Abby Connolly
“Instead, I found out that my father’s fraternity had rented out the whole place for a 25-year reunion.”
“He met me at the door and told me to act like we’re a happy family in front of his old friends.”
Instead of leaving, he decided to go straight to the buffet because he was starving, and he was, at the very least, going to get a free meal from the disappointing evening.
He tried staying in the background for most of the night but eventually started talking to some of the other younger people, who he assumed were his dad’s friend’s kids.
Many of them started talking about their 18th birthdays and what their parents had given them as gifts.
When they asked him what he received, he decided to be brutally honest and told them that he got kicked out of the house when he turned 18.
The other kids were shocked by his answer and started apologizing. He told them it was alright and explained his current living situation. After that, he avoided talking to anyone for the rest of the night until it was time to leave.
“Later that night, my father started blowing up my phone, admonishing me for embarrassing him,” he remembered.
“Apparently, what I said had gotten back to my father’s friends, who are now being very cold to my father.”
His dad was very angry with him and told him it wouldn’t have been a big deal to “lie and save face” that night.
So finally, he muted his dad’s number and went to bed. For a while, he was confident in his choice to be honest at the reunion party, but now he’s wondering if he was wrong, especially because his parents might not ever want to contact him again after ruining his family’s illusion.
