There was light in my house, so one of my parents had to be there. I sighed. After talking to Sofía I wasn’t ready to deal with my broken family. She had reminded me how bad everything was, and I already felt miserable. I had walked back home instead of taking the bus, to avoid for the longest the moment to arrive at my house and face my reality. It was late and I was hungry, and so I couldn’t escape the inevitable anymore. My feet felt heavier after each step I took. I wished it would at least be my mother. She was easier to deal than my father. I could just ignored her and go to my room.

I opened the yard door, and could see in the parking lot my father’s car. Guess this wasn’t my lucky day.

“Who is there?” A voice said when I opened the entrance door.

“It’s me”.

“Bruno! What the hell are you doing coming home so late?!” He barked at me.

“I was at school.” I sighed. This was going to be annoying. If I answered at least it wouldn’t be so long.

My father had been in the kitchen. He came to me stomping.

“School is already close! It is almost eight! Where the hell have you been?”

I opened my mouth to answer, but he went on.

“How many times do I have to tell you to come straight home after school? You have to keep an eye on that stupid woman that is your mother! She is already gone and it’s all your fault!”

Of course, he didn’t care where I really was. The only important thing was that I wasn’t here to control my mother.

“I keep telling you she doesn’t hear me either.”

“Then try harder!! I am busy working my ass off so both of you can eat! And there she goes spending all my money in parties and who knows what anymore! Can’t you do anything for the household? This is your only responsibility! Your only job!”

He ranted for some minutes more, and I kept my silence. I knew he just wanted to release his frustration, his stress over the situation. So when he finished and I said anything, he just left out and exasperated sigh and went back to the kitchen.

“I have a business dinner so I will go out again. That sorry excuse of a mother left you food in the table.”

My father grabbed his jacket and left the house again. I didn’t move from my place until I heard his car running and going out of the house. Just then I left a sigh and went to the kitchen.

There was a small circular table on the kitchen. One of the chairs had my father’s briefcase, which he had forgotten. So he was lying again. There was no business dinner, he just didn’t want to eat the food my mother had left, nor to spend more money by taking me with him. Which means that the food my mother had left had to be that. I moved my eyes from the chair to the table and as I expected, there were two plastic bowls of instant pasta. And a note.

“There was no food and I had to go already! Enjoy your food!”

It was my mother’s handwriting. Nowadays she was always too busy going out with her friends to care about her family.

I didn’t had any more energies, so I just grabbed the instant pasta, poured the hot water on it, and went to my room and eat silently.

In my bed I thought about Sofía again. What would she have thought if she had seen all that? Would that be enough to shatter the image she had about me? To see that we were actually very different. But probably then my father would have acted all nice and fake and she would have left thinking I have a great family.

If I wanted to break her illusions, I would have to do it by myself. No problem, I had a lot more to show her.

Love was stupid after all, something you could only find in books. There was no way she could like the real me.