OCTAVIA WRIGHT
My father drove at an uncomfortably slow pace, with an uncomfortably, annoying smile lighting up his face. He looked so content and proud of himself, knowing he was ripping me away from the only world I knew. My world in the city. Instead of using the anger overflowing inside of me to wipe his smile away myself, I decided to attempt to calm down by focusing my attention on the flourishing greens and yellows along each side of the twisting concrete road. The bright colors of the trees blurred together until each approaching stop sign jolted our car to a firm halt. After a few seconds had passed, dad was on a roll again, humming along to his choice of radio.
As we drove farther into the island that I would soon have to call home, I noticed gigantic, white and brick houses began to appear through the trees. They looked clean and brand new underneath the thick ivy patches that grew along the sides and front of varying homes. Almost every house they passed was adorned with a rounded driveway, large windows and balconies atop a even bigger porch. I found myself mesmerized and focused less on the reason for our move and more towards where we were headed.
"Keep your eyes peeled, ours is coming up!" My dad spoke up over the Rolling Stones that played softly behind his voice, aiding our painfully silent car ride.I watched him turn to face me with the same hopeful smile, but I couldn't bring myself to show any affection back. I just missed his eye contact as I turned to focus on the turn he started to make. I held in a long long breath, then forgot to set it free as we pulled into the long curved driveway. The house in front of us was nowhere as gigantic as the two to either side of it, but it was definitely much better than what had felt like a large apartment in the city.
Stepping out of the parked car felt almost painful as I stretched my sore legs. I held onto the open door frame and looked up towards the new place. It was definitely too big for the both of us. I knew my I would be just fine with the distance between my father and I in the house, but his freshly divorced self was going to be looking for any excuse to spend more time with me.
Unfortunately.
"Grab a bag, you know what to do." He winked as he already walked past me, two suitcases in hand. I rolled my eyes to his back and rolled the old gym sweats that I had lounged in all car ride to sit on my hips, below the curve of my waist. The sweat on the back of my neck, underneath my natural hair had already began to form. The difference between the cars air conditioning and the cruel summer heat of North Carolina was a drastic raise in temperature. I wiped it and then grabbed one of my suitcases and bags. The dust that ran up my suitcases wheels and onto the back of my old black converse began to leave a thin layer as I dragged myself up to the porch. A few men, had already begun yard work. The far left side of the house was being pressure washed, leaving a smooth white surface peeking out and glistening in the sunlight from under its previous layer of grime.
I smiled at a young, shirtless man who was planting flowers, only to receive an uncomfortable wink back. I grimaced once my back was turned and passed my father at the door.
"You have your choice of rooms!" He smiled, trying to take a bag from my hand in an effort to help.
"Thanks" I sarcastically answered, tugging it back to show him I had it.
"And maybe you can try putting something more... mature on? Hopefully it will cover you as well." He pointed to my home cropped t-shirt as I groaned and began to walk away from his chuckle.
"Remember, leave some things up to the imagination!" His voice called, sounding farther away than before as we both began to walk in opposite directions. I clamped my mouth shut and began the climb up the carpeted, twisted staircase.
