Hi! Some of the chapters in this short story are very short— but I hope you enjoy nevertheless :))
___________________________________
When I was younger, back in fourth grade, I remember there was a Health-Ed day where my school had a professional pediatrician visit us and teach the kids the basics of how to take care of newborns. The topic sounds wack— I know, but I'm sure there was a reason for it. I just can't remember what it was.
Never would I have suspected how useful this information would be to me.
Because the next year, in fifth grade, my mom started to go out and party. A lot. I remember how she used to be MIA for a few days at a time, and then would come home. She would tell us all about how she would hook up with different people, how it was so fun because she didn't have to commit. I was the only one old enough to understand the concept.
I hated it.
So I started throwing fits every time she gathered us round for "story time."
Finally, our mother got so fed up with my tantrums that she stopped telling us anything. She shut us out.
So it was up to me to raise my siblings.
To this day, it still is.
***
I sit down on my favorite chair in the living room and hear something that I seldom hear these days.
Silence.
I open Instagram and see reels of dogs wearing sunglasses, pictures of the latest trending skincare products, and stories of my friends spending quality time with their dads.
As I see post after post of strangers with big smiles plastered on their faces, I miss Dad more and more.
Today is Father's Day.
Right now, I feel like the father of my family.
That means that I don't have time to hang out with people whose personalities I like. What I mean by that is how I love my siblings; but part of that is because they're my built-in besties, and being the oldest, I met them the moment they were born.
I look at the baby monitor and see that Alice has started to get fussy. I get up, walk to the kitchen, warm up a bottle of milk, and head to the nursery. I pick her up and go downstairs, set her in her playpen and hand Alice her bottle.
YOU ARE READING
How To Not Be A Mother
Historia CortaRuby lives with her three siblings: Sam, Lewis, and Alice. She has been taking care of them since she was very young- in the place of their so-called mother, Esme, who's never around. It's time Esme learns her lesson. But will the kids be brave enou...
