“DAD!!!”

Seriously, what’s taking so long.

“One second!” he yelled back at me.

He was most likely on the phone with someone from work. It’s always work. I mean, I love my dad to death, but he works too fucking much.

“The food is getting cold!” I poked my chopsticks inside the container of rice.

I’m so hungry. I just want to eat, but I know my dad will kill me if I eat without him. I could just hear him saying, eating without everyone at the table is rude. Don’t ever do it! You have to wait for everyone to be at the table or wait for everyone to get their food. I took a chunk of fried rice and slowly brought it to my mouth.

“HEY!” I heard a booming roar. “What are you doing?”

Dad was covering the speaker on his phone to scold me. I narrowed my eyes to give him the same look he was giving me. I could tell he was ready to snap at me if I brought the food closer.

“Yep, I’m still here,” he moved his hand away from the speaker, his narrow eyes still on me.

I’m hungry. I brought the rice slowly to my mouth, not breaking eye contact with my father. His eyes were yelling at me not to eat the food, but I’ve already waited 15 minutes for him to get off the phone. It’s rude to keep people waiting.

He mouthed the words ‘Don’t you dare’ as he puckered his lips. I inhaled the chunk of rice and started to chew slowly with my chipmunk grin.

“PENELOPE,” he whispered loudly.

I swallowed the rice with pure bliss.

“Don’t you dare, take another bite of that rice!” he didn't bother covering the speaker this time. “Penelope!”

“Bradley,” I used my sassiest voice, taking another chunk of rice.

He couldn’t help but to shake his head with a grin. He wasn’t that mad.

Even though he was my father, we acted more like siblings. It was probably because we’re somewhat close in age. Well, not really close, we’re 19 years apart. I mean, most people my age have much older parents, but not me.

I had a young dad.

We’ve been mistaken for brother and sister for as long as I can remember, especially when my dad had to go to parent-teacher meetings. The female teachers would always end up hitting on him because they thought he was my brother.

But, nope, he was just my dad. I didn’t really see the big deal with having a young dad. It was great; when I was younger, he would always want to play with me even after a 12-hour shift at work. Sure, his accounting job wasn’t that intense, but he still worked really hard to help our small family grow to where it is now.

“Okay, so I’ll see you on Thursday? Great! Just remember no one is going to be home. You can use the spare key under the welcome mat and just let yourself in.”

Who was he talking to? It was definitely not work.

“Yeah, no problem. I can’t wait to see you. Bye.”

He hung up the phone and placed it on the table. He sat down, grinning from ear to ear. The second his butt touched the chair, I took it as permission to start eating my Mongolian beef.

My dad started to munch on his food. “Guess who that was?”

I shrugged my shoulders. “Someone who’s going to stay with us?”

He chuckled, “Okay, smartass. I meant like a person’s name?”

“I don’t know. Aunt Olivia? Grandpa Elijah? Grandma Betty?” I named the guests that had stayed with us in the past.

He shook his head. He was definitely too happy for a family member to be coming to stay with us.

“A friend?”

He nodded.

“From High School?”

He shook his head.

“You could’ve already told me who it was by now,” I said impatiently.

“Cedric!” he smiled.

Who? I feel like I should remember his name, but I couldn’t.

“He was my only roommate in college. You remember, I told you about him. He was a freshman and I was a junior, we roomed together for two years, but then when I moved back here and we grew apart.”

I was drawing a blank.

“Seriously? You don’t remember,” he let out a heavy sigh. “Remember there was an error in the rooming system and I had to room with him. He had long hair, like Tarzan. He was the one I made a dare with but he didn’t finish it so he ended up shaving his hair.”

“Oh, Mohawk guy!” I snapped my fingers as my memory came back.

“YES!” he chuckled.

Even to this day, my dad still hasn’t told me about the dare. He said he didn’t want to give me any ideas and try anything stupid. But I think it’s because he doesn’t want to tell me about all the stupid shit he did in college.

“Damn. It’s been so long,” he did the math in his head, “15 years.”

“Wait, you haven't seen him since you graduated.”

“Nope. And we haven't really talked since then. Man, we have so much catching up to do.”

My dad was so happy, which made me happy. He rarely has friends over, and I can’t even remember the last time he was on a date.

“So, is he staying in the guest bedroom?” I asked, playing with my rice.

The only reason I hated when people stayed over was because my room and the guest bedroom shared a bathroom. The only way you can get to the bathroom on the first floor was if you went through my bedroom or the guest room. It was honestly very poor design, not to mention the doors don’t have locks.

I got a shiver down my spine as I remembered walking in on Grandma’s Betty in the bathtub —

Oh my god. Stop. Don’t think about it!

“Where else would he stay? He’s a guest, so by that logic he stays in the guest room,” my dad smirked.

I guess it was a stupid question, but I didn’t want to deal with anyone. I like being alone.

“So, how long is he staying?”

“Two weeks,” my dad hummed as he ate his food.

“Ehhhhhh,” I grunted.

I took out my phone and looked at the calendar.

“Thursday is the 22nd which means that he leaves on the . . .” I scrolled to March. “The 9th.”

Perfect. He’ll be gone before I have my Spring Break. And I won’t have to socialize with him since I’ll be busy with midterms. It couldn't be more perfect!

“Damn. That feels like nothing. It can’t make up for 15 years,” my dad pouted like a puppy.

“At least you get to see him.”

He played with his food sadly.

“Shut up and eat your food,” I barked.