Dreamcatcher

Chapter Seven: Oh, Grow Up

It had been a long evening for Clark and Chloe Price.

The two woke up listening to music that Chloe played early that morning; to Clark's shock, he didn't have the right mental capacity to comprehend the fact that he bunked in his sister's room. With how raucous things were last night, Clark couldn't muster the energy to get up off the floor since his sister hogged her own bed.

"Sometimes... all I want is shut my eyes and tell the world to go to hell." Chloe thought to herself once she finally woke up.

When she did, the first thing she did was roll across from one side to the other in order to pick up a cigarette, her lighter and her ashtray. The scent of smoke properly woke Clark up. As unpleasant as the smell was for him, he couldn't handle the smell, in which he lazily got up on his hands and feet and began to crawl towards the door.

"Children! Wakey, wakey, eggs and bakey!" A muffled woman's voice sang out from outside the room.

Low groaning came from the door where Clark used the handle as support to pull himself up to his feet. The factor that they were both exhausted and severely lacking energy to even get up showed just how hard the two partied at the concert. Chloe craned her head around at her brother where she just caught his legs disappear, followed by the door shutting just when she decided to change out of her clothes from last night.

"Clark!? Bring my purse down while you're up there, please!" Joyce's voice hollered from downstairs whilst he was struggling to even get across the hall from his sister's room to his own.

Groaning miserably, Clark turned around and crawled into his mother's room. By then, he'd found more strength stand on both feet. With ease, Clark found the handbag and motioned to leave the room when he heard his mother bark at him.

"Can you grab my cell phone too? No more dawdling. Your food's going to get cold."

To himself, Clark mumbled, "Can't work a damn to fetch it yourself, can you, mum? COMING!"

Clark loudly made his way downstairs when something caught his attention.

A strange ruckus from outside drew Clark's attention to his mother's boyfriend repairing their car in the driveway. It surprised him that he was present so early in the morning but paid no attention to him as he knew he deserved more provocation from Chloe since she loathed him far more.

For Joyce, replacing her late husband was insatiable: identically for her children who yearned to see their father again or at the very least find closure from his loss.

The smell of eggs and bacon pleased Clark to be fully woken up by the smell of fresh food. Knowing their financial difficulties, Clark wasn't quite sure how long before they could barely afford a nice, hot meal; with a roof over their heads, and clean water to drink from.

Clark dropped his mother's bag and her phone on the table, then walking up to his mother from behind and cuddled her, planting a gentle kiss on her cheek as he greeted her a lazy morning greeting.

"Morning, mom. How did you sleep last night?" Clark acknowledged the older woman with a tiresome voice.

"I'm just fine, darlin'. Go on and take a seat. I'll have your breakfast ready in just a minute. Is your sister up yet?"

"Oh, I can fetch her if you want. I just need some firecrackers, a chair and some tape."

Joyce chuckled. "I will not have you blow up our house, Clark."