It All Started With a Kiss

♡ Prologue-Trailer On Side

"See, it's not so bad here," Eddie, my dad, coaxed, "You'll love it like you used to in no time." I grunted as I stared out the car window. It was seventy-three degrees in Santa Cruz, the sky a light shade of Carolina blue. I inched my head slowly out of the revolting, new BMW car fragrance, and auburn locks of hair whipped wildly at each other through the wind. I caught Dad glancing up at me in the mirror; frankly, he thought I was having a blast with my hair wrangling about my face. I sighed, pulled my head out, grateful for the moment of fresh air, and rolled up the window. I sank back into the leather seat. 

"Come on, Ray. I know you miss it." Dad wiggled his eyebrows at me. 

I didn't respond.

Okay, maybe I was being a little harsh on the dad I have'nt seen since last summer and maybe I did miss this place. 

Dad sighed at the lack of enthusiasm and turned to my brother. "How 'bout you, Tommy?"  

I scoffed at the notion. Tommy bounced up and down in his car seat babbling excitedly like the three year old he was. The whole car tremored like an earthquake. Good thing he had the seat restraining him; he would have flown through the rooftop by now. God bless the polar opposite of me.  Dad smiled. At least he had one good child to be proud of. 

Mom thought it would be a great idea if we could fly to California and spend some quality time with Dad for the entire summer. One week wouldn't do it for her, it had to be two friggin' months.  Well, that was her excuse; actually, it was mandated by the judge after they got divorced two years ago. 

I recalled the times when Eddie and Johann were happy. I sighed at the thought. 

Reminiscence caught me on days like this. Dad would come home from a long day of work at the lab, plaster a big kiss on Mom's left cheek, and spin me around until I burst into a fit of giggles. But when I turned fourteen, everything seemed off. The kisses stopped for a while. The giggling ceased, and the house was eerily silent until the screaming started. Then the arguing. Then the shattering of precious glasses like rain against the wall. And soon they couldn't have a decent conversation without wanting to rip off the other's head.

I spent countless nights thinking that I could somehow mend the relationship that had broken into distant pieces, but in the end they'd always end up in a tumult of hearwrenching emotions. That's when I gave up; they finally decided they were'nt right for each other. A year after Tommy was born, they got divorced and Mom dragged the three of us eastward to New York. I guess she wanted to make a point of being as far away from him as possible. I wouldn't be surprised if she left the country; my mom loved making a point. 

But, I had to admit, Santa Cruz was one of the prettiest cities on the planet, in my eyes at least. The long, stretched out beaches, the green shrubbery, the patient drivers, the spacious feel to it... It was all coming back to me in series of...surprisingly relief.  It was something New York lacked. Back in New York, we lived in a row of attached houses buried in the midst of commotion and car honking. To top it off, I could even hear little girls whining to their mommy through the slim walls. 

"Daddy, look! We're here!" Tommy shrieked out as he pointed at the famillar white house sitting on the rocky cliff--the very house I grew up in during the early stages of my childhood. Dad chuckled. 

"Yes, Tommy. We're home. Home Sweet Home."

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Thanks for reading! Happy New Years! :) Sorry. A pretty long prologue huh?

~A

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