Manhattan Moon

One

Love makes us weak. The desperation you feel when you want someone to adore you as much as you adore them, that  ladies, gentlemen and non-binaries, is what I call a weakness. And I don't take that risk.

When I was 6 years old my mom signed me up for ballet lessons thinking I would actually become a successful ballerina. Well, it was more like she expected that from me. She herself had been on stage countless times and danced in front of all sorts of famous people. So when she got the phone call from the academy saying I had flung my shoes into the headmasters head, she wasn't exactly thrilled.

I wasn't really any parents dream child, but the only person who actually accepted me at the end of the day would be my older brother Atlas.

He was the only one who stood up for me, whether that would be by taking down my bullies in school or at home, he was always my safe place. By the time he was told old to be fighting kids around my age he figured it would be better to teach me how to take my own fights.

I finally felt like I had found something I was good at. So I spent every minute of every hour in my free time to get better at it.

Now here I am, eye to eye with what looks like a cross between a billy goat and a man. Whatever he is, sweat is dripping off of him already. The fear in his eyes grows even more as the audience goes insane shouting "Moon".

I hop in a circle as he's leading me around the ring, trying to stall me. "Sweetheart," I start, breaking his focus. He looks straight up at me, eyes begging for mercy. I blow my first punch against his left temple, as he looses half of his balance I take this as my chance to go for the leg. He falls to the ground in less than 10 seconds total. I put the heel of my foot on his back and the crowd goes absolutely insane, as always. "Focus next time." I continue my previous sentence as I fix the mask covering the top portion of my face.

I turn my phone on as I am handed the money for the fight, seeing 3 missed calls from my mom and a message from Sunday. "Fuck." I whisper underneath my breath before I start counting the money in the envelope. 76 dollars, not too bad.

I run into the locker rooms, starting to change before anyone else enters. I throw my hair into a high ponytail with two dark pieces of hair loose. I'm in a hoodie and jeans as I make my way out replying to messages and finally calling my mom.

She answers by the time I reach my car, so I connect my phone to Bluetooth before I start driving away from the building. "ADDELYN!" my moms voice blasts from the speakers almost making me swerve off the damn road. "Where are you?! It's almost 4 AM!" this time I made the smart decision to lower the volume as she speaks. In panic I look around the car before saying "I went to get..milk?" sounding more confused than assuring. Mental face palm.

"If you're not home in 5 minutes, I'm calling the cops." She finally says, still pissed off by the time she ends the call. I sigh as I try my absolute best to keep my eyes on the road.

As I drive into the neighborhood I turn the lights off my car, slowly driving in. I grab my bag and close the door as quiet as I can before I sneak into the garage. I turn the key in the lock slowly, throwing my gym bag in as I hear my mother clear her throat.

I stand in the doorway, resting my left arm on the frame as the right one manages to grab the handle slowly closing it behind me. "Heyyy mom, whatcha doing here" I say as I awkwardly snap my fingers, pointing to her.

"What are you doing in there, Lyn." My mother asks, without it even sounding like a question. Panic, panic, panic. She has never been this close to figuring out anything about me. "I thought I heard sounds, that's all." I say as I'm still holding onto the handle, the door still open but dark.

My mother takes a step forward as she says "Where's the milk then?". Fuck. "It's uh.." my hand reaches to something on top of the table in the garage and I show it to my mom as soon as I've grabbed onto it.

In my hand is a perfectly fine looking carton of milk. Are you fucking kidding me. I look at the milk carton, not being able to form words. Did that just spawn into my garage? Okay Addelyn, time to ask the universe for a million dollars I think to myself before I look up to see my mom again. Oh right, fuck.

"Here it is!" I proudly announce. "So if you excuse me, I have to go drink some milk for my..uhm..my bones?". My mom looks to me with a confused look, "Did you just say bones?" she asks and I nod. What the hell. She rolls her eyes. "I need to go to sleep, don't say up too late." My mother says as she yawns and turns to walk to the house. I let out the biggest sigh when she's finally inside.

I glance down at the carton of milk in my hand reading expiration date. July 22nd, 2021. I raise the lid off the trash can before I throw the milk out, absolutely gagging because of the thought of us having year old milk in our garage.

"Whoever's father left it here, please don't ever come back." I mumble to myself as I make my way inside.

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Hi guys! This is the first chapter I've ever written so please be patient, I swear it only gets better. I'll do my absolute best to post every single day so stay tuned!
- S