Chapter 29

As soon as he saw her he jumped out of his seat and hugged her. It was a twenty second long hug. I don’t think you hug your friend for an entire of twenty seconds. Something was up. I looked at her. She was beautiful. I can see her face because she was facing my direction and dad was sitting across from her. She had a long hair pulled back and a giant mole at the left side of her forehead that you can’t miss. She had a white dress going down her knee and a black bag as well. 
They were chatting and laughing, high-fiveing and giggling. It looked like they were on a date. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Was my dad cheating on my mom? Was he getting dressed to see this woman every day? I started putting things together that may or may not be there one by one. I remembered how my dad hasn’t been himself for a while now. The quite thanksgiving dinner we had, the uncelebrated valentine day of my parents, the going out early in the morning without telling us. This could only mean one thing. My dad was having an affair! 
I walked out of there without worrying whether or not they saw me and dragged myself to the bus stop. I sat there with a blank mind not knowing what to think or what to feel. Was I angry or was I sad? I didn’t know. I sat there for hours. I can see the bus come and go over and over again but I couldn’t get myself to stand up and get in. I can hear my phone ring over and over again but I couldn’t get myself to pick it up. 
Suddenly as I sat there I felt this anger boiling inside of me. I got on the next bus to home because I had so much to say to my father. I was not going to let him just cheat on my mom like that. I knew what I was going to say. Make him feel ashamed of what he did and then tell him to confess to mom about everything or else I would be the one to tell her. 
The only flaw in that plan was I couldn’t get myself to get off the bus at my stop and I ended up at the same place I got in. I got off and sat at the very place that I sat in when I decided to go and give my dad a talk to. Few minutes after I sat down my phone started ringing again. It was Shawn. He was the one who had been calling me all day. I looked at the phone until it stopped ringing. I couldn’t pick it up and talk to him. I had too much going on in my head. 
I once again took the bus home. This time I forced myself to get off and walk to my front door. The next challenged I faced was placing my key in the key hole and opening the door. I would reach out with the key in my hand close to the door and then I would withdraw. After almost ten minutes of battle with the key I got myself to open the door and walked in. 
My dad was at his usual spot and my mom was fixing dinner. The house seemed so calm. There was no movement except from the ones in the TV screen. I took a step closer in to the house and looked over at my dad. He was sitting there like he had done nothing. I felt my heart beating in my chest out of anger. I was close to the edge to blow up and scream until I caught a glimpse of my mom in the kitchen cooking dinner. I felt so bad for her that I didn’t know if telling her would make her feel better or worse. I felt my chest getting tighter, my hands were trembling and I felt my tears tickling my eyes to slide down. I was on a verge of a panic attack. 
I ran up stairs to my room. As soon as I locked the doors my knees gave up. I failed on the floor. Getting air into my lungs became a challenge. I held my chest gasping for air. I tried to calm myself down by breathing in big but it didn’t seem to work. As I was struggling to breath, my mom knocked on my door and asked if I was going to have dinner. I didn’t want anyone to see me like this so I pressed my other hand on too my face and covered my lips as to not make a sound. She tried to open my door and when she realized that it was locked she must have assumed that I was sleeping so she said “Goodnight” and went away. 
When I heard her footsteps go down the stair I let go of my mouth and tried to breath. My warm tears kept going down my checks and on to my hand that was holding my chest. My breath was getting shorter and shorter. I haven’t had this kind of panic attack in a long time so my body had a hard time bouncing back from it. I slowly got my breath back but I couldn’t seem to stop crying. I lay where I was and closed my eyes. 
I heard a hard pound on the door. I opened my eyes fighting the light that was shining towards me. It was my dad at the door. “Princi you’re going to be late.” I heard him and checked my phone to see what time it was. I had fallen asleep and didn’t even realize that it was almost 9:00 AM and I was late for work. 
My dad kept calling my name “I’ll be down in a minute.” I answered to him. I stood up from where I was crawled up like a bowl and walked in to my bathroom. I stood in front of the mirror on top of the sink and looked at myself. I looked horrible from all the stress and crying. I joined my hands together and filled them with water. I slapped the water on to my face. I bushed my teeth and changed in to another work cloth. Seeing the time I didn’t have any time to shower so I picked up my bag and phone off the floor and walked out of my room. When I reached the bottom of the stairs my dad called out my name from the kitchen and told me to have my breakfast. 
I didn’t have the strength to look at his face and act like I don’t know a thing so I told him that I was running late from where I was standing and left for work. I was already feeling down, I didn’t need to hear the stories Lucy Chaw was making about me. Whatever those storied were though; they were spreading like wild fire. 
It didn’t matter what I do in the company anymore. It would all be covered up by me sleeping my way to the top. I was sitting in my office when Shawn walked in and stood in front of my desk. I looked up at him. He had a look in his face that to this day I fail to explain. “Follow me” he said and walked out. 
I followed him to the roof. 
“Where were you yesterday?” he asked. 
I was not ready to admit the fact that my dad was cheating on my mom so I told him my cover story that I told everyone. “I was sick so I was at home.” I answered avoiding eye contact. 
“Then why didn’t you pick up your phone; do you know how worried I was?” 
I looked at him and saw that he really was worried. “I had my phone on mute. That’s why I didn’t answer.” 
Before I can say anything else he wrapped his arms around me. It was a very tight hug. It felt like as if he was trying to squeeze the life out of me. After a silent hug he let go and asked “How sick were you?” 
I gave him no answer. I was thinking he must really care about me. He waited to listen to my answer. But before I could give him one his phone started to ring. He looked at his phone and said he had to go and ran off.