7/26/08

I.
I woke up this morning
and I was scarred for life.
Why do parents think they can get away with things
that even the most experienced teenagers
have trouble getting away with?
I am in the bed next to you.
I am a light sleeper.
That should be enough facts to tell you-
don’t do nasty things.

But of course my step-mom doesn’t care.
She’s getting enough enjoyment from torturing me lately.
Well, not really torturing.
Just being mean.
Like, last night, when we arrived at the motel
she said, “Stop that!”
as if i’d burned her.
I looked down at my cell phone,
my message to Leah half finished.
I asked her why.
She said it was annoying.
I stopped texting.

I always think that if I stay quiet,
if I take the blows thrown at me,
that things will get better.
Because every time I fight,
things always get worse.
This method worked with my mother, but
why can’t it work with the rest of the world, too?

II.
This trip actually started yesterday
sometime around four pm.
What does ‘p.m.’ mean anyway?
I’ve never cared to ask.
But somehow it was arranged for me to be in the front seat.
Not because of my habitual car sickness,
but because Debbie (the step-mom) wanted the room.
In the back she can knit, lay down, or even watch movies
on that fancy dvd player-thing we bought
so that I wouldn’t have to use my Dad’s laptop the whole time.
But now all I do is write and read
and listen to music and text.
I don’t need much room for that.
So i’m in the front.

Not two hours into the trip we stopped at McDonald’s
and I was reminded of why I am an idiot.
I ordered a snack wrap and a sweet tea.

At first this seemed like an ingenious idea.
Compared to a double cheeseburger and fries,
a snack wrap is uber healthy for me right?
But it turns out there’s a reason it’s called a snack wrap.
The rabid, starving animal in my tummy wasn’t happy when I finished it.
So to make up for the lack of food I downed my tea.
And that’s when I remembered
how fast sweet tea goes through my system.
Road trips like this are the reason why
I never complain about the lack of bathroom breaks during school.