Second Grade Questions

The water stopped. Damn, her showers are long. I placed the photo of her and her friend back the dresser. I picked up another photo, it was of an older man. This must be her dad. They looked alike.

Lily came out of the shower dressed in her shorts and tank top.

“I thought you went to bed?” She dried her hair with the towel.

“I couldn’t sleep, so I started snooping.”

“Did you find anything good?” She giggled.

“Just photos.” I placed the photo of the older man down.

“That’s my dad.”

“Yeah, I figured it was. You have the same smile.” She smiled at me.

“The other one is of my friend, Mindy. She’s the only person I liked back at Arizona.”

“Did she graduate with you?”

“Hell no. She still has two more years. She changes her major like it’s a game and she doesn't really go to class.” She started to laugh. “She kind of reminds me of Mike.”

“Obnoxious and loud with no sense of personal boundaries?” I said.

“Yep.” Lily started to braid her long hair. “But she is also kind and clever. She doesn’t take shit from anyone.”

I started to laugh, “They seem like they would be perfect for each other.”

She laid a towel on her pillow and snuggled under the covers. “Are you coming?” She asked in her nicest voice.

“Yeah.”

I gave her a peck on the lips and cuddled her like she was my teddy bear. A few minutes passed and I was still not tired. I looked at her and she was wide awake too.

“Can’t sleep?”

“No. Tomorrow is my first official day so I’m kind of nervous.” She looked over at me. “You?”

“I don’t know. I feel excited. I think.” I really didn’t know why I couldn’t sleep.

“I used to play a game with Mindy when we had nights like this.”

“Okay? What was it?”

“Second Grade Questions.” She blurted out.

“What is that?”

“You basically ask questions a second grader would ask and we both answer it. So, I’ll go first. What’s your favorite color?”

“Green.”

“Mauve.” She pointed to her bedroom walls.

“What’s your favorite wild animal?”

“Red pandas.” She blurted out

“I’ll Google that later. Hmm, it’s penguins for me.”

She was thinking of a question. “Oh. I got one. What is your least favorite word.”

“Moist.”

She started to giggle. “Same”

“Favorite appetizer?”

“Hmmm- I think it would have to be Jalapeno Poppers.”

I thought about the question for a bit. “Cheese Curds.”

“Favorite alcoholic drink?”

“Wait a minute, second graders won’t ask that.” I stopped her.

“You can go past the second-grade questions.” She giggled.

“Sex on the beach.” I said shyly.

She started to laugh. “Really!”

“Shut up! I have a weakness for drinks with cranberry juice.”

“Okay. Okay. Long Island Ice Tea.” She giggled.

“Favorite non-alcoholic drink?”

Lily puckered her lips, “Lemonade.”

“Makes sense if you like Long Island’s. Cranberry juice.”

She started to laugh again. “Of course, Mr. Sex on the Beach.”

“When did you lose your virginity?” She asked.

“Skip.” I blurted out.

“What- you can’t skip.”

I rolled my eyes knowing she was going to make fun of me. “22.”

She looked at me and smiled, “That’s cute.”

“Urgh,” I grunted. “How about you.”

“19,” She looked at me and mouthed the words “I win.”

I grabbed her in my arms, “Shut up. I was a late bloomer,” I defended myself. “Anyway, what is your biggest pet peeve?”

“I hate it when people talk in movies!!!” She snapped.

“Damn, you had that ready.” I laughed. “I hate it when there are dirty dishes.”

“Oh, wow that makes sense. You always wash your plate after we eat.”

I nodded.

“What is your biggest regret?”

“Well, that’s a serious question.” I stated.

“They can’t all be simple.” She laughed.

“Not going into culinary school.”

“Wait. I thought you liked your job. You’re good at it and you said it was easy.”

“Yeah. But it doesn’t make me happy anymore. I’ve been at the company for eight years, basically doing the same thing.” I took a deep breath “It doesn’t challenge me like it used to and it doesn’t make me happy.”

She was the first person I ever told this too.

“Why not quit?” She asked.

“I don’t know. I think it’s because I’m content. I think I am afraid of quitting.” There was a pause. “How about you?”

“Letting my pet fish die.”

What the hell?

She saw my confused expression.

“My dad got me this betta fish when I was younger. It was a blue and white fish with green scales around his eyes.” She paused and started to play with the end of her braid.

“Anyway.” She let out a deep sigh. Her voice was cracking.

“My dad forgot my birthday and got me the fish a day later. I was so angry at him that I took it out on the fish. I didn’t name it. I didn’t feed it. I didn’t clean the water. I just let it slowly die.”

A tear trailed down her cheek. “A few days later the fish died. My dad got into a car accident the same day. And died.”

I wiped her tears away. She was still in a lot of pain.

“It wasn’t your fault.” I kissed her forehead.

