My Stepdad Decided His REAL Son Is Better Than Me
Hi, I'm Ethan. I know it's hard to believe, but I am only fourteen years old. I look a lot older than I am - I inherited this trait from my father. As for my mothers’ second son, Justin, he is seven and looks seven. When he was born, my father left Houston, where we all lived, forever.Maybe you already guessed - Justin was not his child. But I was six years old and I was too little to understand what was going on. It just happened like this: my mother told my father that she would soon have another baby and that she demanded a divorce, because she wanted to live with another man and raise THEIR child with him.And also, my mother decided that I would stay with her. And insisted that my father stay away from me, because her new husband was going to treat me as his child and I was small enough to accept these changes easily and be happy. And any attempts to “share me” would cause unwanted stress for everybody.
You might be surprised, but she was right. I really easily adapted to the new situation. As a six year old boy, I missed my father in the beginning, but later on I got used to the thought that my father was gone “up North” and that now everything would just be the way it is.
I think Sean deserves a couple of good words, he was really trying hard and with great enthusiasm to be a good parent for me. Before Justin was born. His own son.
My mother, I guess, treated me the same way, to her there was no difference between her sons. But not to Sean. He was not rude with me… not at the beginning, at least. But if there was the slightest chance that he had a choice, it was always in Justin’s favor. All this little guy’s successes were praised high above the sky and all his problems were treated with sincere empathy. And my life remained somewhere backstage.
Moreover, my brother and I became less and less alike. Justin was clearly Sean’s son, and I started to resemble my father more and more every year. Even though I had forgotten what he looked like. But the more my reflection in the mirror changed, the more Sean’s attitude toward me changed. He started to nitpick. He made me responsible for every bad thing that happened in the house and lectured me harshly. When I tried to tell my mother about it, Sean acted offended and called me ungrateful. And my mom did not take my side.
But I was a kid. And I tried hard to be loved by my mother, and also by Sean. I tried to be the best! In my studies, at home, playing sports...
I began to play football, not because I wanted to, but because Sean was into it a while ago. And I was a big and well-built guy, not like Sean, who had a smaller build. And I started to succeed. I often talked about it when we had dinner and they even listened with an interest, but neither my mother nor Sean hurried to come and to watch a game or see how I trained.
But once, when we were getting ready for a big game, my mother said that they were going to come see it, her and Sean together! I was fired up by these words. I trained like hell. And my excitement about the game was nothing compared to the fact that I would play in the presence of my family!
But on the day before the game Sean said that they would not be able to make it. They had totally forgotten that Justin had a dress rehearsal for his school play, and they absolutely could not miss it. Justin would be playing one of the main characters and he had worked on his role for a long time. I don’t know, maybe it was just my imagination, but I noticed something strange in Sean's eyes when he, SEEMINGLY, apologized to me. As if he sincerely enjoyed the way my face changed with disappointment, as my eyes nearly filled with tears from resentment.
You know, that day I played as if it was my last day, and our team won by a landslide. And to be honest, I contributed a lot to the score. But the thing is that I had done it for the last time indeed - right after the game I approached the coach and told him that I was leaving. I did not want to do something just to earn the love and attention of the person who took my father’s place… but did not want to see me as his son.
I think, from that day on, I became the total opposite of what I had been before. Before that, I tried really hard to be praised, but now I couldn’t care less about my parents’ wishes and feelings. Apart from sports, I also abandoned my studies, especially for the subjects that my parents appreciated. I stopped spending time at home with Justin – in fact, I started to come home just to sleep.文本并非一一对应，且不完整，仅供参考阅读
LearnAndRecord
2015年2月8日
2019年9月27日
第1693天
每天持续行动学外语