As the family was riding back home, Robin was reflecting on Pastor Redd’s sermon on Jesus and the new commandments. “Love God and love each other,” he said. It seemed pretty simple. However, from what she was feeling from her parents, they thought differently. For the past few days, Robin had been detecting many mixed emotions from her parents that she could not understand, but she was too afraid to ask them. The entire car ride was silent.

When they arrived at home, Robin did her usual after-church routine: she put on some comfortable clothes, ate a sandwich, and played videogames until it was time for her to do homework. During her break time, she heard one of her parents, Kris, call her down to the dining room table. Robin looked at her nightstand clock which displayed the time 12:06 P.M. She usually started homework around 1:00 P.M., so Robin began to wonder what she could be called down for at this moment. Was she in trouble? Or could she be getting a special surprise? 

When Robin arrived downstairs, the first thing she noticed was that her parents were sitting at the dining room table instead of the kitchen table. They only used the dining room table for special events, and her parents were sitting oddly far apart from each other. Robin felt their mixed emotions again, which made her feel anxious. She felt like she was about to get a special surprise, but not the good kind.   

“Did you like the service today?” asked Kris.

She quickly came up with a response that would impress her parents: “I think it had a good message. I didn’t know Jesus loved us so much.” said Robin.

“I thought it was a great message! It’s something we need more of today!” said Alex, Robin’s other parent.

“That’s right.”

“Okay...are you guys alright? Y’all have been acting pretty strange lately.”

“Well, actually…”

There was a long pause. Kris and Alex kept looking at each other, urging the other one to say something with their eyes. A great sense of anxiety filled the room as if someone suddenly binded their mouths with duct tape. After a pause that felt like hours, Kris finally decided to remove the tape from her mouth.

“Robin, honey...do you know what divorce is?”

Boom. Surprise.

Robin decided to play dumb.“Ummm I think I’ve heard of it before...my friend Casey said her parents got one last year. What is it again?” she asked.

Robin was well aware of what a divorce was, she just couldn't believe that it came out of her parent’s mouth. Kris and Alex looked at each other, and Alex spoke first:

“A divorce is whe-”

“Is when two parents don’t love each other anymore.” interrupted Kris.

“Kris! Don’t say that!”

“Well it’s true, isn’t it?”

“Please don’t act like this in front of Robin right now! Your emotions always get the best of you!”

From what Robin was feeling from Kris, she could tell that this would be a long, angry discussion. This wasn’t the first time Robin felt this overwhelming anger coming from Kris. For the past few months, she could feel their anger and sadness rise almost every time Kris was around Alex. At night, Robin didn’t even need her powers to hear them yelling and arguing. Speaking of which, they were doing the same exact thing in front of her. However, this time she wasn’t going to let them go on.

“Can you guys please stop arguing like this!?”, Robin exploded.

Kris and Alex stopped immediately. They stared at their daughter in shock, like deer caught in headlights. In her 12-year life, Robin had never openly shown so much rage. After she took a breath, Robin began to speak again, with tears in her eyes.

“I’m sorry for doing that, but I didn’t know what else to do. You two have been radiating negative emotions for the past few months now and I can’t handle it anymore! Everytime we go out somewhere, we have to be careful of what we talk about because if one of us says the wrong thing then you both get into an argument! Do you even remember the last time we had a family dinner without an argument or one of us suddenly leaving the table!? I can’t find peace in my own home…You two used to be so in love and we used to be so happy but now being with both of you is like a chore. I don’t know why or how this happened, and I don’t mean to be rude, but please can you both stop yelling at each other!? Please...”

Tears began to swell up in both Kris’s and Alex’s eyes, but both of them showed two different faces. Kris’ face was filled with guilt while Alex showed a face of fatigue. Kris slowly began to speak.

“Honey...I’m so sorry. I didn’t realize I was causing so much pain to you for so long. I know I have anger issues but I didn’t think...I’m sorry.” 

“Robin, you can leave the table if you want. Kris and I have been having issues that a 12-year-old shouldn’t know about. We’ve been trying to work things out, putting real effort into our relationship, but we’ve decided that we need to be apart...we can finish this conversation another time...there’s some ice cream in the fridge.”, said Alex.

Robin wiped her tears and started to mope towards her room.

At the same time, Kris and Alex said: “We love you.”