Free Second Kiss by Natalie Palmer Page B

were I’m sorry, but I wasn’t sure if that was the appropriate thing to say right now. Before I could do anything, Jess continued, “It’s not that surprising; my mom has been threatening for a long time.” Jess bent down and dribbled the ball between our feet. I was still at a complete loss for words. Jess shrugged. “Anyway, he’s moving out this Saturday, and I’m going to go stay with him for the weekend.”
    “You’re what?” I shouted louder than I meant to at ten o’clock at night.
    “Shhh.” Jess waved his hand in the air. “It’s not a big deal. He’s just renting an apartment in West Chester. I’ll be back Sunday afternoon.”
    “Why would you go stay with him? He’s a bad person.”
    “He’s really only bad when he’s been drinking, and I doubt he’ll take off to any bars or liquor stores if it’s just me and him in the apartment.”

    “Why are you going? Why are you taking his side?”
    Jess jerked his head to look at me.Therewas a fire in his eyes I had never seen before. “I’m not taking his side, Gemma.” Each word was separated and exaggerated. “I-would-never-take-his-side.”
    I recoiled at his fierceness but still couldn’t understand why he was going to go spend the whole weekend with a man who had made his family’s life so miserable. “Why are you going then?”
    “Because he asked me to. And my mom thinks it’s a good idea for us not to be difficult about spending time with him. Otherwise she’s afraid that he’ll take us to court. She figures that he’ll grow apathetic about being with us over time. Pretty soon he’ll be out of our lives for good.”
    I remembered seeing a movie about this. In the movie, even though the kids hated their dad, the court ordered him to have visiting rights twice a month, and they had to go with him. “But your dad is an alcoholic!” That was the first time I had said it out loud to Jess, even though I always assumed he knew that I knew. “How could he ever deserve visiting rights if he’s an alcoholic?”
    “We just don’t want to make a big deal of it. We don’t want any problems.”
    “But he’s mean!”
    “Yeah, he is.” That was the first time Jess had admitted it. “But he’s never really hit us or anything like that, so really it won’t stand up for much in court.”
    A load was lifted off my shoulders. I had always worried so much that he was physically hurting Jess and his mom and sisters. I dropped my shoulders in defeat. I never knew anyone who had parents that were divorced. It was always just something that was talked about in movies and magazines, but not in real life. It was a strange reality. My stomach cramped when I thought of that word, divorce.

    I finally looked him in the eye and asked, “Are you okay?” It wasn’t like Jess to think about himself at a time like this. But I went out on a limb, hoping that he might open up.
    Jess cleared his throat. “I’m worried about my mom. I think it’s hard on her knowing that us kids won’t have a father around.” It was so like him to direct the attention from himself and put it on his mom. He spun the basketball between his hands. “But as far as I’m concerned, we’ve never had much of a father anyway.”
    I looked at the ground and nodded. I tried imagining what it would be like to not have my dad. That was an awful thought. But just like Jess had said, even when his dad was at home, he wasn’t much of a father. Jess and I were living in two different worlds. Jess sighed then tossed the basketball over to the cement pad at the corner of my backyard where the ten-year-old basketball stand was.
    I watched the ball roll around and eventually rest next to the fence. Neither one of us spoke for a while, so I hesitantly changed the subject. “I decided today that I need a new group of school friends.”
    Jess leaned his head on his fist and looked at me from the corner of his eye. For the first time that night he looked amused.
    “Really? What