Jay

I’m in my forties now and things aren’t too bad. I’ve been active all of my life and so far don’t feel my age. Tess doesn’t seem to be aging at all, her skin is just as smooth and flawless as it was when I met her in her late twenties. She’s still all about the firm but because she’s senior partner she is able to be at home early and have some days off so that we can have our family time. She is also much better at discipline than I can ever be. As soon as I see my own little eyes looking back at me I melt instantly. I never knew I would have a weakness for anyone other than Tess. I can’t say no to her, which is evidenced by all of the electronic items that she has in her room. The laptop computer, the tablet, the cell phone, the mp3 player, the other mp3 player with the screen and internet access, that was all me, and when I brought it all home one by one I can remember Tess shaking her head.

For her birthday one year I had my guys come out and build her a tree house, except this tree house has electricity, plumbing and air conditioning and heat, it’s like a little self contained studio apartment. It even has a staircase instead of a ladder because I didn’t want her to get hurt.  I know I have a problem and often Tess is the one who has to contain me; but she’s my little girl, my only little girl. It wasn’t funny at the time but it is definitely funny when I look back on when Tess left to go on a business trip and came back and saw the tree house. I remember her words and volume: “Have you lost your goddamn mind!!!”

We moved out of my house in the city when it was time for Chloe to start school.      We rent that out too, which is nice because it has allowed us to create a small trust for Chloe. We moved into the same neighborhood as Jasmine and Malik so we see them often and more importantly our only child has someone to grow up with. Tess and I didn’t have luck having more children, but we are happy with Chloe. Due to me being able to set my own hours I have spent most of my time during the day with Chloe and Tess coming home around early evening from work. So in essence I’ve been a stay at home dad, and I’ve love every minute of it.

However lately, I see that it has been a profound act of Karma perpetrated by God for me to have a daughter. For the first decade of her life she was a cute little ball of energy, spunk and remarkability. We did everything together, I did her school shopping, we got ice cream together, and I took her to amusement parks on days when she was supposed to be in school. Tess and I raised her to be extraordinary she skipped kindergarten because she learned to read at home with us. Chloe was also a natural with numbers like her mother; Tess says that she is even better than she was. Today is the first day of school, and the child that came downstairs is not my little girl anymore. At thirteen all I see is a little woman who had her mother’s fierce nature. She grew up to be absolutely beautiful and it made me want to buy an assault rifle and walk the halls in school with her.

It started this summer, the boys of the neighborhood noticed her like someone had blown a dog whistle. Just about everyday I would pick her up from hanging out at the mall with Khalia and Maia, there would always be an entourage of young teenage boys trying to put their filthy hands on the girls. One day when I came to pick the girls up I saw one of those boys, who looked way older than his age, but Chloe assures me he was only 13, trying to hug her. I hopped out of my car and gave him a death stare, daring him to come any closer to my little girl. He backed away from Chloe quicker than I had ever seen anyone move; he knew his life was in danger.

            Today, however, is the day that I really saw that puberty had taken hold of my sweet child. She walked downstairs, in a pair of skintight leggings with some sort of weird print that left nothing to the imagination; my eye began to twitch.

            “Chloe what is that you’re wearing as pants?”

            She smiled at me and said as if it were obvious, “Dad they’re leggings, what’s wrong they’re not see-through?”

            “But they might as well be,” I said frowning, “Tess!!!” I called to her mother as Chloe rolled her eyes; maybe Tess will back me up on this.

            “Yes my beloved husband,” Tess said jokingly, coming downstairs smiling, and taking Chloe into her arms and giving her a quick hug and kiss on the forehead, “Good morning Chloe.”

“Good morning mom,” Chloe said smiling at Tess.

            “Look what she has on, you can see all of her, tell our beautiful amazing smart little girl to go change and put on some loose, maybe even baggy jeans.”

            “Jay, you’re over reacting, she looks cute today and she is completely covered. You were with her when she bought the outfit actually,” Tess laughed walking into the kitchen.

All I could do was pout and eat my toast, Tess had overruled me and usually she was the disciplinarian. I cannot handle this; somebody’s teenage boy is going to die before the year is up. I used to think that I had experienced anger and irritation when men would look at Tess. What I didn’t understand was the experience of utter fear and rage when I saw boys and sometimes grown men looking at my little girl. And furthermore, this little girl better stop rolling her eyes at me.

“Ok, whatever if your mom thinks it’s fine. Chloe are you ready to go?” I said rising and grabbing my keys.

