"I saw dad cheating on you."

The worry lines on mom's forehead only deepened at my shaky admission. She opened her mouth to speak, but then shut it again as if she were considering her words. I was so scared of what she was going to say; my hands were visibly shaking. I clenched my eyes shut and did my best to take deep breaths.

A couple of awkwardly silent minutes later, I felt a hand laying on top of my shaking ones. I opened my eyes to see mom smiling softly at me, all previous traces of worry erased. So, needless to say, I was pretty confused.

"Jack," she said quietly. "Calm down, baby. Your dad's not cheating on me."

"B-b-but I saw him," I stammered out, more confused than ever.

"It's okay," she chuckled lightly. "I thought the same thing when I first saw him."

Wait, what? She already caught him?

"I don't understand..." I trailed out in confusion.

"The girl you saw your father with is from a country over in Europe," she explained. "I don't remember which one, but her country is a lot more affectionate than we are. Things that we consider to be intimate, they do among friends. And your dad's just trying to accommodate for her."

She couldn't be serious. "Did dad tell you that?"

"Well, yeah." She shrugged. "I had the wrong idea, so he had to explain."

"Mom, are you kidding me?" I exclaimed. "That is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard! She was practically climbing him! I swear to God, there is no country like that! Did you even Google it?"

"I trust your father, Jack!" she yelled. "And now I need you to trust me!"

"Whatever, mom," I sighed. I had so much more I could've said to her, but I could tell she was so far into denial that it wouldn't help. "I'm going on a walk."

She sighed. "Just be back by dark. We'll talk about this more when your father gets home."

I stood up from the table and walked towards the door, setting my hand on the doorknob. "There's nothing to talk about," I said before leaving the house.

I couldn't believe she'd buy those excuses. I will admit, my father's a lucky man. Anyone else would've left by that point. I would've left already if someone had cheated on me. There is no way to betray someone's trust more. Mom can't be that naïve; she just can't. She has to be doing it on purpose—believing it. I have to help her see that he's no good for her anymore; I just have to.

I wandered around town for awhile until I made it to the park. I sat down on a bench facing the playground and just watched. I saw families with little children, happy families. What I no longer have. Even if I couldn't get mom to understand, I'd always know. I'd never be able to go back to ignorance. Everything was changing, and I didn't like it.

I could hear laughter in the distance. It didn't sound like children, though. I turned around to see a group of teenagers kicking around a soccer ball.

"Am I the only one that thinks this is bullshit?" one of them yelled. "Franceschi is on the soccer team!"

I raised my eyebrows—so they were Alex's friends. I looked over to see if Alex was with them, but it didn't look like it. I recognized Josh right away. He looked over and caught my gaze before waving. I waved back and tried to smile. It probably turned out like a grimace, but at least I tried.

"Hey, Barakat!" Josh yelled, walking toward me and abandoning the small game. "Sup?"

I shrugged, not giving a real answer.

"Where were you today?" he asked, sitting down next to me. "Gaskarth was worried."

"I was sick," I murmured, not making eye contact. "Slept most of the day."

I felt a little bad for lying to him, but I didn't know him. I certainly wasn't going to tell him the truth about my family falling apart.

"Oh." He nodded. "Are you okay? You seem a little out of it..."

I shrugged again. "Yeah, I guess."

"Hey, what the fuck are you doing, Franceschi?" I heard someone yell. "We were in the middle of a game!"

Josh scoffed. "Shove it up your ass, Monster!" he yelled. "I'll be back in a minute! It's not like you guys had a chance at winning!" He shook his head. "Those guys are idiots."

"You should get back," I said lightly.

"Probably." He stood up. "But, Jack? If you need anything, I meant what I said. I got your back."

I smiled. "Thanks, Josh."

"Anytime, man." He smiled, running back to his friends.

---

I spent a couple of hours at the park before making my way back home. I watched the sunset as I walked back, and that was pretty nice. I'd always been too preoccupied to pay attention to stuff like that, but it was actually kind of beautiful.

When I got home, I saw my dad's car was sitting in the driveway.

Oh, no.

