Broken in Pieces

"Alright, this is weird. ”

Everyone stopped eating and looked at me with questioning looks. I wasn't wrong. I go to such limits to organise a family dinner yet they have the audacity to not even speak to each other. I didn't spend three hours cooking just so they could sit there, doing nothing. In my head, everything was simpler: Just gather your deadbeat family together for a special dinner and hopefully they'll talk things out and work on their relationship. But it looks like that's something I'll have to handle manually instead.

"You know, having a family dinner means you should at least talk to your family." I pointed out like I was teaching uneducated toddlers. They should understand how important this dinner means to me, considering the hours I put into making it happen. I even got mom to straighten her dirty blonde hair and helped her choose an outfit. We ended up giving her a white floral dress, almost similar to what she wore on her wedding day, but shorter and less fancy. She was the only one who even bothered to dress up though. Dad wore a t-shirt, Noah stayed in his sweaty hoodie and Allisa just kept on her dark red and white school uniform. Despite my request, they all stayed quiet and ate their pasta. It took me 5 hours to complete the full recipe: pan spaghetti with homemade sauce and grated cheddar cheese. I was sure that would get them to talk.

“You know, I wouldn’t have put so much effort into getting us together if I knew you would all sit there in silence like a bunch of morons.” 

"Don't speak that way to your Parents." was the first word to come out of somebody's mouth. It was Dad. Sure he was gifted with smooth brown high schooler hair and works for a rich company, but he’s a fat hypocrite. He always sits us down to talk about kindness and compassion. How we should better ourselves as humans and show respect to one another. Yet it’s because of him and mom's constant arguing that I can’t sleep at night. How’s that for respect?

 "Start acting like parents first, then I'll treat you like one." I didn’t mean to sound rude, but I had to break the silence in the room somehow. "I mean come on- you guys don't even sleep in the same room. You hate each other that much." Mom gave me the shocked look of an innocent child, like I just called a four year old stupid. Dad however, didn’t even flinch. He just gave me a meaner stare the more I kept talking "Your mother and I like to have our own sleeping spaces."

Did he really think he was being reasonable?"Oh yeah, and what about the constant arguing? Is there reasoning for that?" 

Dad looked at me, half angry and half shocked, as if they’re screaming was a secret.Mom had a slightly frightened concerned expression on her face, however it wasn’t aimed towards me. Her eyes moved towards Alissa, who didn't seem to have a reaction to any of this. She just sat there, tying her light red hair into a ponytail with absolutely no expression. Mom and Dad always considered Alissa as their "baby girl" even though she's 13. They both assume that she doesn't know about the feud in they’re relationship but she's always right behind the wall, crying her eyes out as our parents have a screaming match.

"Oh like Alissa didn't know." I read their minds out loud. Alissa shrugged, still refusing eye contact. My entire goal for this dinner was to bring peace to this broken family.And in order to do that, I may need to bring up unfortunate topics- just in order to settle them. I turned to look at Noah. His messed up brown hair and practically dead black eyes were still being covered by his black hoodie. He hadn't spoken a word since the dinner started: typical. But I guess we got to clear some things with him if I want the family to look slightly less depressed.

"How's the eye?" I asked, sounding casual. He finally looked up from his dinner plate. On his left eye, there was a bruise. It was a swelling purple colour. It always seems like he has a new injury or issue everyday. It's either his hand has a bleeding scar or his jackets messed up or his backpacks gone. But he never seems to explain the reasoning behind it. He just shrugs it off like it’s normal and locks himself in his room. I had a few ideas why this was happening but I didn’t want to make assumptions. I made that mistake when I first met him.

"Ok." was all he could give me for a response before eating another forkful of pasta. My eyes glanced towards Mom and dad, who seem to have lost track of our conversation because they were still looking at each other, whispering things so quiet you couldn't even tell they were talking.

"How does this even happen anyways?"

He didn't respond. He ignored the question like I hadn't even asked it. So I added: "Do you get teased?" That wouldn’t be that much of a surprise. People always think of him as “the troubled kid” because he acts depressed and comes from a corrupted family. This is also another good reason to put this family back together.

"No..." he mumbled. He had such a quiet voice so I was glad our house was silent enough for me to hear. If he was mumbling, usually it meant to take a hint that he wasn’t interested in answering, but I wasn’t just going to settle for that.

"Then what?"

"Nothing. It's none of your business." His voice was starting to rise in anger. I didn't want him to explode, not now. But I had to get something out of him.

