The People Of Guilt

Three

Austin stumbled out of his 2014 dodge charger, cringing up at the crashing rain down onto him. He walked over to the flight of stairs leading up to his apartment, mentally preparing himself to try and take on such a difficult task while drunk. He braced himself at the foot of the stairs, cooing supportive words to himself, before picking his left foot up to start climbing when a sharp tug at the back of his shirt collar drug him down onto the ground. "Fuck!" The moment his butt slammed into a pool of water, he quickly scrambled to pick himself up and tend to his wet clothes.

Austin whipped his head around to see his mother, standing right in the frame of the veranda with her arms crossed over her chest, an unamused frown upon her face. "What are you doing? Where are you coming from?" She said, taking in his outfit and drunken form. She looked down at her phone and took a peek at the time. "Austin, it's midnight; what are you doing getting back so late?" Austin sighed loudly and ignored his mother so he could turn back and focus on trying to climb the stairs. He wasn't really in the mood to fight with her, especially not at this time of night. All he wanted to do was get a hot shower and climb in bed, maybe even get some attention from Zorana if she was awake. Yet, his mother was determined to get answers out of him. "Austin! I'm talking to you." She steadied her son when he withered a little so he wouldn't fall. "And you're drunk! Austin, really? Where is Zorana?"

Austin shook his mother's hands off of him and grabbed hold of the railing on the stairs for support. When he made it up the first flight, he turned to look at her. "Inside the house, ma, where else?"

"She didn't go with you?" His mother put a dramatic hand over her heart and shook her head in disappointment. "If she went with you, you wouldn't have driven home drunk! Bless her heart. You left her all alone in this house. Who knows what she's thinking. She's probably lonely. She just lost her mother, Austin!"

"I know that, ma! Zorana is fine; it's not like she's depressed or anything."

"That's not the point I was making. You're her significant other, and I know I taught you to be compassionate. Why aren't you in there comforting her? Wouldn't you want someone to be there for you if you were to lose me? She doesn't have her parents, and now-"

"Zorana is fine," Austin snapped over his mother's rant. He wanted her to stop. He didn't want to hear her scolding him over his personal life. He treated Zorana just fine, and besides, she seemed happy when he left for the studio that morning. Well, not necessarily delighted he was going to the studio, but she wasn't like crying or anything. He knew she was in a vulnerable state; that's why he decided to come home earlier to spend some time with her. Maybe if she came with him to the studio, she would be preoccupied with having fun; she wouldn't think about her mother. "She doesn't like coming with me to the studio."

"The studio!?" Shit. Austin frowned to himself as he finally made it to the front door. He was trying to keep that he went to the studio from his mother. He was supposed to be there at the apartment before she made it home, but time got away from him, and he didn't leave when he initially wanted to. He shouldn't drive while intoxicated, let alone speed. Austin argued with his mother a few days prior about his trips to the studio. It would seem that she was finally cracking and putting her foot down on the whole idea of him becoming a rapper. Not because she felt it wasn't a valuable career, but because Austin's spending had gotten out of control. Austin didn't have a job and strictly lived off whatever his father sent him every month. She wasn't one for sticking her nose in his personal life and didn't dictate whatever he spent his money on; however, it was to the point where he wouldn't even pay his car note nor insurance. Austin could rack up at minimum seven hundred and fifty dollars worth of trips to the recording booth within a week. So when he couldn't pay his expenses, she would have to pick up the slack and pay in his stead. It was ridiculous. She sat him down and explained that he no longer got his money from his dad strictly to his bank account. His father would give the money to her, and she would pass it along to him after she paid off that month's expenses on his behalf. This left Austin with little to no room to visit the studio as much as he used to. With the amount in his account from the last time she checked, he shouldn't have been able to go anymore that month.