The Consequence
...ry angry. Angry at Bruce, angry with my mom for having Bruce around. I felt such a great urge to do something about my boiling anger, but I didn’t know what I could do that could console me. I wasn’t one of those kids who went around getting in trouble at home or at school. I was never grounded or punished because I was always good. And then the light bulb went off in my head. The idea was so simple and childlike that I was sure everyone else would think it as hilarious as I did. All I had to do was go out there, into that jungle of adults, and do it. I had to get my revenge on Bruce for ruining my night… for ruining the past five years of my life. I was tired of his presence and I was sure that after my mom saw what I did she would be ashamed she ever brought him into our home. The anticipation growing inside me was about to explode. Moments later I was standing in front of him doing my best job to be charming and cute. Two things I never bothered to try to be before that moment. I very sweetly asked him to sit in one of the chairs from our kitchen table. I stood behind the chair nervously holding onto one of the rungs. It surprised me to feel that my palms were slightly sweaty as I held on. I started to worry that my hands would slip and I wouldn’t get to do it. So I held on tighter hoping no one would notice anything out of the ordinary, like my knuckles turning white from my grip. Bruce didn’t seem to notice. He looked down at me and smiled that drunken smile I was so used to seeing. “Yes!” I thought, he was going to do it. He was going to sit down like I had asked. The next couple of seconds went by in slow motion. He turned around casually and began to sit down. Talking to one of his friends across the room. Not paying a bit of attention as I started to move. He never got the chance to sit in that chair. Next thing I knew he was on the floor. A look of shock and surprise on his face that I couldn’t help but get a kick out of. I had pulled the chair out from under him and I was ecstatic. Ready to jump out of my skin. That was until I looked over at my mom. She was momentarily frozen like everyone else in the room but her eyes soon met mine and the disappointment I saw in them is something I will never forget. Her once smiling face had fallen, like it had just started to rain over her head. She wasn’t ashamed of him, she was ashamed of me. In a single instant I ...