SELIGHT

Chapter 3: The Motions Of Mundane Routine

Chapter 3: The Motions Of Mundane Routine

The Bathroom, Blakesley Residence, 1214 Winchester Dr. Camden, Maine....(1990)

        Steam filled the entirety of the bathroom as a naked and rather uneasy Seth Blakesley stood beneath the rushing showerhead soaking himself from head to toe in a bid to get himself cleaned up for the upcoming school day. He had not really been looking forward to it, all things considered, nor had he been looking forward to after school when he'd have to show up at his part-time job at Lenny's Crab Shack just a few blocks from the pier. He knew the shower would be little to no assistance once he'd been among the ice, salt water, and foul-smelling fish and crab that had been stored and cooked at the restaurant. Still, it was best to dress to impress en route to the place than to not make any attempt at all. The heated water had been a boon for him in the long run, relaxing his formerly tense muscles and easing him into a state of complete consciousness. He had not been looking forward to the start of the school day but the shower had been a good thing after his long shift at The Crab Shack.

He had never been a fan of seafood, despite living in the humble little seaside town of Camden, Maine since the day he was born. The thick salty sea air had been something of a stable in this place and one that everyone knew well. Seth stood beneath the rushing warm water allowing it to soak his lean pale body entirely as well as his unkempt raven locks as he stood trying his best to mentally prepare for what the day would bring.

As far as attributes had gone, Seth's pale chest and lean abs had been something of a boon, he could have been vastly overweight or underdeveloped. A recent growth spurt had taken him from being a scrawny short kid to being a rather tall and lanky lad with something of a surprising disposition. While he often rolled his eyes when being compared on a constant basis to his long-dead father, his mother's drunken remarks about his inheriting his sizeable appendage from the man often made him uncomfortable.

Being socially awkward had only been the half of it, as he never seemed to know what to do about girls, let alone how to hold a true conversation with them. He'd been into sports but due to his lack of coordination, he wasn't very good at much. He liked music, The Grunge scene had been fast becoming a part of his and his friends' daily lives.

Growing up in the nineties had been something with all the creative directions people had been going whether musically, commercially, or artistically in general. The time for experimenting and fleshing out just who and what one wanted to be had been something to behold. Sadly, even in this era of individual expression and boldness, Seth had not been capable of either. He had preferred to be average and to keep his head down whenever possible. His friends had been his friends ever since they attended preschool together and hadn't changed aside from the ones that moved away since.

Seth sighed as he began to lather up amid the rushing warm water knowing all too well that if he had taken any longer and hadn't smelled at least a bit like the soap his mother left out for him she'd be on his case until the cows came home.

He shook his head as he thought of how odd she'd been, even in this place. A fierce woman in her own right despite being only five foot nine and adept at any and all manner of verbal lashing and physical confrontation, she smoked like a train and drank like a fish when she'd been alone in her room in the dark, a side of her that Seth had never been too fond of.

He recognized that she'd gone through a lot, just to raise two boys alone in Camden, and that had come with ridicule, speculation, and a good deal of heartbreak. Seth found his mother to have been a rather tough lady all things considered but there were moments when the weight of the world and having to scrap for every last decent memory of her long-dead husband had gotten to her.

All she seemed to have in the world that had been any sort of proof of her love and his love in return had been her children, Seth and Sean. Sean however had been an anomaly in it himself as he'd been born rather unconventionally according to their mother. She spoke rather candidly of having been artificially inseminated at a clinic by way of her dead husband's frozen sperm, which she advocated for before he'd even gone off to the oil rig. She'd explained it as being terrified of losing him more often than not and wanting a child that he hardly had been around to produce while working so much.

He had agreed thankfully and the sample remained even after his untimely death due to her getting pregnant following his latest round of shore leave. While she'd been pregnant with Seth she'd been happy and when he died and she couldn't take the loneliness, she sought out the sample to have another child from her deceased husband, resulting in Sean Ryland Blakesley.

The resident pest if one asked Seth who had been merely finishing up in the shower when said pest had made himself known by knocking rather obnoxiously on the bathroom door.

{"Hurry up Seth I gotta go!"} growled Sean at the door as he pounded his fists into the old white-painted wood.

Knowing all too well how Sean had been conceived, Seth had not hesitated to remind his annoying younger brother, who had been eight years old and vastly intellectual, that he'd been born of "test-tube".

"Fuck off Sean," growled Seth in annoyance after getting a bit of soap in his eyes after reacting a bit too swiftly to the random knocking on the door.

He scrambled to stop the burning and wash off the remainder of the soap before hastily and rather shakily exiting the shower grabbing a nearby towel and drying his eyes before wrapping it around his waist. Dripping wet and annoyed beyond measure, Seth opened the bathroom door where a potty-dancing Sean stood anxious to get inside the bathroom.

Seth tracked a good deal of wet footprints back to his bedroom and through the hall as he slammed it shut still annoyed by his younger brother and turned his attention toward getting dressed.

It wasn't a pleasant start to the mundane routine of The Blakesley household, but it was a start nonetheless.