One Shots [Rated R] Book 2

Miss Independent [Straight]

Miss Independent [Straight]

"Ezra, come on! Let's go!"
Each year she swears her 10 year old is getting slower and slower to leave for school and it's not because he hates it. She gets it. She does. It may have been a while since she's been in school however she remembers the importance of having your hair just right and your clothes looking casually cool but seriously, does he have to worry about it today of all days?! She's got to drop him off and then race across town to her client's house. Being late will only make her diva clients annoyed and that could be deadly for her business.
"Ezra! I'm leaving now! You have 10 seconds before I'm out this door!" she threatens.

She knows he's got to have heard her. Their new place is not that big. The 2-bed apartment is perfect for them until the divorce finalises and she can get them into a house. It won't be like the ones they had before but it'll be nice, she's determined to make sure it is. Though that's not going to happen if her one and only child doesn't get his butt moving.

"Ezr-"
"What? I'm here. You can quit yelling," he sulkily mutters, tossing his backpack over one shoulder.
She frowns at the damage that's going to do his shoulder but refrains from saying anything about that. The sass though...that's not going to fly with her.

Despite being from opposite ends of the Earth, both her parents were strict with her growing up. Her Filipino mother and African-American father didn't tolerate any backtalk, blasphemy or rude behaviour. The chain of command in the house went; God, parents, elders, teachers and then her. In fact, if they'd been calling and she hadn't answered straight away, they surely would have left her locked in the house and let her explain to the school why she missed the day. She's softer than them but that doesn't mean she's going to let everything slide.

"Uh-uh. You want to retry that or you wanna forfeit the X-Box for a week?" she rhetorically asks.
He sighs and looks up at her, saying sincerely but rather reluctantly, "sorry for making you wait. I'm here. Can we go now?"
Not great but better. She gives him a nod and unlocks the front door.
"Hurry, I got an appointment after dropping you across town-"
"Who with?"
He says it with genuine interest. It's yet another reminder that her little man is growing up. Creeping up to puberty he's started taking great interest in more current music and celebrities, especially the female ones. Not all her clients tend to be celebs, most tend to be the wives, girlfriends and 'special friends' of celebrities but she has one or two female rappers.
"You know I can't say," she sings. If she told him then there's no way he wouldn't tell his friends and then word gets around, people start hounding her or the client, the client gets annoyed and drops her.
"Mom," he groans, "seriously?!"
"Yes, now let's go."

Pocketing the keys she strides towards the elevator allowing him to shuffle alongside her.
"Oh by the way on Friday there's a class trip. I need you to sign the sheet and give me some money," he says as she impatiently waits for the elevator to crawl up to their floor.
"Friday? Wait, Friday as in this Friday?!" she cries. That's only 3 days away.
"Yeah so I kinda need you to sign the sheet today and give me the money. Please."
There's guilt in his voice but that doesn't excuse the complete disorganisation. It's absolute chaos for someone like her. A type A, organisation freak. Having a kid though has thrown her completely off loop with that.
"Ezra you have to give me these things as soon as you get it. You can't just wait until the last minute and expect me to-"
"I know, I know. I'm sorry. I totally forgot. It won't happen again. Please mom?"

She glances over to him. Big mistake. He's still young enough he can give her the puppy dog eyes and she falls for it. Although he's her baby, he could probably do it at any age and she'd fall for it. She knows what her parents would have done but she can't bring herself to make him miss out on the school trip. Despite his disorganisation, this isn't a usual occurrence for him. Somehow he does manage to get good grades, keep up with his chores and get this sort of stuff to her in a fairly timely manner with only some slight nagging from her.