Page 22 of Until the Ribbon Breaks

“I hate you!” My words come hard and fast. “All you care about is yourself!”

“That is not true.”

“This isn’t fair,” I mumble before strengthening my tone. “It isn’t fair that I’m stuck here withyou.”

Her shoulders drop, and I can’t stand to look at her anymore, so I stomp up the stairs, grab my phone and keys, and head back down.

“Where are you going?”

“Just leave me alone!” I yell before slamming the door behind me and heading straight to my car.

The moment I drive away is the same moment my tears fall. With my heart pounding out of rhythm, I drive through the night with nowhere to go. But nowhere is better than being at home—with her.

Truth is, all I want right now is my dad, but he’s halfway around the world and won’t be back for another three weeks. I would go to Noah’s house, but the last thing I want to do is talk to him about how I caught my mother cheating on my father. In the end, I decide to go to my favorite spot at Marina Beach.

The moon glows behind a veil of clouds, painting everything in a silvery hue. I sit in my usual spot and stare out into the rippling water. Gravity presses down, and the weight of it pains me. It’s in my heart, in my lungs, and in my bones. I ache all over, and when I think about our family being divided, I fold over my knees and cry. It was hard enough when Tyler moved out; I don’t want to imagine losing my dad too. Because that’s what will happen. I’ll be stuck with my mom, the last person in this family I would choose to live with, and there won’t be anything I can do about it.

My phone rings, and when I lift my head and blink back the tears, I see it’s my dad calling. With a sniff and a hard swallow, I answer, doing my best not to sound as if I’ve been crying.

“Hi, Dad.”

“Hey, sweetheart. I’m between meetings so I don’t have much time, but I wanted to call you back quickly. Is everything okay?”

Nothing is okay. Nothing at all, but my mother’s words echo in my head, and as much as I hate to admit it, maybe she’s right. Maybe my telling him will only serve to hurt him more. Perhaps I should let my mom be the one to do it, let her impale that dagger into his heart and not me.

“Are you there?”

“Yeah, I’m sorry. I just really miss you,” I tell him.

“I miss you too. It isn’t easy being away from you and Mom so much,” he says, and I grit my teeth when he mentions her. “Are the two of you getting along?”

“Yeah, everything’s fine.”

“Wasn’t today your last day of school?”

“Uh-huh.”

“Are you excited to finally be a senior?”

I force a smile, unsure of why or for who. “Yes. I’m so over high school.”

He laughs, and I hang on to the sound as hard as I can. “One day, when you’re old like me, you’ll look back and miss these years.”

“Doubtful.”

“You say that now, but you’ll see.” He pauses. “You’ll never believe what I ate for dinner last night.”

“What?”

“Reza, one of the higher-ups here invited me to his home for dinner with his family ... I had no clue what I was getting myself in to.”

“What do you mean?”

“One of the dishes came out, and I couldn’t tell what the hell it was. It was white and kind of looked like a brain. I didn’t want to be impolite, so I took a bite. The texture was all wrong. When Reza saw the look on my face, I asked what the dish was.”

“What was it?”

“Shirako.”

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