“I know.” She wiped another tear. “But there’s still a side of me that wished I had taken care of that fish. I wish I had taken care of the last thing my dad ever gave me.”

I held her tight until she stopped crying. She began to giggle. “This isn’t usually how Second Grade Questions is played.”

“That’s fine. I’m getting to know you.” I smiled at her.

She used the covers to get rid of her last tears.

“What about your mom? You never talk about her.” She asked.

I guess it was time.

“What do you know about her?” I asked Lily.

“Just that she left you guys when you were 14.”

“So, then Mickey didn’t tell you the whole story.”

She shook her head.

“Well first, I don’t like to call her mom. It’s either ‘that bitch’ or Alice.” My rage toward ‘that bitch’ was already making me furious.

“What’s the whole story about… Alice?”

“As you know. I started working with computers at a young age. By the time, I was 14 I had already learned everything I had to learn from building a computer all the way to coding new software. So, I decided to learn hacking.”

“Hacking? Like going into someone’s computer?”

“Yeah.” I took a deep breath.

“Well, I wanted to practice on someone I knew, and I decided to practice on my mom. She downloaded a fake security program I emailed her and I was in the clear. I was able to see everything she was typing-”

“Are you serious? Isn’t that an invasion of privacy?”

“Yes, but she was my mother. She was Alice. I just wanted to make sure I could do it. I wasn’t going to steal her credit card numbers. I just needed practice.”

Lily didn’t look convinced.

“Well, anyway. Since I could see what she was typing. I noticed that she was sending very sexual emails to this guy and then deleting them right afterwards. I thought it was my father at first, but-” I took a deep breath. “I started to get suspicious, so I signed into her email and looked in her trash file.”

Lily didn’t look that upset anymore.

“I found out she was cheating on my dad with one of her co-workers. For over a fucking YEAR!” My rage got the best of me.

Lily gave me a tight hug. “I didn’t know.” She said. “I’m so sorry.”

“I know I shouldn’t have hacked into her email and invaded her privacy. But honestly, it was the best thing I ever did for my dad.”

We laid there in silence for a few seconds.

“Did you tell your dad?” Lily asked.

“Yeah. Right away. He was devastated.” I have never seen him so upset. “He confronted my mom right away and she left. She didn’t say anything or grab her things. She just. Left.”

Lily gave me a tighter hug.

“It’s okay. I mean my dad still thanks me to this day. If I never found out what my mom did then they would have never gotten a divorce. I would have never learned how to cook, and my dad would have never met your mom. And-” I looked down at Lily who was still hugging me.

I would have never met Lily. I closed my eyes and wrapped my arms around Lily enjoying every second. I would have never found her.

* * *

Knock!

A loud knock woke me up. I looked at the time. Shit. It was already 7:00 am. The doorknob started to jiggle.

“Lily, why is the door locked?” Holly questioned.

I started to shake Lily.

“Lily. Wake up!” I whispered loudly into her ear.

I started to freak out. I didn’t want Holly to find me in her daughter’s bed. Lily grunted.

“Lily.” I shoved her.

“W-wh. What?” she jumped up, almost falling off the bed.

“It’s your mom.”

Her eyes widen.

“Lil? Are you even up? Holly asked.

“Yeah. One second!” She yelled back.

I could tell she wanted to use all the swear words in the dictionary.

“Fuck! What’d do we do?”

It looks suspicious that the door is locked and that I am in the room. A lightbulb went off in Lily’s head.

“Pretend you came into use the bathroom! The shower! Pretend you came in to take a shower and you didn’t want to wake them up so you used my bathroom. Go!”

Fuck. That was clever. I grabbed my jeans and shirt from the floor and ran into her bathroom.

“Lily?” Holly yelled.

“Comin’.” She hollered back.

I heard her open the door as I turned on the shower.

“Why did you lock the door?” Holly questioned again.

I remember I hated living with her because she never let you have any privacy. Thankfully, I only had to deal with it for two months until I went off to college.

“Nate must had locked it subconsciously when he came in.” She lied.

“He’s taking a shower? In your room?”

“Yep. He said he didn’t want to wake you guys up so he went ahead and used my shower.”

“Oh, that’s silly. We were already awake.”

There was a moment of silence followed by another question from Holly

“Hmm, where did Nate sleep?”

Jesus. It’s like her mom was a cop, interrogating a criminal.

“On the couch?” Lily’s tone was confused.

She was surprisingly good at lying to her mom. But then again, this was probably not the first time. I started to chuckle.

“It-It’s just that the couch doesn’t look like it’s been slept on.”

“Maybe he put away his blanket before he came to take a shower. I don’t know. Just ask him yourself when he comes out.”

Her sass levels were increasing.

“Don’t you have to do to work?” Holly asked yet another question.

“I don’t start until 8:00 and the office is only 20 minutes away.” She said still giving off high levels of sass.

