“This is not my best moment.” I whispered to myself as I walked up to My mom with what felt like sweat dripping down my face. Immediately knowing I was tense, she asked what was wrong. I dreaded telling her this information since my parents are going through a divorce, but I needed to. He can’t just show up! My mom would freak! I thought to myself as I felt my palms slowly start to clam up in frustration and nervousness. Might as well! I said with more confidence than when I tried to tell her last time. I jumped at the chance to get the question out. “Mom, I asked Dad to come.”

“You what?” My mom stuttered as she tried to get those two words out of her mouth.

“I asked Dad to come Mom, can he come with us?” My mom stepped back to lean on the counter. It felt like 20 painfully awkward minutes had passed before she spoke up.

“Yeah, if that’s what you want.” She said. “You already invited him.” She started to loosen up-as if she wanted me to think she wasn’t at least a little thrown off, but I knew she was.

“It’ll be fine Mom, I promise.” As soon as that was said, there was a knock at the door.

“Hello!” my father said as he walked in the door. It was still for a moment. The air filled with small groans and mumbles. My parents, looking at each other for the first time since they last spoke, didn’t seem too excited. “Cathy.” He mumbled as he gave me a tight squeeze.

“Percy.” My mom responded. After we all hopped inside of my mother's gunmetal blue 2003 Windstar van it was still; as if I could hear an ant walk on the warm cracked cement. As we got in the car, the silence was unbearable. To fill the empty void, I turn up the radio, to take my mind off of the upcoming game and the fact that my parents were making things ten times worse; of course I’m exaggerating. Just let us get there in peace. I run through my mind over and over.

“So nice to see you again Cathy. It’s been a while.”

“Yeah.” My mom replies, drawing out the word. “So I suppose you had totally disregarded my feelings and decided to just show up.” “And not only did you do that, but you couldn’t even tell me that you were coming, you made our daughter.” While the basis is booming I can hear them start to bicker.

“No Cathy it was not like that.” My dad shot back. “Why am I always the bad guy?” He hesitantly questioned.
“Because, sometimes you are.” She began. “You put extra pressure on Katie to say what she probably doesn’t want too. You came to the house in a perfectly fine, running car Percy, you couldn't drive yourself to the game as well? As My mom and dad began on this rant that happens almost everytime they’re in the same area for more than ten minutes, it got more serious than usual. I was scared, but I was also shocked: they usually try to tone it down when I’m around… definitely not today. My mom halted at a red light as the undesirable argument was still taking place. All of a sudden my dad got out of the car. I was mortified and confused. My body began to automatically shiver… not knowing how to react. I had no idea that this was going to happen, and out of all the other days it could have been… it was this one. As he got out it was almost like time had froze. It had seemed as if the red light had lasted for longer than normal. He stared at me with his brassy brown eyes like he had messed up: like he had failed to give me a calm, normal day. I felt horrible. And then all of a sudden the time had drastically leaped forward and the light had turned green again. I started to scream.

“Dad get back in the car!”

The people in the cars behind us started to impatiently honk their horns as I panicked to get him in.

“Dad! Get in the car! We have to go!”

My mom sat there in silence, trying to calculate his next move. All of a sudden he hopped back in the car.
“Thank you!” I quietly murmured to myself as I sigh in relief. 

“Cathy we need to talk later, but now is not the right time.” He started to reason. “Katie has a softball game, and I know that you don't want her to miss it or throw her off track just because one of our many disagreements.”
“You’re right, I don’t want to do that.” She agreed, but the tone in her voice still made it clear that she didn’t want to deal with my father today. A little while after the game. My parents had sat down and let their argument finally fade out. “Ok. I’m glad we got to talk things over Cathy, but now I have to go.”

“Alright. I’ll see you next weekend when you pick Katie up.” I ran to my dad and hugged him tightly before he left. “That wasn’t what I expected.” I said to My mom as I returned from the door and curled up with her in an old worn Lazy Boy recliner.

“Yeah, well all in all it wasn’t too bad of a day, you won your game!”

“I guess so.” I responded

“Katie, I want you to understand that not all things work out: even if you have things important in the mix, like kids. That’s why me and your dad still talk, because we have you. You are the best thing that’s happened to us, married or not.” And with that she slowly rose from the recliner and left for her bed. As she walked further into the dark hallway I just sat there. Going over all that she had just said. I realized something that day. I realized that even if you are committed and spend a lot of time on something, it could still fail, and it doesn't necessarily mean that you failed, but it means that that's just the way things were planned for you.