“Yes dad, let’s go!” She scooped up her backpack and we made our way to the car. Despite her growing up against my will, she’s a good kid and I should probably contain myself, I don’t want her to hate me. I just know what kind of teenage boy I was and there is no way I want her to come into contact with anyone like me or worse be anything like me.

We were now driving to school to her first day of high school, we picked up Maia to go as well because both of them have been just about inseparable and would be devastated if they couldn’t go together.

“So do you think you’ll see Courtney today?” I heard Maia suddenly speak up.

“Umm…I don’t know,” Chloe said, her voice short almost like she didn’t want to talk about it.

“Oh come on you’ve been talking about him all summer,” Maia said exasperated by my daughter’s tone, and then it hit me.

“Him…?” I said making eye contact with Chloe through the rearview mirror.

“Yeah…” Chloe said with dread.

“Who is Courtney? You mean the little scrawny kid?” I asked as I pulled to the front of the school.

Chloe and Maia laughed nervously, and then Maia spoke, “Never mind it’s not important, come on Chloe we’ll be late,” Maia said quickly, pulling my daughter out of the car. They slammed the door shut to my car and ran up to the school building where a large group of kids were waiting around for school to start.

“Ugh…why did I think having a daughter would be easier,” I watched them for a few more seconds and then drove off. She’s her own person now, and I guess I’m going to have to deal.

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Chloe

            As I walked with Maia to the school building, I wished that she hadn’t said anything about Courtney near my dad. I knew he wasn’t happy about it. He’s usually really cool, but lately he’s just someone I can’t talk to anymore. He freaks out about everything; it’s like he thinks every boy is just out to rape me or something. They are all just friends, there is only one person I am in absolute love with and that is Courtney Bailey. He and I have been friends since elementary and middle school, but he’s always been a little nerdy, skinny, and short. But during the summer it’s like I woke up one day and he had grown a foot and had suddenly began taking in the correct amount of protein. He was taller, muscular, and even had a little bit of facial hair, which was cute too.

“Hey earth to Chloe! Maia said waving her hand in front of my face.

“Oh, sorry, what?”

“Look I’m sorry about the whole letting the cat out of the bag in front of your dad, I didn’t think it was such a big deal, you two seem really close I’m surprised you haven’t said anything.”

“I don’t know things have changed, he’s like the angry king of the castle, he complains about what I wear, he’s going around giving guys that are just my friends the angry face and scaring them, my mom has become the easier one to talk to, and she’s always been Mrs. Business.”

“Yea, she’s always been executioner at your house,” Maia laughed, “But my mom says that your mom is just trying to help you become someone different than what she was when she was younger. She says that all mothers want their daughters to become better women than they were.”

“Yea and dads want to lock us away in our rooms when we hit puberty and only let us out to have arranged marriages to gay men.” I said rolling my eyes.

Maia let out a loud cackle, “Ain’t that the truth,” Maia said repeating a phrase that her mom and sister always said. And then her face changed dramatically as she looked behind me, “Chloe don’t panic ok, but he’s coming.”

“Who?”

“Courtney,” She whispered then plastered on a fake smile.

“Hey Chloe,” I heard Courtney newly deepened voice behind me, and my body instantly freaked out. My heart is thumping, my stomach is churning and I had to shove my shaking hands into the pocket of my hoodie, when I turned around.

“Oh hey Courtney,” I said trying to stifle the shake in my voice. He was so cute, and he smelled amazing too. I’m going to die right now, that’s it, my heart is going to give out right here, and I’m going to die.

“How was your summer, I didn’t see you a lot, it’s like you dropped off the face of the earth,” Courtney said smiling, which unleashed the butterflies.

“Oh umm…I don’t know I guess we just didn’t…you know cross paths.” What am I talking about?

“Oh ok, I was worried you were avoiding me. We should hang out soon, I just got a new game for my computer and want you to come over and play it with me.”

“That...that sounds cool, I would like that.” The thought of sitting in a room alone with him, right next to him, smelling his cologne, and seeing his perfect smile as he played his game sounded absolutely perfect.

“Great! I’ll call you later ok,” He said smiling even wider before turning to walk away, and my stomach flipped again threatening to do away with my breakfast.

“Oh my God Chloe, this is going to happen. I told you he likes you,” Maia squealed as we walked into our first class.

“Yea but this is stuff we do all the time, it’s not like a date, and we always hang out and play video games.”        

“Yea, but not when he was so cute.”

I peaked my eyebrow; she has a point, “True.”