Pulled Apart

I felt like I was being ripped in half. This wasn't how it was supposed to be, I remember thinking as I sat in the lobby waiting for them to come get me. I pulled up my chair to the table as the judge leaned over to my height and started talking to me. I had to pick which of my parents I wanted to live with, too large of a task for any child, much less an eight year old. I wanted to run out of the room at that very moment and cry, but I tried to act like an adult and maintain my composure. I cleared my throat, swallowed the lump in my throat, looking back and forth from my mom then to my dad. I couldn't choose and I knew that whatever choice I made then would change our family forever.