- Completely fictional. The parts of the story in these - marks are past tense. -
Gwen
***
It all started when my mother left us. I had just turned fifteen and my baby sister, Brooke, had just turned one. Dad was devastated; he went from being a happy, laughing guy to a dour, hard-lipped man. It was like Mom's leaving sucked all the life and happiness from him. He seemed at a loss of how to handle his heartbreak, even more so with how to deal with ours. I felt like I needed to step up and help him take care of the house and my sister. Now, almost six years later and my whole life revolved around them.
"Brooke, sweetie, you gotta hurry or we are going to be late to soccer and you know your coach will be pissed if we're late again," I say as I push her gym bag into her hands. She sighs heavily, and plops down on the floor to put her shoes on. She seems to relish taking her sweet time. I barely resist an eyeroll and motion for her to hurry it up Dad catches me at the front door as he comes in from work and gives my cheek a quick peck, barely touching the corner of my lips with his. I'm surprised at how warm they are. I look up at him and nod back toward Brooke struggling with heshoes and we share a smile. Brooke really is adorable, almost a spitting image of my mother when she was a young girl. My heart starts to tug as I'm reminded of her, and I can tell by the sad frown on Dad's face that he's thinking the same age. My dad and mom grew up together, practically best friends from birth. I reach my hand out and rub his shoulders. He leans into me and sighs.
"It'll be okay. She's happy with us." I keep my arm around his waist and put my head against his side. Dad is a few inches taller than me, so my head falls onto his chest and he just holds me for a minute. Brooke is still struggling with her shoes and I can tell she's getting frustrated with them, but I can't bring myself to move from Dad's arms. He is so warm and I feel very safe so I hug him closer. It had been a very long day. Its summertime and the sitter had to leave early, which meant I had to rush home and Brooke was in a foul mood because she had missed her nap. I had been trying to slowly get her out of the habit, but it was a slow process. She was very crabby and wanted to whine about everything from the heat to the way I cut the crust off her sandwich, so it was very nice to just be held for a second. It wasn't until I felt something hard nudging into my leg that I realized my dad was pulling away from me. He rubs his hand over his head and awkwardly clears his throat. Dad tugs his shirt down and turns away from me, hurrying up the stairs. It takes me a minute to realize what just happened and I can feel my face getting hot. My dad had a total boner from hugging me and honestly, I didn't really mind it. In fact, I can feel my nipples hardening thinking about it. It took Brooke tugging at my hand to snap me out of my fog and I smiled down at her.