Chapter 5: Confrontation

I got home and cracked open the books. It seemed so long since I had done any homework. And in truth it was a few days since I did any. The only saving grace I had was that it was almost winter break so I really didn't have all that much homework these past couple of weeks. Thank God. Because I don't think I concentrated really well on my Government homework. I kept reading the same paragraph over and over again. My mind was fixated on how the hell I was going to deal with Rick and Cynthia.

I didn't realize how much time had elapsed as my mom knocked on the door and told me that dinner was ready. Damn, I spent the past three hours on just that one paragraph. At this rate, it would take me until next year to finish my homework.

My parents kept pestering me about wrestling, school and everything else at the dinner table. Well, they really weren't pestering all that much. It's just that I didn't want to deal with it. So any questions about it just felt really bothersome. I already had to deal with this shit at school. Now I had to deal with it at home too? This was a nightmare.

"So you're telling me that you quit wrestling because your coach was being unreasonable? Son, it sounds to me like you were the unreasonable one."

"Dad, you just wouldn't understand. The coach was way out of line questioning my loyalty to the team."

"So how does quitting prove that you are loyal to the team." That hit me like a ton of bricks. Damn. But I just didn't want to hear it. I wanted nothing to do with this shit. Why couldn't they understand that and leave me alone?

"Dad, could we just drop this. I don't feel like talking about this anymore."

"Tah Mah Deuh!" He said as he slammed his fist on the table. "I'm trying to talk to you son!" Oh shit, I rarely ever heard my dad cuss in Chinese.

I took a deep breath. "I know dad. I'm not trying to be rude. It's just a sore subject right now. And I don't really feel like talking about it."

"We are a family. Jia ting. Family. That's what a family does. They help each other. If you are hurting because of this, you need to let it out."

That's always one thing that I never understood about my family. My parents were pretty traditional. And usually Chinese people didn't talk things through. You just don't bring up anything to your family. It might dishonor them. But I had to end up with the Chinese version of the Cleavers for a family.

All throughout this, I could see my mom watching with more and more despair. She saw my dad starting to get mad about it. So she tried to be the peacekeeper. "Hao la, hao lah, buo yao jang lah. No need to talk about this any further, especially at the dinner table. If Chris doesn't want to talk about it right now, let it go. Don't push it. He'll talk later. Hmm? Won't you Chris?"

I saw my mom give me an out here. And even though I knew that I wouldn't want to talk about it ever, I decided that I would take her out. "Ok. I'll talk to you both about it later."

"Good now that that's settled, let's get back to dinner." The rest of the dinner remained pretty civil. My father wasn't really looking to talk too much after that. My dad was typically a pretty easygoing guy. But when he gets mad, it takes him a while to cool down. He doesn't explode like most people do. He just stays pretty quiet. And we just leave him alone to cool off. After dinner, I went back up to my room to finish my homework. Though I still hadn't gotten past the first paragraph.

It was late but I was glad that I finished my homework. My eyes were red and bleary; my head hurt from trying to concentrate so hard and my neck and shoulders were stiff and tired. I did a half ass job on homework. But at least I had it done. I was so tired that I fell asleep on my desk.

I woke when I felt a flick on my ear. It was Rick.

"Good morning sunshine." Rick was smiling as he was trying to get me awake. "Looks like you had a late night doing homework."

"Yeah." I said as I yawned. I was rubbing my eyes trying to get the cobwebs out.

"Listen, Chris, we need to talk."

"It's too damn early to talk Rick."

"I know why you've been dodging me for the past couple of days."

"I have not been dodging you. I've just been busy."

"Yes you have. But it's ok. I understand. I can't say I would do the same thing. But I can sympathize."

"Sympathize? Sympathize with what?"

"Chris, stop playing games. I know you saw Cynthia and me."