Love Under An Illusion

Chapter 7 - Stressed

Liam got up early one morning in a rush to get the day started. After taking a quick shower, Liam fixed his hair in the mirror before finishing getting dressed.

Quietly closing his bedroom door shut, Liam then made sure he finished the rest of his morning routine. He ended up making his bed that was in the corner of the room, stuffing his backpack with the multiple papers that were splayed out on his desk, and pocketing his phone before leaving his room.

Liam went to the kitchen and grabbed a banana and a cereal. He was about to leave his apartment when he stopped himself once he saw his mother sitting down near the dining table.

Liam took a diverted tour by kissing his mother on the head. "Morning Mom."

Shannon Crossford looked up from the letter she was reading and smiled when she was given a brief hug from her only son. "Morning sweetheart."

Liam had made another attempt to go out the front door when Shannon had held his hand and rooted him in place. "Stay inside and eat your breakfast. I don't want you to get indigestion because you're eating whilst moving."

Liam only agreed because he knew she would use her puppy dog eyes on him. He sat down beside her in the only other seat in the dining room and began eating his cereal bar first.

Shannon was chewing on the end of her glasses when she then accusatorily pointed them at Liam. "I saw your light was on pretty late last night... Couldn't you sleep?"

"I had to stay up all night because I had a lot of work I needed to do for school; a history paper on the Vietnam war, research for a group project in physics that starts very soon, a practice test paper I need to redo for maths, and something else I can't remember for Spanish."

"You sound very busy." Shannon grew very concerned with all the workload her son had on him. The school year had barely started and it seemed like he was already doing too much. "I can see the bags under your eyes, Sweetheart. You look exhausted."

Liam laughed as he brightened his own mood up by stealing the cup of coffee in front of his mother. "This will perk me right up!"

As he took a sip of the stolen coffee, Liam couldn't help but be curious as to what his mother was reading. "What's that?"

Shannon cleared her throat before scrambling to hide the letter away under a stack of other bills that were splayed out on the table. "Don't worry about it, Sweetheart. It's nothing you should be worried about."

Liam was nodding his head as he took the letter for himself. Shannon sadly hung her head down as Liam skimmed through the letter. "It's only a little rent increase. I'm sure we have this covered."

"We?" Shannon was shaking her head because she didn't like that her son was involving himself in their financial problems. "You're too young to be worrying about this."

Shannon nervously began to play with her braided blond hair that dangled over her shoulders. Income was difficult because she was a full-time mother with the occasional shift in whatever she could get her hands on. There were the added costs of taking care of the baby that was sleeping in the next room. And now she was also trying to save money to help pay for Liam's college.

Liam reached out to grab his mother's hand and squeezed it lovingly. "We'll be alright, I promise. I'm going to ask if I can get more shifts at work to help out more."

Shannon felt like everything was going to eventually overwhelm her son. He had too many things on his shoulders to try and carry. "Liam, you don't-"