Beach Waves nanowrimo 2024

Chapter 1

wc: 751
“So what is this all about?” I asked my parents.
They had brought me downstairs and asked me to sit down with them for a “talk”. I don’t remember doing anything wrong, or anything special happening, but the serious looks they had on their faces concerned me.
My mother looked at me and smiled sweetly. “Sweetie, your father and I need to tell you something. Before anything though, we want you to know that it is not your fault at all”.
“What? Mom just tell me what is happening, you’re starting to worry me”.
She grabbed my hand and held it gently, her eyes softly looking into mine, my fathers doing the same.
“Your dad and I are getting a divorce”.
I did a double take. A divorce? I mean I knew that they argued sometimes but I never knew it was that bad. My mother has also been at work way more than usual and away from us, but I didn’t ever stop to think it was related to their relationship. Maybe they were just joking, playing a terrible prank on me for some reason. I looked over at my dad to try and find any clues that this wasn’t really happening, but none were to be found.
“No. No no no this isn’t really happening is it? You’re just joking or something right?” I laughed through the worry in my voice.
My parents just gave me sorry smiles and gentle looks, but no words to tell me it wasn’t real.
“Oh, okay then, so you really are getting divorced. Okay” my voice trembled.
“Shayla, there’s actually one more thing I need to tell you” my mother started, “I’m sure you’ve noticed how I have kind of, well, thrown myself into work a lot recently right?” I nodded. “Well with all of the overtime I have put in, and the promotions and bonuses I’ve earned, I made enough to move away, and I’m going to”.
Another double take.
“Wait, like, you’re moving to where? You’re still staying near right?” I knew the answer to that question, but I still needed to ask anyways.
“Well, no. Actually I’m moving pretty far away. Los Angeles, California”.
California? That was in the United States, we live in Edmonton, Canada.
“We wanted to know if you would rather stay here with me, or move to California with mom” my dad said, “it is one hundred percent up to you”.
This was so much to take in, too much. First my parents are getting a divorce, then my mom is moving to California, and she wants to know if I’m going with her. There was way too much to consider, and all at once.
“You don’t need to decide yet, there’s still a few weeks until the divorce is finalized, you can use that time to think about it” my dad reassured.
If there were only a few weeks left before it was finalized, then that meant that they had already gone through the process of the divorce, and never even told me about it. Everything was really starting to hit me now, and tears started to prick at the corners or my eyes. I tried to blink them away but it was barely working.
“Honey, I know this is hard, do you need some alone time?” my dad asked.
I nodded and quickly left the table and ran to my room. As soon as my door was shut I was free to let the tears fall. How did all of this happen, and so fast too. The thought alone of my parents not being together anymore was hard enough, but then realizing that I would almost never see one of them again made everything a million times worse.
All I knew was that L.A. was not a place my mom closed her eyes and blindly chose to live in, no, she knew how I had always had this dream of a perfect life in L.A. right beside a beach and forever summer weather. She picked it because she knew how much I would want to live out that dream I had for fifteen years. Except it wouldn’t be exactly how I pictured, I pictured my dad being there too.
For now, instead of thinking about whether I would move or not, I thought about the center issue. I curled up into a ball in the middle of my bed hugging my pillow close to my chest, burying my face in it, crying.