I Feel Like A Hero

The warm breeze of spring hit my front and ruffled my hair as I walked from my car to the front door of my house. It was late afternoon and I was just returning after spending the night at Alex's. Well, not so much returning, but more as making sure the house was still here and grabbing more clothes before going back to Alex's. It's the second time this week I've done this and it's getting kind of old. I'm to the point of just packing for a week every time I go to spend the night there.

As you can tell, Alex is kind of clingy. But not clingy "I need to know where you are at every moment or I'll freak out," but more like, "I want to spend as much time with you as possible and am going to assume you feel the same because I haven't been told otherwise." So it's not exactly a bad thing, considering I do like spending time with him. It's just, not the easiest thing to do when you live 20 minutes apart.

I would totally ask him to move in with me, if I were living in my own house. But technically it's still my parents house, and asking someone to else to live there while they're away seems weird. So if he wants to live together, the ball's in his court.

When I reached the front door, the first thing I noticed was that it was already unlocked. Shit. I was gone for over 24 hours. If I left the door unlocked, there's a good chance all my stuff is gone. This is wonderful, simply wonderful. I opened the door hesitantly, preparing myself to whatever could be in there.

"Jack! Finally, I've been waiting for you to get home all morning!"

I jumped at the unexpected sound. I whipped my head up to see my sister sitting on the kitchen counter. I shocked because a, I haven't seen my sister in years and b, she doesn't even live in this country. She lived in Canada; having chosen to move there for college after she graduated high school in Baltimore.

"May? What are you doing here?" I asked, walking over to give her a hug.

She gave me a sad smile, "I'm here to play as the bearer of bad news sadly. You need to come with me, we have a flight booked in a few hours. Dad's sick, doesn't look good. Might not have that much time left."

I blinked in confusion, "Wait, did mom tell you? When I spoke to her last week everything was fine..."

"Last night she called me, said she tried to call you, but you wouldn't answer..."

"My phone was dead," I said, "And I was at Alex's last night... Son of a bitch."

"Well, at least you came home. I probably wouldn't have known where to look for you and like I
said, we have a flight to catch," she shrugged, "So hurry up and pack, we need to leave soon. Pack for a week or so."

"Yeah, yeah sure," I nodded, walking towards the stairs.

On the way up, I realized exactly what my sister had said. My father-our father-is dying. The father that, in the last ten years, I've barely spoken to. The father that didn't come back to see me when I was dying of cancer. The father that didn't plan to come home for my funeral when I actually did die. But yet, as much as I don't want to care, I do. I can't help it.

I emptied out the dufflebag that I brought home and threw some clothes into it. Just the normal skinny jeans and Jagk shirts. I also thought to grab some cutoffs, seeing that the middle east is warm this time of year.

I went to the bathroom to pack some toiletries, "You know, it's very convenient that I have to have a passport for work," I called down to May; the thought randomly crossing my mind.

"I thought about that briefly, but then figured, eh you're famous, you've got to have one," she called back up.

I chuckled to myself, "Are we bad children?" I asked as I went back downstairs, "Our dad is sick and neither of us seem like we're in much of a rush to get over there..."

"Well, for one thing, he hasn't exactly been the best dad ever," she shrugged, "The fact that we're really disconnected doesn't help. Like, when's the last time he's checked up on you?"

"He doesn't," I muttered, "It's always mom that I walk to..."

"I mean, yeah we're at the point in our lives where we don't him hovering, but we were both still in school when he went back to Lebanon."

I sighed, our family is really dysfunctional, "You think he'd care enough to at least pretend to be interested in our lives."

"Exactly," she exclaimed, "Let's see, Joe's an archaeologist who travels the world, I'm the head of a pretty well known law firm and you're a fucking rock star. We're all successful."

"Wow, now I really don't want to go."

She chuckled, "Come on. FYI, I used your frequent flyer miles to pay for the last minute tickets. There's no way you're getting those back."

I groaned as she pulled me out of the house and to my car. As we left for the airport, I had the strangest sensation that made me think I was forgetting something...

Notes

What am I doing? The answer to that question is infinite, like the amount of digits in pi... Ok I'm gonna go now, I think I fried my brain studying for finals... But in other news, school year's over, so that's cool.

Title Cred: The Avett Brothers- I and Love and You

xoxo Mary (who will probably become a better updater because free time.) (Or at least start proofreading more...)