Lachambers- Forbidden

2

"Hey Mom?" Gordie slowly spun his spoon around in his cold bowl of soup. Despite sitting at the dining room table with his family for 15 minutes, Gordie hadn't eaten a single bite of food. There was too much on his mind. Too much to piece together, to figure out.

"Yes, Gordon?" She perked up at the sudden conversation that would usually be nonexistent during any other afternoon.

"I was wondering if you knew anything about the Chambers family living in town? I just... um.." Gordie cleared his throat, trying to stall time so he could figure out how to word his next sentence.

Ever since the incident a couple hours ago in Castle Rock, Gordie had been thinking about that boy, Chris. Teddy's reaction to finding out his name was not what Gordie was expecting. Apparently Chris had a bad reputation in town, a really bad one. So bad that Teddy couldn't stop rambling about how awful he and his family were for the rest of the walk home. He never actually explained why though.

For all Gordie knows Teddy may have purposefully been trying to warn him about the infamous Chambers family, but all he did was add fuel to the fire in Gordie's brain.

"Speak up, Gordon, don't mumble. How many times have I told you this?" Gordie's father suddenly snapped. He usually stayed solemnly silent during meals, unless of course he felt the need to comment things like that.

"I saw one of the sons recently and was just wondering about them." Gordie spewed out.

"Oh." His mother seemed disappointed in the conversation topic at hand. But at least they were talking.
"Well I suppose so. That family is just troubled is all. Troubled and very confused."

"What do you mean?" The brunette frowned.

...

"Hey, Dad." Chris mumbled as he walked through the front door of his depressed sunken down house. Chris wouldn't even call it a house. It was more like a little portal to hell that he conveniently slept in. He had to share a bedroom with his siblings while his mom got an entire bedroom to herself. Every now and then Chris's younger siblings would want to go sleep with their mother, just like any other little child would, but she would always kick them out, saying she'd want to be left alone.
She always wanted to be left alone.

Chris's dad was always passed out on the couch before he could reach the bed he shared with his wife. And when he wasn't noisily snoring on the sofa he was either at the pub or at 'work.'
Chris didn't believe his father had an actual job though. If he did, then why would he need to force his son to go out and steal food?

And then of course there were the times where his father was at home and wide awake, a beer clutched in his hand and an empty stack of bottles growing next to him.
Those would be the worst times to be home.

Chris's father beat the absolute shit out of him weekly ever since he could remember. And every week Chris and his siblings would enter the public's eye while sporting their latest injury to the whole town. He tried to ignore the hushed whispers about his parents and rolled eyes aiming in his direction, but deep down it hurt. Chris didn't want to be known as the kid who stole for his alcoholic father and useless little siblings.
Chris did have two older brothers, or used to. They were both in jail now, which is where everyone believed Chris was headed once he turned 18. Hell, even his own father couldn't keep his ass out of prison.

With a family like that, no wonder everyone shunned him.

"Give me that." Chris's father snatched the sack of stolen groceries away from his son. He stuck his thick grimy fingers into the bag and impatiently rummaged through it.

Chris stood in silence.

"Where's the beer?"

Shit. Chris's heart dropped down to his stomach. After getting the shit beat out of him by Jerry, Chris had completely forgotten to grab his father some alcohol.