Today is the Day by Kyleigh Browning

Today is the day, today I finally figure out if- “Kelsey! Come downstairs quick!” My mother yelled. I jumped out of bed and ran to the stairs. My mother and father were sitting at the dining room table. It's a small table, like everything in our house. We aren’t the richest family in our neighborhood, but we aren’t the poorest. My mother is unemployed and my father owns a repair shop. “Your father wants you to go to the shop with him today.” My father interrupted her and said “I need an extra set of hands for today and maybe soon you can start working there with me. You know some father and daughter time. You will have enough time to do school work so don’t you worry about that.” My father is one of those men who try to be funny and charming but it never works out for him. “Fine I can come with you but I’m not going near any of the cars. Remember when I was younger and I tripped and fell over one of the tool boxes for the cars? I don’t want that happening again.” My father just looked at me and laughed. “I’m going up stairs to get dressed.” 

After I got ready my father and I got in his old Dodge Ram. On the way there we passed the old hospital. I asked, “Father, isn’t that where you got treated?” He mumbled under his breath “yes it is, that was a hard battle for me and your mother.” The rest of the ride there was just silence. Once I stepped inside I could smell the oil. Today is not gonna be a fun day, except for the fact that I will- oh my gosh. Is that who I think it is? Oh my gosh it is. It’s Michael Flynn, he’s what the girls say, the hottest guy in town. But I don’t think he is, he’s just one of those bad boys who do anything they want whenever they want, and he never gets in trouble. I don’t get how girls are into him. The bad thing is, he’s my mother's best friend's son. So I’ve grown up with him, and that was not a fun experience. One time we were playing on the swing set and he knocked me off of the slide and I was the one who got blamed. I had the worst childhood ever because of him. He walked over to my father and started talking to him. He’s lucky he didn’t walk over here, I would kick him where it hurts. 

My father was making me work at the cash register. It’s not like I don’t know how to do it but he had to explain it anyway. “Okay honey when someone comes over here you have to greet them. Then you have to punch in how much they.” I wasn’t really paying attention. I was staring at Michael the whole time, and I know what you are thinking, “you like him” but I don’t, trust me. I’m just staring at him to try and figure out why girls are obsessed with him. I can’t figure out why, what a shocker. Oh great now he is coming my way, play it cool. “Hey Kelsey, long time no see.” “Hi, are you purchasing anything today?” I looked down at the ground and held in a laugh. “Haha very funny, is your father making you work here too?” I looked at him and then my father. “There are customers here who need help so go make yourself useful for once.” Today is going to be a long day. Michael didn’t bug me for a couple of hours. There were a lot of customers so we were pretty busy. I went into the break room to get a drink of water and my father was in there. “Hey Kelsey how do you like the job?” I looked at him and shrugged my shoulders. 

It was around 3 pm and my father went to the farmers market to pick up some vegetables. So it was only me and Michael working. I begged my dad to let me go to the market but he said no. Michael keeps staring at me, and when I catch him staring he winks. I think this is his way of flirting, but I still don’t get how girls love it. It is so hard to watch, he makes a constipated look every time he winks. I laugh everytime he does it, he looks so stupid. My father has been gone for a while. He is the quickest man I know when it comes to going to the market, so I’m kind of worried. I’m going to go over to Michael and see if he knows anything. “Michael have you heard from my dad at all? He's been at the market for over an hour now.” “I don’t know, don't rush the man he's getting older so he’s slower.” I still don’t know, but I have a bad feeling. “Can you drive me to the market?” “What’s in it for me?” He asked. Why does he always ask these stupid questions. “You get to be in the same car as me.” His response was so dumb, “alrighty then.” I just stood there and watched him speed walk to his truck. He turned around and said, “are you coming? Don’t make me wait, you know I don’t have any patience.” He sure doesn’t, one time we were riding our bikes to the shop, and we were stuck behind this car and he got so mad he threw his bike at the car. He got in so much trouble.

We got to the farmers market and walked around the whole market. Michael went into the bathrooms to see if he was in there. You will never guess why my father was there for so long. My father and Michael came out of the bathroom. I could tell my father had been crying and Michael looked sad. “Father what happened?” He looked at me and with a shaky breath and  said, “your doctor called,” my heart sank, “he said that you-” his voice cut out. Crying again he said, “he said that you have the gene for cancer.”