A few days later...
After my mom left, I was still in shock. I couldn't believe she would stoop so low to hurt my Dad.
He didn't deserve to be treated like shit, and a part was glad that he'd be able to move on.
I hoped that someday he found someone who loved him for who he was, even if it meant loving someone all over again.
I looked at him and saw that he was still upset about everything as he sat on the other couch, watching some evening shows with me.
For a moment, there was silence until I spoke.
"I'm sorryâ"
"No, don't be...none of this is your fault, but your sorry excuse of a mom," He sighed, running his fingers through his hair.
He then looked around the living room, wondering what to do next.
"Yeah, I know; I'm just sorry Mom did this to you..."
"Me too...and I'd rather be anywhere but here in this old neighborhood anyway," He sighed.
"Same," I nodded, "Oh, and is everything okay with your job?" I asked, suddenly wondering if he was even in a suitable mind space to go back to work after experiencing a traumatic event that my horrible mom had caused a few days earlier.
"Yeah, but for the rest of the week, I'm going to stay home since I'm just tired," He replied.
"That's good. And if you need anything, I'm here to help," I gave him a small smile.
"Yeah, I know, kiddo," He returned the smile, but there was sadness in his eyes.
For a moment, I stared at him, almost sure his expression mirrored mine.
I knew deep down he was hurting inside, but I knew that our struggle days would pass. And learning from our mistakes only made us to be a better person.
Reverting to the TV, I tuned into the lottery channel and hoped for the best.
I got up and sat on the floor near the living room table.
I then took out my lottery tickets from my bag and set them neatly on the table as I grabbed a sticky note to write on with a pen.
I wanted to write down the winning numbers and match them with my lottery tickets.
"Why are you watching this, and what are you doing?" My Dad asked.
"Earlier this week, I brought twenty dollars worth of lottery ticketsâ"
"Lottery tickets?... I wish you had spent it on food instead. But I did buy a ticket also on Monday for the mega million jackpot before going to work ..." He smirked, taking out his lottery ticket from his wallet.
"Damn, your right about buying some food, but I just had a good feeling about tonight's drawing," I responded, seeing that his mood lightened up a bit.
When the lottery hosts finally appeared on the TV, I turned up some of the volume and waited for her to call the numbers.
'Good evening, folks. I hope you guys are ready for me to call the numbers where someone new will be the mega-millionaire winner!' She shouted excitedly.
A few seconds later, the machine started rolling out the mega balls, which made my Dad and me excited.
With each mega ball that stopped in the slot machine, I wrote down the numbers, feeling more nervous than before.
My stomach shifted uneasily as I looked at my Dad and saw that he was also checking his lottery ticket.
I then continued to write down the rest of the winning numbers, and once done, I compared the winning numbers with each of my lottery tickets.
After some time, I was disappointed since the winning numbers didn't match any of my tickets.
Moments later, my Dad got up quickly from the couch with happiness.
"Ahhh, I fucking won!" My Dad shouted. He jumped up and down like Tom Cruise did when Oprah interviewed him.
"Yesss, we're rich!" I quickly got up and started to do the moonwalk.
I then hugged my Dad, and we cried in happiness.
This was one of the best days of our lives, and it was nice that we ended up winning the fucking lottery!
At that moment, I wanted to tell everyone that my Dad had won the lottery.
But I knew it was wise to avoid the attention of strangers and gold diggers like my mom.
"Get ready to pack up,"
"Where are we going?"
"Well, we're not staying here tonight since your mom ruined this place for me. But we will stay at a hotel tonight. Then, in the morning, I will go to a lottery retailer to cash in the ticket," My Dad responded, and I nodded in understanding.
"Woah, we staying at a hotel tonight?" I said teasingly, since my Dad had always been cheap.
"Tonight, I feel like splurging..."
"Like getting the new Yeezy clothes," I replied jokingly since those weren't my style.
"I meant we can splurge on fast food. Not spending my house rent money to look like a homeless person," He replied, and I laughed.
It felt like a new day had come. Everything that was tainted with bad had suddenly gone away. Despite everything we've gone through, I always persisted in smiling, but now I had another real reason, too.
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