𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭.

19

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𝐋𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓
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⁂

"ay dios mío, how many times have i told you now kaidon? stop being sloppy."

the older woman exhaled an exasperated sigh of subdued frustration as she dried her hands on a piece of paper towel, glancing over at her son with a wary, warning twinkle in her hazel eyes that was much different than his black ones. she ran her tongue over her teeth sharply, producing a noise she made whenver she was annoyed and causing her son to chuckle lightly before he offered his mother an errorless smile.

"lo siento mamá," kaidon insisted genuinely, raising his hands as if he was being accosted. "you know i couldn't have let him done that."
"no mierda, no soy estúpida," cristina tutted lightly as she discarded the used papaer towel in the garbage can before walking over to her seventeen year old son, who sat on a kitchen stool. "who's sick enough to lure that poor naive boy into thinking it was a date but plannning entirely something else? homophobes are the worst type of people.. they're all so ugly."

"he really is naive," kaidon murmered quietly, the absence of light in his eyes signalizing though he was present, he wasn't really and his mother could tell. it took only one mention of the boy for kaidon to completely tap out of anything he was doing and instead began to zone out. "and nice.. he's too nice. he could've got himself killed if he went with that guy. what if i hadn't overheard him?"

cristina smiled over at her boy, a certain glimmer of pride in her almond-shaped, hazel eyes that only a mother could have as she patted his head lovingly, finally earning the concerned boy's eye sight.

kaidon, as a child had never been well in any aspects- somewhat sickly both physically and mentally. he would struggle endlessly with fevers, nosebleeds.. all types of sort of random ailments as well as the fight that he always containted within himself- the constant need to tell such intrusive voices in his head that he could not do what they were asking, until one day he snapped and finally did.
in a way, cristina felt horrible when she looked at kaidon. the fashion designer wished that she had been born normal- without any sickness in the mind or mental ailments- the bipolar state of emotions that she was always trapped in. out of all of her three children, the mental illness that ran in the family seemed to affect kaidon the most and it took a toll on her every single day. in a way, she blamed herself. she blamed herself for not being good enough not to pass anything down to the incredbily smart boy, who even throughout childhood was silent but could talk for hours- only to his mama- and describe all the colors in the sky and what they made him feel like.

as kaidon got older, it got more difficult. cristina of all people understood that- when you grow, the urge grows with you.. but when her little boy slowly began to dim gradually into rarely smiling, it inflicted a pain beyond caliber through her; a pain that could only silence her while she watched kaidon's light grow away from him.

a few months ago, cristina had noticed something.
it wasn't the fact that his babyfaced features had matured, because they definitely had not- it was what was containted within them.

hope.

every single day, he would come home with a bit of hope in his face that would grow over time until she saw a smile on his face at least every other day, which for kaidon was a rare feat. she wondered who had caused this- this sudden, miraclous shift? who exactly had brought shine to her baby boy's eyes again?

the single cause was a boy named right after was kaidon needed; peace- shiloh.
shiloh, as in the city in the bible that the israelites traveled to redeem themselves and their sins at- god's gift.