Doofus Part 2

I’m having trouble remembering the exact chronological order of things, but I do remember being home alone a lot after my parents divorced. My sister was around for the first couple of years, but by my junior year in high school I’m pretty sure she was gone.

My mom would go out dancing with her friends on weekends, leaving me home alone. Sometimes I’d have a friend over, but it was usually alone. That’s okay, I’d watch Headbangers’ Ball on MTV or something and stay up late. I could always occupy myself on my computer if I wanted to. I liked all the alone time. I couldn’t stand living with my sister because she would go to bed at 8pm, so I had to be quiet. Then she’d get up at 5am and wake my up with her hair drier long before I needed to get up. My brother and I certainly got along a lot better once he moved out too.

Apprently, my mother met Doofus (Ron) through church and a went out dancing with him a couple of times. At one point I remember her telling me that she’s not home if he calls. No problem, when he called, I just didn’t give her the message. I either misunderstood whose calls I was supposed to blow off, or she changed her mind at some point and didn’t tell me. I kept on with what I last heard until she finally corrected me. Apparently she did want to take his calls. Oops. Okay, so one night, she’s going out again, but this time Ron’s coming by to pick her up. Not just to pick her up of course (her friends usually did that,) but I was to meet him. Sure, whatever. He met me while I was sitting down watching a new civil war documentary I’d just purchased and eating strawberries my mom had picked. I don’t know what I was supposed to get out of it, but he met me. I thought he was a dork, but I expected as much.

A couple of months later, she started talking to me about him moving in. I think it was three months before they got married. My mother bought my brother and I new suits for the wedding, but didn’t make us be a part of the ceremony. It was nice, everyone was happy for her. She was happy she didn’t have to live alone anymore. Her worst fear was to live the rest of her life alone, and she was determined to not let that happen.

I didn’t care for him, but it was not and is not my business. Sure, I had to live with him, but I saw it more as him coming to live with me since I had been here longer. I already had a father, so this was all about my mom. I was 17, just learning to drive, and starting my first senior year of high school. I didn’t have any big plans to move out or go to college, but I was far from feeling a need for a father figure in the house. Unless my mom wasn’t aware, I don’t know why she didn’t correct him when he moved in with his own ideas of what I needed.

To be continued again…