FAMILY OF THE YEAR - HERO

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHeK0Cwr9sg

JB stared at the worried lines that painted across Summer’s face. Her expression appeared livid and frantic, almost as if she had seen a ghost.

“Sorry about that,” she said, her voice coming out hoarse and unclear. She sounded as if she had lost her breath. “I thought a spider was about to fall down on your head. I have a terrible phobia towards insects.” The words came out automatically, without her even needing to think of it. Of course, it was a lie. She didn’t want JB to see her Father; it would’ve been far too embarrassing to let JB know that she had that kind of person in her life.

Her eyes darted towards the door nervously, any moment now he might knock on the door. JB needed to go.

Perplexity struck JB’s face. He didn’t know how she expected him to believe that, when he clearly saw where her eyes were staring at—her eyes were on the streets, not up above. JB always considered himself a very observant and perceptive person; there would be no way for him to miss what she saw.

Before he could form any conclusion, Summer spoke.

“JB, I am not feeling so well today,” she said. She touched her forehead and closed her eyes, pretending that she had headache. “Thanks for dropping off my phone today; I’ll explain what happened last night to you another day.”

JB’s face fell, and a frown appeared on his face. He had wanted to talk to her about last night, but now she was ushering him away.

“Come, I’ll lead you to the back door. It’s faster to exit through the side yard.” Summer took his wrist and whisked him away.

“My shoes—”

“Don’t worry about it,” she said. “I need to clean the house anyways.”

She had to make him leave as quickly as possible. JB said nothing else, as he watched her anxious eyes darting back towards the front door and he wondered if she was being honest with her phobia. He felt her hands holding his wrist tightly, almost like she was afraid that he would escape her grasp and find out what her secret was.

“I’ll call you,” promised Summer once she opened the door to the side yard.

An unreadable expression masked JB’s face. He scrutinized her for a minute before lifting up his pinky finger. “Promise me that you’ll call me as soon as you can.”

Surprised by his gesture, Summer blinked and then smiled. She nodded and laced her pinky with his. “I promise!”

JB’s lips tugged upwards a bit. “Bye Summer.” He patted her head and left.

Once he was gone, a big sigh of relief came out of Summer’s lips. She locked the door immediately and ran back into the house. From the living room, she peeked through the white curtains. Her eyes scanned down the lane where she had seen her Father, but she didn’t see him at all.

Relief flood her system and she let out a breath that she didn’t realize she was holding.

He still hadn’t come to retrieve his things, so she figured today must’ve been the day. When she saw his familiar figure appear, her first thought was to yank JB into her house. She didn’t know how her father would react to meeting JB, but she knew it wouldn’t have been a good meeting. None of her friends, not even Kai had met him, for which she was grateful for. Her father was not worth introducing to anybody.

Summer’s mind flashed back to JB, the hurt on his face was evident. She knew he came a long way to see her, but it just wasn’t the right time. Summer had always considered herself a bad liar, but recently it seems that all the lying she had been doing had finally paid off. People were starting to believe her lies, and she knew that wasn’t a good thing at all.

She didn’t want to be liar; she just wanted to escape from her memories.

---

Jackson had spent most of the morning cleaning up his house. He was much too tired to clean it after last night’s event. The moment he arrived home, he crashed onto his bed and replayed the conversation that he had with Summer in his mind. He couldn’t recall it all too clearly, since he was somewhat still tipsy from the alcohol. The face of hers in his memory appeared pained and confused. He never had the chance to explain to her that he wasn’t trying to offend her.

He had closed his eyes and brought back memories of Hong Kong.

Summer’s mother and his mother were what you can call best friends. They told each other everything, and from what he gathered from those old conversations was that Summer’s mother had a very strained relationship with her father. He was never home, he was a drunk and he was all in all, a very temperamental, rude man.

The last thing he remembered wa