We're a happy family, me, mom, and daddy.

When I was in elementary school, my parents got divorced. I don't really want to get into the details but my dad fucked things up. So, he moved out and got an apartment in Dallas, so he'd be closer to his work (and, presumably) his new girlfriend. Beyond being really sad that my parents were no longer together, nothing really changed. He was never home, because he worked at a restaurant and would come home after I went to sleep, and be gone before I went to school.

So, basically, I never really got to see my dad.

Eventually, he got a new job at another restaurant, and he got Sundays off, so my dad would drive and pick up my brother and I, and he'd hang out with us, or we'd go to his place and hang out. Eventually, I began to see my dad more often now that he didn't live with us than I did when he was just down the hall.

When I was in high school, he got a puppy, and right after 10th grade, he bought a house in the town where I lived with my mom and my brother. Everyone told me he got the house to be closer to us, but, reall,y he got it so that the dog would have a yard. Not that I'm jealous of a canine or anything.

The next summer, I got my license, and my dad bought me a car. So, I did my daughterly duty and drove to his house everyday after school to let the dogs out, and on Sunday nights, I'd go over there, sometimes with my brother, to stay at his place.

Now, I'm in my second year of college. I hardly get to go home because swim practice takes up all of my time, and I rarely get a weekend off. When I moved back home after my freshman year, I found out an interesting fact: My dad had a 22 year old girlfriend. I'm nineteen, and turning twenty in a five months. Yeah, nothing about that situation is weird.

Fast forward to now. I'm on fall break, which is basically only a three-day weekend. My dad knows I'm in town until Sunday. He knows I stay at his place on Saturday nights. He knows that I can hardly ever come home because of my schedule. He knows he only has one day off a week. But it's 2 AM, and where is he? Fuck if I know. All I know is that his girlfriend's car is in the driveway, my brother left with my cousin a few hours ago, and I'm home alone at his place with the dogs. Like always.

Yeah, we're a happy family alright.