My sister and I fight with our parents about what restaurant to go to. My mother wanted to eat Indian food, my father fast food while Katherine and I wanted Barbeque. We ended up ruling out our parents and going to eat Barbeque.
The place we end up at is very popular with the UC Berkeley crowd. The ribs fall right off the bone and the burgers taste like crack. This restaurant does not get enough praise.
I lead my parents and sister towards a booth in the back. Also, the cool thing about this place is they have a self-serving ice cream/deserts bar. Katherine's going to like that.
After 20 minutes of waiting, and Katherine annoying the hell out of me, our food shows up. My father ignores all of us as he eats his ribs, the sauce was all over his face. My mother and I get the burger while Katherine orders chicken tenders and fries. She's always been somewhat a picky eater, so anytime she goes to a restaurant she doesn't know, she'll get chicken tenders and fries.
"Is that good, Katherine?" I ask her. She flicks a fry at me.
"Stop playing with your food." My father scolds us.
My mother looks over at me, "It's so weird having you with us, Andreas. The house is so quiet without you."
My mouth widens, I'm speechless, "Oh, I'm sure that Katherine is keeping the house loud and smelling like sex." I mumble against my lemonade. My mother doesn't hear me, but Katherine does. She kicks me under the table, I groan quietly against my cup.
"She's barely at home, always out with her friends. She refuses to stay in the house with me, it's always just your Ba and I." My mother rubs her hand on Katherine's back.
"Ma! I have a life; I need to live it. I can't stay in the house watching reality shows with you guys. You should be lucky I have a social life."
"What social life? You only have like 2 friends."
She rolls her eyes, "I forgot how funny you are, Andreas. A trait I don't miss from you." As we all talk, we realize there's one person that's not talking, our Ba. His mouth is submerged in the ribs, eating it like he hasn't had a meal in ages.
Katherine squeals, "Ba, take a breath! Outsiders may think we're starving you." His black eyes look up at us, so bashful he is.
"Leave him alone, Katherine." My mother chastises.
"Have you heard back from your friend in the hospital?" My father asked.
I check my phone, no messages. "Nothing, I'm sure I'll hear something tomorrow."
"I'm going to call his mother tonight; see how she's doing and if she needs anything." My mother said. With my Ma being a social worker, she's always on call. Always worried about other people, I don't think there's ever a time she isn't worrying.
"See, this is why he shouldn't be playing football. You saw Jace's shoulder, you want that to be you?" My father puts down his ribs, wiping the corner of his mouth as he, yet again, tries to find some outlet for me to not play football.
"Ba! That was a fluke. It was one bad hit, that doesn't happen all the time." I notify him.
He scoffs, not believing me, "Who's the one with a medical background, me." He points to himself. "I see kids getting injured all the time from football. And don't get me started on CTEs. Dr. Anne Mckee, a doctor at Boston University said that more than 315 football players suffer from it. Imagine, Andreas, your brain rattling around in your head because that's essentially what it is."
"Andreas, leave your son alone." said my mother.
Did I forget to mention, I'm named after my father. It was crazy growing up, my mother would call the name Andreas, me and my father would both come down the stairs, confused about who she was calling. So, to lessen the confusion, they call me Dre and my father is Andreas.
Everyone, including my father, calls my mother Ma, so we don't have to worry about the overlap of Katherine.
"Ma, you think I'm going to sit here and let him get hurt without knowing all the facts. I don't know about you, but I love my son."
"We know you do."
"I mean, think about it, what if he gets a CTE and starts acting crazy. A perfect example is Aaron Hernandez. That guy killed someone, is Andreas a killer."
"Ba, you're crazy!"
"Our son is not a killer."
"Alright, Katherine and I are going to get ice cream. We'll leave Ba to his crazy talk." I and my sister leave my parents at the table.
As we get farther from the table, we can hear my father still rambling and my mother grumbling. I'm sorry I had to leave her with him, my father can sometimes be too much. I understand where he's coming from, he just wants to look after me, but he gets overheated and needs to be cooled down.
I follow behind Katherine as she walks us to the self-serving bar. On one side was all the topping like chocolate nuts, sprinkles, and candy. The side that we are on houses ice cream of all types. Chocolate, vanilla, praline, and Neapolitan.
Katherine starts scooping up vanilla ice cream in a white bowl.
"Wait, aren't you lactose intolerant?"
She scoffs, "And?"
"And, you shouldn't be eating ice cream."
"That doesn't mean I respect it." She walks to the other side, putting sprinkles on top. "You want some nuts; we know you don't have anything." She points to the bowl of nuts.
"You know, I didn't miss you that much."
"Mhm, whatever." She mumbles, smiling at me with her eyes. "So, you want to talk about it?"
I grab a scooper, put chocolate ice cream in a waffle bowl, then hand the spoon to another person next to me.
"What do you mean?"
"You know what I mean."
"I don't that's why I asked you."
"Elizabeth." That one name shuts down every system in my body, makes the blood beneath my skin run cold and my mouth becomes dry.
"No, I don't want to talk about her."
Katherine laughs, grabbing some Neapolitan ice cream and putting it on top while adding little brownies to the pile.
"What happened with you guys?"
"None of your business," I say, irritated.
She bites her lip and walks around to my side, "Andreas, at one point I was your best friend, you know you can tell me anything."
"I know I can, this is just something I don't want to talk about." I finish off with my ice cream, waiting for her to add whatever she has left.
"Does not being with Elizabeth have anything to do with Jessie?"
System has officially shut down.
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