Surprise, Surprise

My father parked in the garage and my brother and I followed him into the house. He excused himself to change and I was thankful, that gave my brother and I some time to talk privately.

"What are we going to tell him" I whispered

"I don't know. We can't tell them the truth though. You know they will freak."

"I don't know. Maybe not. I mean, yea.. it got all crazy, but it wasn't actually our fault we got shot at. WE didn't have a gun"

Before my brother could answer, my dad came out of his bedroom and asked me to join him at the dinning room table to talk. I gave my brother one last glance and reluctantly followed, sitting across the table from my dad.

"So, tell me what's going on" he asked

"Umm.. well.. there's this kid on the bus.. umm.. his name is O'Neil and umm.. he started out being just mean to me. But, um.. then after a while.."

My dad interrupted me, "How long has been a while? When did it start?"

"The beginning of 6th grade. That's when it 1st started"

"It's been going on all this time and you never said anything? Why?"

I continued to tell my father everything that had happened since the beginning. He was appalled, disgusted but mostly, he was angry. VERY angry. Not just with O'Neil but with the bus driver as well as the VP. I don't think I've ever seen my dad THAT angry before. He rose from his seat and began to pace. Muttering only to himself. I wish I knew what was going through his mind, but maybe I didn't want to know.

At one point, I heard something along the lines of him wanting to kick O'Neil's ass but that he couldn't because O'Neil was still considered a child and I kind of chuckled.

"What's so funny?" He turned to me

"Oh.. umm.. nothing"

"Spill it, J. What? What's so damn funny? You think it's funny that I want to find this kid and beat him until he takes his last breath? Is it funny that I want to do the same thing to the driver and the VP? Do you think it's funny that I am fighting the urge to hunt them all down like a madman and kill every last 1 of them? DO YOU?" His voice began to rise and his hands were in fists at his side.

"N.. N.. no..." I stumbled out looking down. "No, that isn't funny, dad. But what I was laughing at is.. well.. Joe showed up at my bus stop today with some friends.. and umm.. I guess he was thinking the same you were cus.." I trailed off. I didn't know if I should finish even though I badly wanted to tell my dad everything that happened that day.

"WHAT?! What did he do?" My father was yelling again, which made me really nervous. I could probably count on one hand that amount of times I ever heard my dad yell. Without waiting for my responce, he called my brother into the dinning room as well.

As my brother entered, he shot me a look that said "Thanks a lot big mouth!" and again I just lowered my head.

"What happened today? And I want the WHOLE STORY! From the time you heard about what was going on with J til I pulled up. Now.. start talking"

My brother relayed our afternoon activities with as much aprehension as I did when telling my dad about what was going on with me. When they were through talking, my dad asked my brother to show him the damage to his car. The two of them started for the door and I was right behind them, "No, J. Stay here" my father ordered and I listened. I didn't want to anger him any more.

Watching from the window I saw my brother walk my dad around his car showing him the bullet holes. I half expected my dad to go into a rage, both from what my brother did and the fact that his car was shot twice. However, to my surprise, I saw my dad put one hand on my brother's shoulder calmly. I couldn't hear what they were saying but I could tell by their body language my dad wasn't mad. What surprised me even more was seeing my dad lean in and hug my brother, pat him on the back once more and they started walking back towards the house. By the time they reached the front door, I had moved away from the window and was sitting quietly on the couch.

"I'm just glad no one was hurt. I know what happened probably scared the shit out of all of you and I hope you learned your lesson, but I'm not going to lecture you. You know I would have done worse if I could have so I'm not going to punish either of you for what happened today." He told both of us

"What about Mom? She's going to freak out when she sees it" I interjected

"Don't worry about your mom, I'll talk to her. Just don't say anything to her until I get a chance to talk to her. Now J, we still need to talk so let's go back into the dinning room"

I nodded and followed my dad again, glancing at my brother with a half smile. He looked relieved that the truth had been told and excused himself to his room.

My dad and I talked some more about the unfortunate events in my life for the past year and a half, talked about how I felt about everything and I just wasn't comfortable getting that detailed with him. He suggested setting me up with a therapist to talk things out and to try to make sure I wouldn't have any long term affects from it all. I agreed that might be a good idea and he said he'd call tomorrow to find one. As our conversation came to a close the phone rang. It was my mom saying she was on her way home.

The whole house took a collective sigh, now we had to tell mom. Out of my two parents, she is sometimes the hardest to tell things to. She has the typical Italian tempter and unlike my father, she raises her voice quick. I knew there was going to be some yelling in my house again and it was going to be a looooonngg night tonight. My only thought was...

Are we ordering pizza?