CHAPTER SEVEN

Mike knew what was waiting for him as soon as he descended the stairs and into the large living room of their home. Both his brother and father were sitting on the large sofa watching a soccer game and they seemed not to notice him until he cleared his throat to announce his presence in the room. At first, his father didn’t say anything but instead gave him a deadly glance which told Mike that Steven had definitely told their father about what happened at school. Mike knew he did do something wrong but deep down he knew that he didn’t and that his brother was just angered by the fact that Mike was smarter than him.

He cast his face down hoping to avoid his father’s death glare but to no avail because even though he wasn’t directly looking at his father he could still feel his father’s eyes on him. He knew that Steven was also glaring at him but he didn’t pay him much mind because he was the least of Mike’s concerns at the moment. He remembered what his father had said to him many times before, ‘do not cower away and look me in the eyes like a true man’, his father had said these words to him more times than he could count and he was also to blame because he had a tendency of looking away from his father when they were in a difficult situation.

He silently took in a deep breath and lifted his head up to face his father who was still looking at Mike with such a piercing look that Mike started to squirm in his seat. He let out the breath he was holding in and proceeded to try and ease the tension in the room.

“Hello, father. How was work today?”

His father scoffed but didn’t answer the question and instead, he just tore his eyes away from his son and placed his interests in the soccer match that was being played on the tv. As soon as his father looked away from him, Mike felt a wave of relief wash over him. There was a thick tension still present in the room but it seemed to have cleared up a bit. The three didn’t utter a word and instead just watched the screen as they waited to be called for supper. A few minutes passed and Mike started to get even more anxious as though the silence was physically starting to choke him. He tried to gather up the courage to speak to his father but nothing seemed to escape his lips as he opened and closed his mouth like a fish out of water. Finally, after giving himself a small mental pep talk, he felt brave enough to speak to his father because the mental anguish that he was feeling was starting to make him paranoid.

“Dad. Aren’t you going to say anything?”

Mike figured that the moment their father had walked into the house, Steven was there waiting so he could tell their father about the events that unraveled at school, but something seemed odd; almost as if there was something that was supposed to be done but wasn’t.

His father slowly faced him and Mike could almost feel the beads of sweat that started to form at the crown of his head and all because of the intensity of his father’s stare. It seemed like hours before his father replied and this time it was a coherent sentence and not a disapproving murmur.

“Michael what did I tell you about being cryptic. Can you just say what you want and stop wasting my time?”

Mike was more than shocked at the response. He was expecting something completely different and it sent his mind into a frenzy thinking about what would happen next. He didn’t understand what was going on and he was almost certain that his brother had told their father about his wrongdoings at school and he was completely and utterly prepared for the backlash that was seemingly not existent. Mike started to mentally debate on whether or not he should tell his father about what happened or if he should just completely forget about it considering that his father seemed not to know anything of the sort. It seemed as though Mike spent too much time pondering and considering his options that his brother finally decided to join the conversation.

“Dad, what junior is trying to tell you is that he went out of his way just to embarrass me in math class today.”

Steven had a devilish smile plastered on his face and from past events, Mike knew that such a smile was always followed by mass catastrophe but only for Mike and nobody else. Steven’s words seemed to register in their father’s mind and all Mike could think about was how to escape but he knew well enough that there was no escape for him and that the best thing to do was brace for impact. To Mike, it seemed as though his father was taking his sweet time to face him, almost as though he were doing it in slow motion and it only made the fear that was building up in Mike more intense. After what felt like forever, Mike was once again face-to-face with his father but this time he could clearly see all the raw emotions that were put to be displayed on his father’s face and when he finally spoke, what he had to say was nothing less of shocking to both Jacobs brothers. Nothing, absolutely nothing. From all the time's Steven had told on Mike about the things he’d done, their father always seemed to have an array of harsh words to present him with but this time he had absolutely nothing to say and after their short period of shock, their father turned back to the tv and continued as though nothing even happened.

The two boys faced each other only to see mirror expressions of their shock on the other's face. A few moments of silence passed and just as they were about to say something, they heard someone calling to them for supper. Their father stood up and left without even saying a word to either one and both boys still in shock just followed in tow.