You and Me (Plus Everyone In Between Us)

The Time Bomb of Destiny

For the first time in a while, all five of us sat at the dinner table to eat for the first time, which made it the perfect time for me to bring this up. I have twenty-four hours until the ticking time bomb goes off.

I nibbled at my pizza Mom brought after work in the loud silence of our dinner table. I didn't know what to talk about. The silence was collective, but we had all wrapped ourselves into little bubbles.

Maria was the only one who knew. I rushed to her right after work, and we both jumped up in excitement. I'm not sure Emmett would get it.

"You know how I didn't have plans but to work this summer?" I brought up. Everyone looked at me. "I think I have the chance to do more than work this summer."

Dad quirked a strange eyebrow at me. "What do you want to do?:

I swallowed back a gulp. They didn't encourage me to sing, because Emmett wasn't a singer. I had to put all my dreams on the back burner so my parents could have one good child.

I made brief eye contact with Maria who nodded.

"You know how I like to sing?" I instead brought up. Mom scoffed.

"Yes," Mom asserted. "And look where it's gotten you. You don't know what you even want to do with your life. I'm not sure this music thing is ever going to take off."

"I agree with your mom," Dad responded. "It's simply not realistic to chase after this goal. Yet you still insist you focus on it when your grades were low in school."

Emmett traded a defeated glance with me before shaking his head. I refocused. "Well, I think I have an opportunity to make something of that. Singing." I said it with an edge in my voice. Mom's eyes stayed locked to her plate.

"So?" Emmett edged on, a smirk on his face.

Maria nodded. I exhaled. "Two weeks ago, I auditioned for this show Finding Solstice, which is like this singing competition on TV. And today I found out that I got on and they want to fly me to Los Angeles for the audition. It's just for a week, but I really want to go and—

Dad banged his fist onto the table. "Why didn't you tell us you were doing this?"

"I just-

"How could you audition for a show and not tell us? For singing?" Mom spat. "Onye nzuzu nwa!"

I fought back tears. When Mom yelled in Igbo, she was ticked off. "I didn't even think I would get in! I just wanted to try! It's just for a week and I probably won't get into the real show. I just wanted to sing."

"Why didn't you ask us?" Dad shouted. "You don't know what kind of show it is?"

"You want to go all the way to LA to embarrass yourself," Mom spat. "Embarrass this family."

The tears fell, breaking like a damn. My lips wobbled into a full-on cry. They were right. I could never be a singer. It was so dumb of me to audition. They might have even just taken me because I was a bad singer.

"You are not going on this show," Dad continued. "I will never allow it."

"Fine!" I shouted, standing up and pushing my seat in.

I was in my room before I could comprehend leaving and prepared to slam, but then eventually closed the door at a respectable volume and speed, just in case Mom and Dad wanted to yell at me again. I collapsed onto my bed and cried into my pillow.

They would never understand the love I had for singing. They would never understand how it ran through my veins. I knew after this they would finally ban me from singing and songwriting. It was useless.

I wanted to yell out to the caverns of my room, that I hated them. Hated them for holding me back and cutting me off to the one thing I was passionate about. I hated them for being poor and not being able to come home and keep this house afloat. I hated having to be the one to take on everyone's burdens and ignore my own.

But deep down inside, I couldn't hate them. They loved me and I loved them. They just wanted the best for me. To succeed. To do all the things that they couldn't.

I never even wanted to go in the first place.