“ It’s those two jerks-Cody and Mark right?” His eyes slightly widened and turned to look at me. Cody and Mark were two of the most annoying morons in our grade. They were pretty tall and strong for their age and I’ve seen Noah hang out with them alot. So it also wouldn’t be a surprise if they’re bad influence got to him.

“No. Now leave me alone.” His voice came out fast, and stern. Like it was an automatic warning to get the hell away from him.

“I bet it is. You probably fight in the alleyways like a lowlife.” I pushed his last button. He dropped his fork so loud, it startled me. He stood up, slammed his hands on the table and gave me an angry look.

"I swear to god Danielle, If you don't shut up-"

This caught dad's attention away from his conversation with mom. "Hey!" He glared at Noah, who silently shrunk back in his seat. "Stop fighting. Your family." That was all it took. Just four words to push him right off the edge.

"What would you know about Family?"

Again, more silence. But it was a short one until mom jumped in.

"Noah.." Her voice was soft but in a warning tone but Noah didn't seem to care.

"You know for once, Danielles right." I glared at him but let it go, only because I wanted to hear what he had to say. "All day you guys ignore each other and all night you argue, is that what you call family?" Both of them were startled by his words. I saw a look I’ve never seen before- were they actually hurt? I didn’t get time to think because Noah dropped the bomb on them.

"If you guys aren't in love anymore, then why are you still married?"

That brought long silence. Everyone stared at Noah, whose face was pink and shades of red. He bit his lip, still not saying another word. The only sound we heard was intense breathing. Then I noticed mom's hand sliding under the table to hold dads. They’re fingers curled up and intersected, giving eachother a tight squeeze before instantly letting go.

"You're right. I'm done."

We were all stunned, practically pale. Dad however, wasn't shocked in the slightest. She stood up and walked towards the black cabinets next to the sink. On top of it was a crumpled piece of paper that was only slightly ripped. You didn’t need to be a genius to know what they were. She unfolded it and handed it to dad, who shrugged and stood up as well. After that, he nodded and the two of them excused themselves from the table in silence. Nobody said a word as the two of them quietly walked back upstairs. We all waited for a minute or two, expecting one of them to start shouting. But the only sound we heard was….

Nothing.

"Look what you just did!" I yelled at Noah, who didn’t seem to care either.

He shrugged like this was ok. "Oh come on, like it wasn't already gonna happen.” I looked at Alissa, hoping she would back me up. She may be two years younger than me but she’s old enough to talk about this sort of stuff. But she still didn’t want to talk. 

“Am I the only one in this family with common sense or something?” Noah gave me an offended look. “And what’s that supposed to mean? My blood was boiling. This hadn’t gone well before and it certainly won't now. “Hm lets see.” I said with a sarcastic grin on my face.

“Mom and Dad’s relationship is a mess, You're a mental mess and Alissa has got to be one of the most sensitive cowardly doormats I’ve ever met!” I instantly regretted the last part. She hadn’t done anything, she didn’t deserve that. But it was too late. Her eyes were already filled with tears. Noah's expression became something I’ve never expected nor seen from him before. His angry look slowly faded into..sympathy? He put his hand on Alissa’s shoulder for a second before she ran upstairs, sobbing. Yikes.. I thought. I didn’t expect that much sensitivity. Noah glared back at me, furious than ever.

“What the hell is your problem?” He continued without taking a breath. “Why are you acting like this?” His fists clenched together. I bet he was used to doing that often.

“I-I just want our family to be normal for once!” I started off stuttering but finished it off quite loudly. We were both standing eachother down: Two teenagers angrly fighting at the dining table. Sounds like something this kind of family would be doing.

“Ohhhhhh… I get it..” He crossed his arms and I gave him a dumb look, confused. “You don’t want us to ruin your important reputation.” He rolled his eyes as I stayed silent, biting my lip. “You don’t want our disgusting family to make you look worse huh?” That got all my attention. “What do you mean worse?” He scoffed like it was an obvious fact.

“You're just mad that you’ll always be known as the petty little foster kid!” 

He didn’t even show a hint of sympathy after he said that. I felt tears almost coming out but I stayed strong. I couldn’t believe what he just said to me! I thought when I was welcomed into this family, my orphan life was a thing of the past.. I guess not.

“If you can’t respect us, or even try to understand what we’re going through…” He cleaned up his space and picked up the plate, still giving me an icy stare.

“Then maybe you shouldn’t be a part of this family at all.”