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Chapter Fifteen
Naomi
I never thought I would use a perk that came with sleeping with my professor, but before I left his house the night before, I asked Josh if we were doing anything important in class. He told me no, so I decided to skip. It wasn’t for nothing though, I was pacing my apartment, still trying to hype myself up enough to storm to my parents’ house. Or my mom’s house or whoever owned it since they started the whole divorce thing.
“Fuck it.” I petted Jerry, grabbed my car keys and wallet off of the breakfast bar, then strode out of my apartment. I couldn’t let myself think about what was going to happen too much, if I did then I’d definitely lose my nerve and turn around. When I got into my car and pulled out of the parking lot, I felt the anger that had been simmering on the backburner rise to my chest. If Mom and Dad were going to continue acting as if I didn’t matter, I was going to make them face me.
I drove to my parents’ community and was quickly let through the gate, surprisingly. I pulled into the driveway and saw a moving truck out front. My mom’s car was parked in the drive and my dad’s was parked on the curb. I turned off my engine and got out of the car. The front door was wide open and I heard my parents’ raised voices from the foyer.
“Mom, Dad,” I called. I followed their arguing to the living room. They both paused when I stepped into the room. They looked at me with blank expressions.
“Naomi, oh…” Mom said. She walked to me and gave me a tight hug. “Hon, we’ve been so crazy that we didn’t get the chance to have a sit down with you,” she said.
“Plus you’ve been avoiding our calls,” Dad said.
“For something like this, Dad, you guys should have tried harder. It wasn’t so difficult for Jess and Casey to get to me. You guys know where I live,” I said. Roth pushed his hair back and straightened the collar of his polo shirt.
“So they told you,” he glanced down at the floor as if he were guilty. I couldn’t imagine him feeling guilty about anything when it came to me.
“Yeah and then I didn’t hear anything from either of you for days,” I said. Mom took a deep breath and then sat me down on the couch. They both stood in front of me as if they were about to explain that Santa wasn’t real. “Why didn’t you tell me? Why don’t you guys ever tell me anything?”
“Naomi, what’s been going on between your father and I has been happening for a long, long time. We were hiding our unhappiness from all of you,” Mom said. She looked sorry and she sat down next to me to take my hand. I wanted to pull away from her, I wanted to deny her comfort but something small inside of me really needed it then.
“I wanted to hold off on telling you because I know that you just started school again and the notion is hard for you,” she said. “I didn’t want to compound your stress and then goodness forbid you do poorly.” I blinked at her in surprise. I didn’t think she cared about how I did in school anymore. But there was no condescension in her eyes. She searched my face anxiously, waiting for me to respond.
“And we haven’t exactly been supportive of you either—”
“We?” Mom said.
Dad’s shoulders tensed and his face started to turn red again. “What do you want me to say, Julie? Were you not at your birthday brunch? She’s angry with the both of us, not just me,” he said heatedly.
“It’s mostly you, Roth. You never say the right things and you treat Casey as if he’s your favorite. Meanwhile our girls are invisible to you,” Mom said.
“Guys, guys, this isn’t about you!” I said. I stood up, shaking my head in disbelief that everything had suddenly flipped. “Just tell me what happened! Why are you divorcing?” I demanded.
“It’s what you see now, Naomi. Your mother finds something to complain about and we argue, we argue, we argue. That’s the end of it. Now it’s a fight to get my furniture out of the house,” Dad said. “I’m done arguing and I’m sure your mother is done having to tolerate me anymore.” He turned sharply on his heel and strode towards the foyer.
“Why didn’t you call me when you told Casey and Jess, Mom?” I asked again. She took a deep breath and then let it out slowly through her nose.
“Because I wanted to…tell you differently from the way we told them,” she said. “I didn’t mean to hurt you, Naomi. I never do.” Mom kissed me on the cheek and then let go of my hand. She left the room and I sat staring at the cream colored rug feeling oddly hollow inside. After three minutes, I got up and left without seeing either of my parents on the way out.
When I got to the car, I called V, then headed towards campus. “Hey, sistah,” she answered.
“Hey,” I said dully.
“What happened, who died?” she asked.
“My parents’ marriage. I…went to the house to confront them and my dad was in the process of moving his shit out. It was an argument, like usual.” I shook my head, wondering when the shift happened—when he became such an asshole. I told V everything that happened and by the end of it, she sighed just as heavily as my mom had. I pulled into the parking garage on campus and idled.
“Don’t ignore what your mom said. It seems like she really wanted to tell you separately and in a more controlled way than what just happened,” she said.
“Yeah, it didn’t feel like she was lying or anything,” I agreed.
“They’re human, you know. Everyone needs time to go through this. I wouldn’t take Roth’s anger too harshly,” she added. “I mean, you did just roll up on them unannounced. That didn’t have a great chance of panning out well.”
I rolled my eyes, not wanting to agree with her. But of course, V was right. “Yeah,” I mumbled.
“Give them time,” she said. We ended the call soon after that and I had to jog to my next class before I missed it. Just as I skidded to the class room and found an empty seat, Josh texted me: Everything ok?
