As Rough as Troubled Waters

Chapter 3: The junky's son

I lay on my bed as my mother and father argued downstairs, they tried to keep their voices down but it was no use, the whole street was sure to hear them by now.

"Aamon your son is 6 years old now! I can't keep paying for our life on my own anymore. You've been saying for years now you'd curb this habit and you haven't even tried to get better! you refused Rehab when you were offered a place in it!!" my mother yelled in frustration.

They were fighting over my dad's drug addiction again. While not many people would expect a 6 year old to understand the concepts of a drug addiction... I understood it perfectly. My dad had always been addicted, he blew all his money on drugs all the way through my childhood and I'd grown used to the sound of my mother crying and yelling for him to stop already.

I didn't want to hear them anymore but I knew it wouldn't end and I'd been forced to listen to this fight for most likely the whole night (or until I managed to pass out from exhaustion, one of the two) so either way I was in for a night of little sleep and a lot of noise.

"Aamon I can't do this anymore. I can't watch you throw your life away like this, I can't watch as you rob our son of his father all because of some stupid drugs. You said you'd change when Jupiter born yet he's 6 years old now and you are still as badly addicted as you were 6 years ago! Hell I'd even go as far as to say you're even more as addicted..." My mother continued, breaking down clearly down the stairs.

I felt a stray tear roll down from my eye as I lay on my bed, gaze fixed on my ceiling and the many shadows which occupied it's corners. I rolled onto my side, facing the inner wall as I clung to my favourite plush bear, the one my mother had gotten me when I was younger. Listening to them was a nightmare but there was nothing I could do to stop them so burying my head in the pillow was the best escape method I had growing up. I knew they weren't destined to be together but I never thought they'd break off while I was still living in the house with them...

Around 2 hours of non stop fighting I heard my mother begin making her way up the stairs, my father clambering behind her like a lost lamb. I heard them argue in their room about where my father would get his money from and I winced as my mother screamed in panic as he tried desperately to make my mother believe that if she left my own life would be ruined forever.

"Why don't you grow up Aamon! it's time to be a real father to that boy! It's your turn to take care of him. I'm going to live with my mother again. I'll pay for the house but that is ALL. I mean that!" She warned, banging what I could only assume was a suitcase she had filled against the wall when she lifted it.

With that I heard them retreat back downstairs again, followed by a prompt slam of the front door. A sign that my mother had left and the car starting in the front yard signalled her departure as she left the driveway, pulling off into the night, never to lay eyes on me after that...
_______________________________________

3 years after my mother had left, I was 9 years old now. Attending P4 in my primary school near my home area.

The school wasn't very good for me... I got bullied a lot by my peers as most kids in the area grew up with rich families and rich parents who bred greed and materialism into their children. I on the other hand came from a family which was divorced and lived with my dad who had no stable job and therefore no stable income. In short work, I come from a very poor family. This made me the piggy in the middle when it came to my peers in school as all of them had rich families and upbringings meaning they looked down their noses at me the way their parents did to my father.

One girl in particular however wasn't as bad as the rest of them. At first she was a bit annoying, her brother was a huge flirt and her herself was quite nosy and asked a ton of personal questions. They had nothing better to do and so they both chose to aggravate me but I somewhat came to enjoy their company; even if her constant questions was like a high pitched ringing in my ear.