Listen by Marissa Beck

Author:Marissa Beck [Beck, Marissa]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Iridescent Books
Published: 2023-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

There was something off about the mood. My sixteenth birthday should have been filled with more pep or something. We’d never really celebrated birthdays, but usually they were acknowledged. My parents had fought the night before. It kept me up.

I’d refused to let the shouts get me down. Yet, even with my forced upbeat feelings, the day still felt off. No one in my family wished me a happy birthday. Grandma Nolan hadn’t even made her usual midnight call. Grammy Moore hadn’t sent her usual week-early card.

And at school, no one mentioned it. With most teachers, that wouldn’t have been abnormal, but my choir director always remembered birthdays. He didn’t acknowledge that I was in the room.

It was all right, though. I’d pick my brother up from school, take him to football practice, go home, have a soda to celebrate. Maybe I’d work on a poem in my spare time. A quiet night in. Surely, they didn’t all forget it was my birthday. I didn’t need anything, but one mention would have been enough, especially with all the tension in the house.

With my brother safely at football practice, I went home and frowned when the truck was in the driveway. “Dad’s home?”

When I opened the door, I wished that I wasn’t home.

“—tired of all this fucking bullshit! It’s always one thing after another.”

My birthday was as good as forgotten. I could tell by the tone of my father’s voice. Slowly, I worked my way to the stairs. I’d settle for getting out of the line of fire. Some girls got upset if their sweet sixteen didn’t involve getting a car. I’d only wanted someone to smile my way, wish me a good day, but now survival was all I craved.

Survival and isolation.

“Oh! And like it isn’t the same with you?! I saw where you were! You think I didn’t know where you snuck off to?!” Mom shouted, particularly angry it seemed. They were still arguing about Dad going to a bar, then. Last night’s argument hadn’t ended yet.

A key jingled.

“Where the fuck do you think you’re going?” Mom’s voice was louder than I’d ever heard it.

“Out.” Dad’s voice was damn near silent.

“Yeah, go find comfort in the bar or with your little side honey. Get out of my house,” Mom snapped.

Dad came around the corner. I’d been in the path of his fury before, the cause of it many times, but I’d never seen him so…. Huh. He didn’t really look angry. He looked done. And I might as well have been furniture. He bumped into me on his way out and slammed the front door.

Against my better judgment, I walked cautiously to the living room. “Mom?” I wanted to tell her that Dad didn’t have anyone on the side, like she didn’t. If they stopped yelling and listened to each other, they’d understand that. Even I knew Dad was meeting up with Uncle John at the bar. And she… well, she wouldn’t do that either. Unless they were both lying to us kids.

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