34
Wyatt
Wyatt couldn’t have imagined how his family could possibly be more screwed up until his mother visited him at school to tell him that Michael had been thrown out of college for repeated drunk and disorderly conduct. He was relieved when she left. His dorm room was too small to hold his family’s pain.
He sat on his bed, holding his guitar but not playing. He thought about Sam and how much he wished she were there with him. He wished the two of them could run away from their families and just go back to what they’d had. This was a peaceful thought, and he decided to call Sam while he had it, to make up for being so angry these past few weeks.
“Hey, Sam-I-am,” he said when she picked up.
“You haven’t called me that in a while. Is this the Wyatt I used to know?”
“I’m sorry, I’ve been such a jerk. I love you more than anything.”
He heard her let out a breath. “I love you too.”
Wyatt walked over to his window and pushed it open in hopes that a breeze or the sound of kids on the quad might wash away the ugliness that had enveloped his family. “So Michael got kicked out of school. Basically for being a drunk.” His voice caught as he said it, and he squeezed his eyes shut. “My mom was just here to tell me.”
“That’s awful. I’m sorry.”
“Yeah, no kidding. I guess it’s just the last step in the total destruction of my family.” He could hear the anger creep back into his voice. He felt incapable of controlling it.
“How’s your mom?”
“She apologized a lot, like everything’s her fault. Mostly for never talking about anything and for letting things get this bad. She seems broken.” He stopped himself from saying Your dad broke us.