Reaching out to people sometimes doesn't work out the way others intend it to. Inez faced the brute force of those consequences when beginning to tackle the wall that was Sebastian.
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Plagued by loneliness since childhood, seventeen-year-old Inez...
WARNING: There are mentions of blood and murder within the story. If you're uncomfortable with that please tread carefully or scroll down to about halfway within the story.
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I Should've Stayed Home
Details of a certain night stayed engrained into my brain like carvings in stone. Memories I kept buried throughout all of my childhood resurfaced every once in a while to come haunt me. This particular time was much more vivid than the rest. Always has been and always will be.
"Inez, Honey. Do you want Mom to make you some hot chocolate?" my mother had asked me.
She wore a beautiful smile on her face, teeth pearly white and straight. Mom always encouraged me to brush my teeth so that mine could stay as wonderful as hers, and give me just as bright of a smile.
"Yes, Mama," I beamed, hopping over to her.
I just barely reached her bellybutton in height. Only being around six years old didn't give me enough time to develop much of a frame yet. Mom looked down at me cheekily, the yellow light of the lamp illuminating her face.
She always looked beautiful. Makeup or no makeup. Lots of lighting, or none at all. Nothing could have dulled her beauty. She was the light of my life.
"Alright. Turn off the TV and let's make it together," she said, pinching my cheek softly.
"Okay!"
I scurried to find the remote and clicked the red button up top. Mom taught me where it was, and it made me proud that I could do things like that all by myself. After the colourful screen turned black, mom grabbed my chubby little hand and took me to the kitchen.
She sat me down on the counter and began to heat some water in a kettle. We watched it together while I told her about the cartoon I'd watched today. There was never a moment she didn't listen to me. Even as she sat with a book in her lap and reading glasses over her face, or typing away at her laptop for work. Her ears were always trained on the useless words that tumbled from my mouth profusely.
If I had realized that sooner, I would've focused more time on telling her how much I loved her, instead.
"And then, the yellow dog began to grow and became long!" I shouted, stretching out my hands.
Mom gasped dramatically. "It grew?!" she asked in disbelief.
"Yeah! And he can fly by making his ears into wings!"
"Oh, my! That's amazing!"
"I know!" I giggled.
The kettle began to scream, letting us know the water was hot enough. Mom took it off of the stove and filled my favourite blue mug with hot cocoa powder. She carefully poured the water inside and began mixing it with a spoon. The slow clink of metal silverware against porcelain made me calm and thus tired me out a bit. It was a few minutes past my normal bedtime.
