He's Back

Back in the day, it only took him two words to get me to cry,

"Shut up."

Among the few relatives I have here in the states, there was one who I had the biggest resentment towards. I'll just call him Gerry here. He's about 5 years older than me. I used to admire him so much. Back in high school, he was ridiculously smart. You can point at any part of your body and he'd be able to give the scientific name for them, all the way down to the muscles and bones and such. Him and his ROTC team were the best nation wide and he was a faithful boyfriend. He was popular, attractive, intelligent, had a great sense of humor and everyone was expecting him to go places.

Then he moved here to San Diego. He immediately became popular and was known for pop dancing. (If it wasn't for joining the army, he would've been performing with Jabbawockeez.) But then he met his girlfriend, got her pregnant, then got married, then he joined the army, cheated on his girlfriend (she cheated on him, too) and now they are divorced and with their new lovers. His ex-wife still lives in his parent's house always locked up in his room and the only reason why they haven't kicked her out yet is because the babies would be better off living there than with the ex-wife. (Yes babies, they had a second one right after.) And the babies are under her custody, which she knows and is taking full advantage of.

But that's besides the point.

I used to look up to him, even at times when he'd make fun of me and make me cry - which was practically every time we hung out. Eventually I started standing up for myself, or at least, got better at dodging his offenses and not taking his insults personally.

He wasn't a really good dad, nor was his ex-wife a really good mother. A lot of the time they'd have my brother come to their house to babysit while they went out and had fun. Eventually, they started leaving the babies at my house. It was fine at first, my sister enjoyed their company, until they didn't come back the time they said they would.

I tried calling Gerry telling him it's really late, the babies were crying and my mom was staying up longer than she should have. I even threatened to leave his babies outside the house. He disregarded what I said and I kept calling back until he turned his phone off.

Really early in the morning, they finally came back. I answered the door and Gerry's sister - she'll be called Mo here - was with them. Before Lei (his ex-wife & her made up name) could walk past me, I put my arm in front of her and asked, "Where do you think you're going?" She'd reply back with attitude, "I'm going to pick up my babies."

"It's a little too late for that."

She started going off. Calling me immature, saying I didn't know anything and that she was older than me. As if that gave her more validity to be right. "You don't know what you're talking about. I'm older than you." I'll have you know, that was the most she's ever spoken to me in person.

She kept rambling. Getting bored over what she had to say I said, "Can you please shut up?" When I was about to turn to Gerry, he already snapped.

"What!?" He stepped in front of Lei practically pushing her aside. "What did you just say to her?" And shoved me in the chest.

I felt a great heap of air escaped me as I stumbled back. Before he could push me a second time, Mo quickly stepped in and split us up. She held my shoulders and directed me to walk in the house and told me to go upstairs. I cried for the rest of the night.

Years later, I've never gotten an apology. But at least I enjoyed some karma:

A few months after that, I got a myspace message from Lei. She was desperate & she needed someone to watch over her babies. She offered over a hundred dollars for the weekend. Her message was flowery and she was already giving me details about how to take care of the kids.

I sent a message back reminding her of what happened in the past. And the only way we were going to watch her kids was under my conditions. But mainly that she apologized to me and gave my sister the hundred bucks in twenties (because I wanted the money to go to my sister and that was her request :]).

She gave me everything I asked for. On top of that, she added an extra twenty bucks to our payment. And gave me a hug :]

Even so, from that point on, I rejected her every time she asked again. I didn't care. And I still don't care. She is no longer family after all. And she's found other people to freeload off of.

Anyway, mom told me Gerry's back from South Korea for vacationing. And I don't think I have intentions of seeing him.

I'm just kind of wondering how he's going to react to his ex-wife who's still freeloading off his parent's and locked up in his bedroom...