“Okay. Well you can get ready in Nate’s bathroom. You don’t want to get ready here and have him accidently walk in on you undressing.” Holly started to snicker.

I held my laughter. I hopped into the shower, making the lie real.

* * *

“Oh. My. God.” My dad was like a kid inside of a candy store. Except his candy store was filled with computer parts and wires.

“So, what do you want to buy?”

“Everything.”

My dad was still amazed at how big the place was. We didn’t have anything like this in Springfield when I was growing up. We went up and down each aisle as my dad looked at everything. I didn’t mind it though. I just wanted to spend time with my dad.

“So, where did Holly go today?”

“She first went to Millennium Park and I think she went to the Field Museum. Or the Art Museum. I don’t remember.”

“By herself?”

“Yep. I wasn’t going to go with her. As much as I love her I would rather spend some time with my kid.”

“Thanks, Pops.” I cleared my throat. “What do you need for your computer?”

“CPU, fans, graphic cards, RAM, sata cables-”

“Basically, everything to build a new computer.” I stopped him mid-sentence.

“Yep.” He tried to read the small print on a motherboard box.

“Anything new in your life?” I asked him.

“Not much. I started building computers again. But this time I’m selling them online.” He pulled out his reading glasses. “Did you know people pay me double for a gaming computer?”

“I know, Dad. I’ve been telling you that since the beginning. But no, you didn’t listen to me.”

He rolled his eyes at me, “You were 12, why would I listen to you?”

He placed the motherboard down and picked up a different brand. “Basically, the same old same old, and I’m still working at the bakery with Holly.”

I nodded with him.

“How about you, Nate?”

“Same old same old,” I mumbled. I started to pick up some computer parts and skimming the different features.

“Bullshit.” My dad chuckled.

“I mean work is the same. Samuel hands me a report with different statistics and problems and then I go and fix them with my team or by myself. It’s the same old same old. Nothing new.”

I started to feel trapped thinking about work and my repetitive cycle.

“And how is Samuel?”

“He’s fine. Still Dad 2.0.”

My dad chuckled.

“Seems about right. Well next time you come over, bring Samuel with you.”

He walked to the other side of the store.

“And the ladies?” He questioned.

His tone of voice changed.

“Just one-night-stands. Nothing new.” I lied.

“Nothing serious?” He arched his eyebrows.

“Nope.”

“What about Lily?”

“What-”

My heart dropped. Did he find out?

“What about living with Lily? That’s new.”

I let out a nervous laugh. My heart when back to a normal beat.

“It’s going well. Really well. I helped her get a job. But overall, we don’t fight and agree on most things.”

“Good. I’ll glad to you see you and Lily are getting along.” He stretched Lily’s name.

“Yeah.”

There was a moment of silence.

“So, you get along with Lily. That’s good. Really good.” He repeated what I said.

“Yep.” I took a few steps away from him looking at a different product.

I felt like a little kid again. My dad trying to pry out information from me. My heart started to beat heavily again.

What if I told him? I know he can keep a secret. But wouldn’t he be pissed?

She is my stepsister.

His stepdaughter.

My stomached turned into a giant knot. I can’t lie to my dad. He was the only person in the world I could never lie to.

“So. Lily. How is she doing in the big city?” He asked.

“Good. She likes it. But I know she wants more friends so she can go out more.”

“Aren’t you her friend?” He looked at me. “Good friends.” He used a different tone again.

OH MY GOD.

Does he know? I have to tell him. What’s the worst that can happen?

“Dad-I-I think that- this part is good for a gaming computer.” I picked up a random computer part.

I chickened out. I can’t tell him. Samuel already knows. I don’t need a second person to know, even if it was my dad.

“Please. You know that graphic card is shit.” He snorted.

We walked to the next aisle in silence.

“Nate.”

“Yeah?”

“Maybe it’s time to find a girl.”

I looked over at him, but I didn’t say anything.

“You know. A girl you can date.”

“Ye-Yeah. It might be time.” I agreed with him.

“Maybe a girl that’s smart. Dedicated. Passionate.” He took a deep breath. “Maybe even a brunette who’s easy on the eyes.”

I let out a snort as the image of Lily popped into my head, “Yeah.”

I looked down at our shopping cart, avoiding his eyes.

“Hmm- so wha-. What if I found someone like that?”

“Hold on to her.” He added another item in the cart.

“Yeah. Hmmm. But. But what if-”

He placed his hand on my shoulder to interrupt me. “Hold on to her.”

I looked at him. He gave me an accepting smile. I wasn’t sure if he knew or not, but I needed that smile.

“Thanks, Dad.”

He ruffled up my hair.

“You look like a pretty boy with all that crap you have in your hair.” He wiped his hand on his shirt trying to get rid of the pomade.

I fixed my hair trying to style it back in the right place. There was a moment of silence. But this time it didn’t feel awkward.

“So Mexican food tonight?”

“Yeah.” I nodded.