unripe cantaloupe

It was 7:23, and my dad had just left to pick up my cousins. An hour passed, and nobody came. Another hour passed. No one showed up. I called my dad and asked him what was going on. He said that my cousins were actually arriving at 12:00, and he was just messing around until then. So I waited. Then I fell asleep on the couch. When I woke up, there were a bunch of people around me. I don’t remember what happened next, just that I went upstairs and fell asleep. Morning came, and I went downstairs to eat breakfast. I was playing some video games when all my cousins came down. It was a normal day. My grandma was complaining about me as usual. Whenever there’s another adult around, she likes to say all the things she hates about me. She does it right in front of me too. I think it’s because she thinks I can’t understand Vietnamese. I would tell her to stop complaining about me, but then all the adults would laugh at me and tell me to shut up. I’ve learned to never say what you actually think to an adult, because they’ll tell you off for it. Then, my dad arrived. He told me to stop playing and practice piano. It seems like whenever he sees me playing, he tries to find an excuse to get me to stop. After I was done with that, I sat around for a while, because I knew that if I started playing again, I’d get an earful. I was just getting back into my game when my aunt kicked my cousins and me out of the house so we could go to an arts and craft fair. That part was a lie; when we got there, it was actually just a bunch of Amish people selling things. We walked around for a bit, and the only thing they let me buy was a jar of honey. Thanks. We continued for another two hours, and the only thing we bought were wooden toys. Not even regular toys. Wooden ones. I was hot, tired, and thirsty. I complained to my aunt, and she told me to shut up. Then, ThucLam wanted to watch people blow glass. I felt sick. After an eternity, we went home. I sat around for a while until Vinh came. I played on the Switch until my dad came home to let me buy a new game. I hate buying games at Walmart because you have to get some employee to unlock all the games from behind this glass wall. I got a game and told the guy I wanted purple and green controllers. I guess he’s deaf in his left ear because he didn’t move. My dad started yelling at me for “not standing still”. Yeah. I said once again that I wanted purple and green controllers. The guy remained oblivious. It was until I nearly grabbed the controllers that he finally saw them. We headed home and I played my new game for the rest of the night. Everyone was already playing in the basement when I awoke the next morning. I headed downstairs because I knew the adults wouldn’t let me play on the Switch. The kids were doing what they usually did, which was running around and screaming as loud as they could. Khoi likes to scream especially loud, and when paired with his megaphone, it was worse. I told him to be quiet. He told me to stop being annoying, even though I hadn’t said a word since I came down. As his shrieking continued, my tolerance dwindled. I would’ve liked to tell him off, but everyone get pissed off at me when I yell at anyone younger than me. Eventually, I lost it and told Khoi to shut up. He called me a “gay baby”. I was actually pretty surprised that he used the word “gay”. I told Khoi not to call people gay. I didn’t expect him to listen to me, but it felt nice to tell him off. I asked Khoi if he knew what gay meant. Surprise surprise, he didn’t. When he left the basement, he smacked me on the back of the head and claimed it was an accident. I would’ve kicked him in the face if I had not remembered that there was a double standard. The adults once again kicked us out of the house. We visited my grandfather’s grave, and then we went to eat. Afterwards, my uncle had a brilliant idea to make us walk from the woods in my backyard to the public park which was pretty far. After about twenty minutes of us wandering around in the woods, we ended up in some neighborhood. It was going to be a long walk home. My uncle ditched us by taking an Uber, leaving us to walk alone. After a bit of walking, my dad called. He said he knew a shortcut to the house. He told me to head to the end of the road, so I start walking to the end of the road. He told me I was going the wrong way. I turned around and went the other way. He told me I was going the wrong way. I went down a different road. He told me I was going the wrong way. I had done a complete 360, and I was really confused. This continued for a while. As I had expected would soon happen, my dad got pissed off at me, yelled at me for a minute, and hung up. We were alone again. Eventually my uncle came back for us with his car, and he drove us home. As usual, I played on the Switch.  My dad had stolen my phone so my cousins could talk to my brother. When I asked Khoi if he had my phone, he lied and said he didn’t. I found my phone in the basement, where he had tried to hide it from me. I wished I could have punched him in the nose or at least yelled at him for trying to hide my phone, but all the adults would get pissed off at me if I did. My cousins had already left when I woke up. However, Khoi and his gang were still here. Their flight had been cancelled, so they were staying with us. I nearly cried. My uncle ditched Khoi and his sister so he could head back to Florida by car. After lunch, my dad saw me playing video games. He told me to get up, practice piano, and then take a shower. I did. When I got back from my shower, I saw Khoi getting his clothes and his sister standing next to him. He told her to get out of his “dumb f—— way.” I found it pretty annoying that he’s allowed to swear while I have to mutter it or I’ll get banished from the house. I was going to play the Switch on the TV when I realized I had lost my glasses. I went to the basement to look for them. Then, that brat Khoi tried to lock me in the basement, even though there was no lock. All the stuff from this weekend came crashing down, and I was about to beat Khoi up when I remembered how much the adults already hate me, and how many nights I would be locked in the basement when this was over. Furious, I went to this blog to vent. I turned on the lights so the screen wouldn’t melt my eyes. Khoi told me to “turn off the fricking lights.” I remained silent. It’s not like I’m allowed to even talk anymore. Khoi continued to take jabs at me until he fell asleep. Good.