"Megan, if it's okay with you, can we continue from where we left off last? We talked about your parents?"
"Yeah, we can do that."
"Only if you are comfortable."
"No, I haven't talked about it all."
"Oh."
"Well, to start, despite my efforts to be mean to Craig and push away, he still supported me, along with Keisha. Not to toot my own horn, but I was starting to become popular among the people in Key City and, hell, even the state. In high school, I won recreational and Middle school championships for the state of Georgia for my age bracket. I was eager to see how I would stack up in High school. It was the first day of practice, but I needed to get my gym bag at home, so I would be running late since I had to return home to get it. My father was at work then and got promoted, so he spent more hours in the shop.
"How did your mother feel about the promotion."
"Honestly, the more my father succeeded, the more it felt like a father away from him, and I can say the same for me as well."
"Did your parents attend any of your games?"
"My father was there as much as he could be. He would even take Keisha and Craig with him. We would all get Hell Burger afterward. I love those moments. Whether I won or lost, he would always say he was proud of me."
"What happened when you got home from school?"
"Right, I uh..sorry," Megan says, wiping her tears. "I..uh, I say my mother's car parked outside, so I opened the door. I knew she was home. I opened the door and said very lowly, Mom. I heard. I heard a noise from the kitchen; it was something I had heard before but couldn't place. I strolled into the house because I thought something was wrong. The front door was unlocked; we never did that..." Megan lets out a deep sigh.
"As I got to the end of the living, I could see her on her knees in an awkward position. Of course, now, it's not so uncomfortable. It's just, I thought, was she cleaning something? But as I got closer, I could see her head going back and forth. She gave oral sex to our neighbor, who had just recently graduated from high school.
"Oh."
"Yeah, I yelled at her mom. What the hell are you doing.?" The boy turned and looked over at me, grabbed a hand full of my mom's hand, and forced his penis down her throat. He came, and My mom was fighting off his grip. Her face was a mess, her mascara running down her cheeks, and her chest had spit and semen on it.
"Megan! What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be at practice?" After all That, she said to me, grabbing a kitchen towel to wipe her face. I could barely talk.
"I left...my bag. What are you?"
"Well, what are you waiting on? Get it. Go." She says, pointing towards my room like I did something wrong.
"What did you do?" Doctor Amelia.
"I walked to my room and got my bag. I looked back as I left the house, and she told me.
"Don't tell your father you saw this, honey. Now go on head to practice. You want to be a big basketball star, don't you?" She says while waking me up to force me out the door essentially. I stared at my car, trying to process everything, closing my eyes and breathing. Then, I went to my car and drove back to school. While driving, I let it all out, what I was feeling."
"What exactly are you feeling?"
"Betrayed, confused, I just, my dad, what. Why?" After practice, I came home, and when I walked into the kitchen as slowly as possible, my mother was kissing my father on the lips, him none the wiser than what had occurred earlier.
"Why didn't I say anything?"
"It could be anything, Megan. Perhaps you were protecting your father, maybe your mother."
"I was selfish; he was the best father I could have asked for. He walked up to me once he noticed I was home. He kisses my cheeks and takes me in with a deep hug. He asked me how I was doing, my eyes shifted to behind him, my mother staring at me with a look that sent chills down my spine."
"Where you afraid of your mother?"
"I don't know. I mean, physically, I felt like I could physically fight my mother at this point in my life, but I loved her; I wanted her approval. I wanted to be something she was proud of.
"The same affection your father showed you."
"Right."
"Did you finally have enough and tell your father?"
"No, I. No. I couldn't even eat dinner; I just went to the bathroom and cried in the shower. I finished up and looked at myself in the mirror. No sound came out of my mouth, but I mouthed the words. You're a coward. And...I hate you.
"Oh, Megan, your mother put you in an unenviable position. She manipulated you, your love for her. How long wasn't til your father found out about the affair?"
"It was a couple of months later, the basketball season; I finished a game against our number one rival; they usually dominated Key City High."
"But they never played against the Great Megan Winston." Doctor Amelia says, smiling at her patient.
"Heh, yeah. I had a great game, and we picked up the win. Usually, my dad took time off work to see me play. After the game, we had Hell Burger with Keisha and Craig. I can remember a conversation we had before my life took a turn. God, I'm so selfish. All I'm thinking about is myself: me, me. I wasn't the one whose love of his life cheated on him in their own home. For months, possibly longer."
"Megan, it's okay. This session is your therapy. You are right to exclaim how you are feeling and what you are going through; I know you love your father, and it is great that you recognize the spot he was in during this moment in time. Please continue with it; if you are comfortable, we can table this for another time if you like?"
"No, I want to get this off my chest. So, our last conversation. Like he always does, my father was gassing me up, telling me that I killed it out there in the game."
"You killed it out there last night, Honeybun. He said to me as he put the keys into the front door, but then he stopped and looked at me. "I have to nitpick on things, though; while we were at Hell Burger, you laid it on real thick with Craig. What was that all about."
"What...He was just annoying me, that's all." He raised an eyebrow at me; that boy has got to be your biggest fan, you know that. I mean, I know he may not be your cup of tea as they say..do they still say that? Whatever. I am trying to say that Craig Turner has got to be the sweetest boy I have ever met. You know, I think he may have a crush on you. I can't blame him, though you're a Stone-Cold Stunner in 99. Over as the moon."
"I don't know what that means, but on another note. I say, too, changing the subject."
"If you don't mind me asking, why did you change the subject." Doctor Amelia asks, bringing us back into the present for a brief moment.
"Well, simply because I just know he was right about everything like usual," Megan says, moving uncomfortably in the chair while answering the question.
"Ahh, okay, what did you change the subject to?" Doctor Amelia says, writing down something in her notebook.
"I wanted to know where my mother was and why she didn't attend the game." He said she had to work late. At least that's what she texted him."
"Your mother had a job?"
"Yes, she got a job as an event organizer for..our neighbor's father."
"The same neighbor that she was."
"Yes."
"Oh."
"He was very optimistic that she got home early to plan a surprise for me because she knew I would dominate the competition. If only she cared half as much as he did. That would probably be true, but the reality was about to bite me in the ass and crush his heart. He similarly rounds the corner as me earlier, saying her name in a loud but loving manner.
"Hey, Monica." With his voice echoing into the kitchen, some movement could be heard multiple feet. He slowed down just like I did. I froze because I knew what it was already. He quickly collected himself; it was a matter of minutes, and he speedily walked into the kitchen. There, he saw his wife and the neighbor boy who always would try to cut our grass.
"Ted, you two are back already?" My mother said as if everything was normal. The neighbor boy rose to speak as well.
"Hey, uh, Mister Winston." The calm cocky demeanor he had a couple of months ago with me was gone and replaced with fear as he extended his hands out to my father. My father's usual, docile demeanor melted away; his fist balled up in rage.
"Do you think I'm Stupid!" He yells at them both. My mother was unfazed by his outburst.
"I think you are overreacting." She says, looking over at me. "Megan, tell your father he is overreacting." I couldn't speak. My heart was racing, and my eyes darted back and forth between my parents. Then down at the floor, at the damming evidence by their feet. Their eyes soon did the same. It was my mother's lace panties on the floor, crumpled up in a ball. His calm demeanor faded...
"Ted?" She said, but it was ignored as my father grabbed the neighbor boy by the throat.
"I'm going to fucking kill you!" he said in a bit of rage. As he slammed him against the wall, our family picture fell on the ground, shattering into pieces.
The boy screamed. "That he didn't know." a blatant lie that my father retorted with...
