"Best Friends"

Chapter Six

Laying on the plush tan carpet of Jonah’s bedroom, I focus on the in-and-out of my breathing. I am too petrified to be home… knowing I cannot handle being there when Mom and Dad are supposed to be coming back from their marriage counseling thing. School had passed in a blur and Jonah lead me up to his room before even giving me a chance to head home. I’d uttered something about Hades, and he hollered at Clark to go check on him.

Clark has been gone a while now and I hear Jonah’s phone ring. “She’s still here,” he comments after a moment. “Oh? Oh. Are you- right. Does he? No, no, that makes sense. Yeah, that’s what I was thinking. No, definitely after that. You want me to? Are you sure, I can hand over the phone. Well, okay. Yeah, bye.”

There is a creak of his computer chair and then he slips his hand undermine. “Hey, sweetie.”

Instantly nauseous I shake my head. “Just tell me.”

He knows me well enough to know that I prefer the blunt delivery than the walk-around. I hear him take a deep breath and he puts his other hand over ours. “You parents came back and your mom’s packing a bag. It took C.J. doing a lot of yelling to get your dad to tell him what’s going on. Apparently, your mom is leaving for her sister’s for… a while. She says she wants a divorce. Your dad told C.J. quote – I don’t care about this bull s**t anymore, the only thing I’m concerned about is Candi – unquote. I offered to put you on the phone with your dad and stuff, but he says he’s going to stop by after your mom leaves. He wants to know if he should bring Hades?”

Already uncontrollably sobbing, just ugly bawling, I try to absorb all the information. I don’t know how long I laid there, crying my eyes out, unable to breath. Gasping and coughing, Jonah moves me to sit, to lean against him. Sobbing into his shirt, I can’t wrap my head around anything anymore.

Finally, no more tears left, chest empty, in a daze, I go limp. “Jonah,” I whisper.

His hand starts moving up and down my back, “Yeah, sweetie?”

“How did everything get so messed up?”

“I used to ask myself the same thing.”

Eyes hard to open from the swelling, I sit up, running my sleeve over my nose. “She died though,” I say without thinking. “She’s gone. My mom is still here and she’s choosing to abandon me.”

Jonah doesn’t say anything, as expected. The silence is deafening, and I lift to go clean up. Looking to Jonah before I close the bathroom door, I hate that he looks as normal as can be. Sitting on the floor, one hand behind him, the other holding his phone, he looks like nothing even happened. Not now, not when his mom died… nothing’s changed. I wish I could do that… just ignore or bottle everything up… just put it on a box, shove that box in my closet, and never have to deal with it again. But no… maybe because I’m a girl, maybe because I’m Bi-Polar, maybe because the situation is completely different, but I all I can do is feel. And feel it at such an extreme amount that it consumes me.

*

“What do you think, C.J.?”

Mister Robinson looks at me helplessly. He is viscously aware of how much he’s been absent in his daughter’s life but now, when it’s the most important, he’s going to be here for her. I’m a little surprised, to be honest, knowing his history, but I’m very pleased he’s making this commitment. “I don’t think you should move. Her routine should stay as close as possible… me and Jonah picking her up in the morning and taking her to school. Her walk across the lawn to get back and forth. It’s going to be hard, for a while… being in the same how where Patricia isn’t. But soon enough she’ll have new memories of her friends over, her with Hades, her with you…. All the new, good memories, will fill the gap left behind.”

He nods slowly, then scratches at the scruff reaching up from his neck across his chin and cheek. “Is that how it was for you? After your mom?”

“Yes, sir. And, honestly, if it hadn’t been for Candice coming over so often – like normal, like clockwork, it would have taken us much longer to cope, I think.”

“I just want what’s best for my daughter.”

I can hear the desperation in his voice, and I nod. “I can see that.”

He rubs his aged face in his hands. “I know how close you are with her; I know how much you care. I don’t know why I feel like I have to explain myself to you but you’re so significant to her. You and Jonah… you guys have always, always been there,” his hands fall to the table, his head shaking. “I knew this was a possibility, that Patricia would leave, so I’ve already switched jobs so that I can be here every night. In no way am I going to request Candice to be here all the time, though sleeping here on school-nights at the very least. But I hope that she does see how much I’m trying and will let me be there for her.”

Agitated now, I exhale slowly, thinking of my words carefully. “With all due respect, I’m not going to be the Candice whisper-er for you. You need to be having these kinds of honest discussions with her.” Shaking my head I lift from the bar stool, “She’s a smart girl, your daughter, and she has an amazing heart. If you would give her a chance – treat her like a person, like the young adult she is? I’m sure you’ll see what I see but also learn how alone she’s felt.”

“C.J.?”

I turn in the middle of the kitchen, “Sir?”

“Your mom would be proud of you.”

A little taken aback, I blink. It is weird to think that he knew Mom his whole relationship with Patricia until her passing. It is weird to think of them as friends…. Did they ever talk one-on-one? Did they ever talk about their hopes and dreams? Were they ever real with each other? Maybe… after all their time, he must have known her enough, anyway.

“Thank you,” and I give him a nod before leaving.