I took a deep breath before opening the door. I saw a fairly normal scene in front of me—dad was sitting at the table, working on something, while mom was in the kitchen, washing the dishes. I sighed to myself; I don't know why I expected mom to suddenly realize that she was being lied to.

Dad looked up when I closed the door. He smiled lightly, but it didn't seem to be genuine. I also noticed that he wouldn't meet my eyes. Great, he knows that I know. Now I'm not going to have time alone with mom to try to convince her that she's wrong.

"Jack? Is that you, baby?" mom called from the kitchen."There's leftovers from dinner in the fridge if you're hungry. We would've waited, but I didn't know when you'd be back."

"That's okay mom," I said, walking into the kitchen.

"I think your father wanted to talk to you, too," she continued, "but that can probably wait if you want to eat first."

To be honest, I wasn't hungry, but I didn't want to deal with impending conversation with my father, so I decided to put it off as long as possible. So I went to the refrigerator, took out the plate of food, and put it in the microwave. I leaned up against the counter as I waited for my food to heat up.

"Did you have a nice walk, Jack?" mom asked, while drying the already-washed dishes.

"Yeah." I shrugged. "I saw the sunset as I coming home, it was pretty cool."

"That's nice," she commented before going back to her dishes in silence.

I sighed as the microwave beeped, signalling my food was ready to be eaten. I took it out and walked towards the table, sitting as far as possible from my dad.

"Feeling better, son?" he asked, sounding a little uncomfortable.

"Yeah," I murmured, keeping my head down.

He sighed. "Hey, honey?" he yelled to the kitchen. "You've been working so hard today. Why don't you go upstairs and watch TV in our room? I'll finish up in there later."

About thirty seconds later, mom walked out of the kitchen with a smile on her face. "Are you sure? I'm almost done," came out of her mouth, but the entire time her eyes were locked on the stairs.

"Go," dad said, playfully shooing her.

She left without needing anymore reassurance. I held my breath as I watched her figure retreat up the stairs. Alone time with dad was not on my list of things I wanted to have.

As soon I heard a door close, I decided to speak. "How could you?" I asked, looking up at him.

He sighed and rubbed his hands over his face. "It's more complicated than you think..."

That just made me even angrier. "How? You cheated on mom, made up some ridiculous excuse about it, and then continued doing it! Please explain to me what's going on, because I'm really confused."

"Jack," he said slowly, as if he was picking his words carefully. "I didn't really want to the first time... your mom and I had just fought, and she'd always been a close friend... but then it just got out of control, and then your mom found out, and I couldn't own up to it, so I made up something on the spot."

"That's not complicated," I huffed. "That's an excuse. It's not fair; she honestly believes you're not doing anything wrong."

"No, she doesn't," he groaned. "She's just in denial or something."

"I want you to tell her the truth," I said.

"And tear this family apart?" he asked, voice an octave higher than usual. "Your mom doesn't deserve that, and neither do you."

"She doesn't deserve it?" I yelled. "She didn't deserve to walk in on you and another woman!"

He sighed. "Your mom's happy Jack. So what if she doesn't know the truth? Just let her be happy."

"Let her be happy? Dad, you're betraying her trust!" I stressed. "She has a right to know when her husband has broken their marriage vows! And... I don't know if I could live with myself knowing when she doesn't..."

"What if I stopped?" he asked quietly, after a few minutes of silence. "Would you be okay then? I just want everything to be okay."

"That would be better than nothing, I guess." I shrugged. "It still doesn't feel right."

"I know," dad said, putting a hand on my shoulder. "I'm sorry you got dragged into this."

"I think," I sighed, "I'm gonna go upstairs."

I stood up before dad could say anything else. I still didn't feel good about any of it. She deserves to know the truth; to hear it from him. I just don't know how to convince him.

Once I was in my room, I fished my phone out of my pocket; maybe Alex'd have some advice. And if not, at least I'll get a chance to talk to someone about it. But when I dialed his number, it went straight to voice-mail.

I sighed. "Hey, Lex, it's Jack... Um, can you call me back when you get the chance? I need some help with something... Uh, if not, I'll talk to you tomorrow. Bye."

I laid down on my bed and stared up at the ceiling. What am I going to do?

Notes