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Post by acrasia on Oct 31, 2012 16:29:51 GMT -8
Somewhat mature language here. A few swears.
All right, so. <- best way to start a speech right there
I am a seventeen-year-old high school senior. I haven't been in a standard class since third grade. My parents are divorced and I got my first boyfriend just under two years ago (we're still together). If you don't want teenage parent drama, leave now.
I do not currently have a job. The issue right now is that one needs experience to get experience, that horrible loop that is really hard to get out of until you make connections. As such, I still ask my parents for money now and then. This is my senior year, and considering the full AP course I am enrolled in, they've already been dishing out the dough for college credits (though much less than if I were actually in college). I recognize this and try really not to ask for spending money in that light. Regular allowance is out of the question, always has been.
However, today is Halloween. I figured "All right, a holiday, I can totally treat my boyfriend out to dinner or something." Normally my parents are pretty lenient on that stuff. My dad got home late from work today, and I figured it was because he got held up over something stupid, so I waited an hour before bringing it up.
Before I continue, allow me to lay some foundation: my parents are divorced. My mother has custody, but not the heart to kick my mooching father out. He spends ridiculous amounts of money chain-smoking and pimping out/repairing his 32-year-old vehicle. Oh and he hits my little brother. Oh. And his sick mother (still not sure what she has, there was some weird swelling in her legs that exploded water? and then she had a tracheotomy, has the tube in her throat, but continues to smoke) is now living with us in the tiny two-bedroom house we are renting. They enjoy fighting. All three of them. Constantly.
As for minors, there is only my brother and myself. My mom works all day, takes up two jobs during the tax season. She is the honest worker in the house. My father works roughly six hours on a five-day week driving a school bus. He does not allow my mother any insight whatsoever as to our financial comings and goings. All we know is that he is always talking about how broke we are and how we can't afford things (once again, he's a chain-smoker with a 32-year-old car that he refuses to get rid of). When he's at home, he sits on the computer and plays World of Warcraft and the most recent redux of Red Alert (I forget what it's called). And fights with his mom. Which reminds me, his mom sits on the couch in the living room watching television all day, letting our dog piss on the floor and telling us how badly we trained her. And she has countless long stories about how much she wants a job and wants to get back to working and how good a worker she used to be.
Foundation. There you have it. So my dad's home, I waited an hour, he's on the computer. I walk into the room and say as gently as I can "Hey dad, can I borrow some money for dinner?" He turns around in his fancy swivel chair and decides to tell me what for. Some of that money has to go to things that matter, you know, not fast food. Some of that money should go to other people in the house, you know, people who actually work (the only chore I do regularly is dish washing). None of that money is being brought in by you. In fact, if anything, your brother is bringing in more than you because he takes the cans and bottles out to Safeway for deposit money.
Okay. My younger brother who just entered high school and is already on the verge of being expelled. My younger brother who is in nothing but standard classes and failing every one of them. My younger brother who shouts obscenities at his friends down the street. My younger brother who is going to be a failure at life with the way you both baby him, saying he's grounded until these grades come up but never actually enforcing anything. My younger brother who peeks on me in the shower sometimes. Oh but you don't know that because he's your little boy. The school is being mean to him because he's a freshman. He's a boy, he's going to act that way. You're just overreacting.
Whatever. Fuck you too, dad.
So I came back into my room to tell my boyfriend that the plans are off, make sure your parents will make something for you (yes, I told him beforehand because I wasn't expecting this. Genius). As I'm writing the text, dad walks in and asks why I didn't answer him (I've never once yelled at my dad. As much as I dislike the guy, I won't disrespect my father). I said because there was nothing else to say. He tells me I'm acting like a "damn woman." You don't say? He hands me his ATM card and says to go get some damn food with my damn boy. Offhandedly, I mention that he's not my possession but thanks for the money. He raises his voice again, "That's not what I said," but I pretend to be calling said boyfriend to avoid any confrontation.
So dad leaves and goes to talk to mom in the kitchen. Immediately he starts telling her about how horrible his day has been, how fan-fucking-tastic it was to be greeted at the door with "Can I have money?" Door of your bedroom an hour later, okay. I would have waited longer but you can only wait so long before it ceases to be dinner and is more like a late-night snack. He rants about how broke we are again. I tuned out.
Few minutes later, he calls my brother out of the room (we share a bedroom). They're asking him about his Halloween costume. He's going as a pimp. In his bathrobe and a fedora he's borrowing from someone. As I type this now, they're trying to convince him to wear something more flashy, to gel his hair, etc. To say "pimp things" when he goes up to the doors.
I'm so ready to move out. And deal with the rest of the world that acts this way.
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Bald Blaze is bald? XD
