stumbled to my bed. The room spinning, I escape to my pillow and release the anxiety built up, confused about what my dad had just told me. My family is broken and...Australia? It's on the other side of the world! What am I supposed to do there?! All I know is Paris, my home; the place I've grown up, the place I have my best friends and have-well, had my family, the place I love...What the hell am I supposed to do in a different country that's foreign to me in every way?!

"AAAHGH! DAMN YOU, AUSTRALIA"