With almost every step she took, tears slowly rolled down her cheeks and splashed onto the cracked sidewalk. Her head hung low as she watched the grass that she walked by. The yards filled with green grass were occasionally tainted with one or two bright yellow dandelions. She felt like one of the dandelions, out of place. She followed her parents as they turned onto the long sidewalk that led to the courthouse steps.
"When will it stop?" she remembered asking herself. The night was still fresh in her mind. She remembered her parents mercilessly arguing downstairs as she lay on her bed crying. Little did she know that they would soon call her down to tell her the news. She chewed her nails because she was worried. As she lay there she felt helpless. She wanted to do something about it but she knew that anything she said would mean nothing at this point. She was angry. She was angry at herself for not having the courage to intervene. Feeling scared, she walked down the stairs that led to the living room. She sat on the middle step and watched her parents yelling at each other through the mirror that hung on the wall. Looking at the mirror, she could see the living room. She could see the living room that she used to think of as a "family room" but lately she decided that it should not be called that anymore. She looked at it and remembered when she was little and her and her mom would share the bench of the piano while her mom played it and sang to her. She saw the small rocking chair she used to sit in right next to the old leather couch that had her grandma's crocheted blanket draped over the back. She had forgotten about her parent's fighting and tuned it out until she notice the lack of yelling. She realized that she had stopped crying and her parents were now having a hushed talk. They yelled her name for her to come down from her room. As she walked down the stairs and around the corner into the living room, she saw her mom and dad sitting on the couch. She could tell from her moms smeared make-up and her dads red eyes that they had both been crying too. Her parents asked her to sit down in the chair. So she sat down. A dreary, awkward silence filled the room. Then, right as her mom started to open her mouth to talk, she broke into tears because she knew exactly what was coming next. She buried her face in her hands. She didn't want to hear it. She feared what she was going to say and her parents didn't need to say it, she already knew.
She thought of the little boy that they had walked by earlier. She was jealous. The boy just rode around on his green and yellow toy John Deer tractor, not having the slightest idea of how good he had it. He didn't have to worry about his family. He didn't worry about his dad coming back or his mom ever being happy again. He was just perfectly content in that one moment. Her train of thought was soon broken when she started to hear her mom softly sobbing. She could tell that her mother was trying to hide her sadness as she walked up the grainy concrete steps. Her dad grabbed the hot metal handle to open the door. He walked right in without making an effort to hold the door for his wife. Her parents stepped into an office and sat across the desk from a well-dressed attorney. She was told to wait for them in the chair outside the office. She watched her parents signing some paperwork through the small window in the door when the reality finally set in.