Chapter 7 - The Boy in the Jersey
I agreed to meet Owen at the public park.
Not at the house.
Not with everyone sitting around the kitchen table telling me how much pain my reaction had caused.
Julie drove me.
Dad brought Owen and stayed near the parking lot.
My stepbrother sat beside me on a bench, holding a folded program.
My graduation program.
“Where’d you get that?”
“Your room.”
He pointed to my name.
“I wanted to see.”
I swallowed.
“You won your championship.”
He shrugged.
“Yeah.”
“That’s a big deal.”
His eyes filled.
“I didn’t know it was the same day.”
“It wasn’t your job to know.”
“Mom said you thought I’d be annoying.”
I turned toward him.
“I have never thought that.”
“You said big kids didn’t want little kids at graduation.”
“No, Owen.
I didn’t.”
He rubbed his nose with his sleeve.
“Did you leave because of me?”
The question hurt worse than anything Dad had said.
I put my arm around him.
“No.
You didn’t do anything wrong.”
“Then why did Dad say you were jealous?”
I looked toward the parking lot.
Dad was watching us.
Of course he was.
It was easier to call me jealous than to tell a ten-year-old that adults could make selfish choices.
“I was hurt because Dad promised to come and didn’t,” I said.
“I can be happy for you and sad for me at the same time.”
Owen considered that.
Then he reached into his pocket and pulled out a crumpled twenty-dollar bill.
“You can have this for college.”
I nearly broke.
“No, buddy.”
“I have birthday money too.”
“You keep it.”
He looked down at the graduation program.
“Are you still my sister?”
“Yes.”
“Even if you’re not his daughter?”
I had screamed those words because I wanted Dad to feel something.
I hadn’t considered how they would sound to a child who loved us both.
“I’m angry with him,” I said.
“That doesn’t change you and me.”
When we stood to leave, Owen caught my sleeve.
“I heard something.”
“What?”
“Before your graduation.
Mom said if Dad went, he was choosing his old family.”
Across the parking lot, Dad started walking toward us.
May you like
Owen lowered his voice.
“And Dad said he knew.”
