Urban Divinity

78

The sound of the griddle sizzling was enough to make my stomach rumble loudly as I fried up bacon and eggs. The whole kitchen smelled amazing but it did nothing for my nerves as I anxiously kept peeking towards the front door and back to the bedroom door.

Jocelyn was hard at work getting herself ready. It was the first time in a long time she's been quiet for more than ten minutes. I anxiously shuffled my feet, sighing as my head dropped to hang. I couldn't tell if she was silent out of anger or concentration. She hasn't even poked out her head to ask me my opinion on her look yet. I guess I should take it as a bad sign.

"Lyn?" I called out and listened for her response. There was no response besides the sounds of her shuffling in our bedroom. My lips dropped further to a frown, "Jocelyn!" I yelled and waited for a moment. Once again, she left me in silence.

"Ugh." I could only sigh loudly as I focused back on our burning food. A curse left my lips as my spatula struggled to quickly scrape the food onto a plate.

There, in a pile just as pitiful as me, were burnt scrambled eggs and bacon that looked like lava rocks. I angrily tossed the plate onto the counter before turning the stove off.

"Lyn's mad.. foods burnt.. my mama's on the way.." I could feel my energy deflating further as my eyes peeked towards the clock again, "5 minutes.." I mumbled softly and made my way towards the living room.

The least I could do was straighten up and light the fireplace so Lyn wouldn't be too mad at the food.

I did my best with what time I had.

I swiped my crumbed off the couch and replaced it with Lyn's fuzzy blanket then laid an extra one out on the armchair for my mother. I picked out a few magazines from the pile on the shelf to put on the coffee table with the new Christmas coasters Lyn swore we needed. Then finally, I got the starter wood I bought and thew it in our stone fireplace.

I patted my pockets for a lighter and cursed as I only felt my phone. The timing would have been almost impeccable if the sound of knuckles against our front door didn't interrupt me.

"Fuck!" I cursed quickly as I brushed wood chips off my hands with my pants and walked towards the door, "One seco-" The knob clicked loudly as the door swung open.

"It wasn't permission. It was a warning, Dion." My mother's voice was clear as day as she stepped into our apartment. She was clearly happy to be inside as she didn't waste a moment to shove her purse into my arms and get to work popping her winter boots off.

"I-I didn't know you had a key.." I fought to keep the frown off my face as she waved me off, "Why wouldn't I? I'm your mother." She lined her shoes up by the door and got to work on her fur coat, "I mean, be serious, Dion. When have I ever not had a key to your apartment?" She pulled her purse from my hands, replacing it with her coat before nodding to our closet.

I didn't object as I sighed and opened the doors, "I'm a grown man now, ma. You don't need to keep tabs on me." I tried to argue back but she clearly wasn't listening as she walked right into our living room.

She examined everything closely from the way I laid the blankets out to even the wood chips she scooted towards the fireplace with her feet.

"You should get the fire going, it's cold." Her arms hugged herself as she casually walked to our couch, "And what is that smell? It slapped me the moment I walked in here." She sniffed the air before her nose scrunched up, "You burnt something?" Her eyes darted to the kitchen and I could only sigh as she noticed my pitiful burnt breakfast.

"Listen.. I was tryna set this up for us real nice so y'all could talk and shit but it's all been a lot, okay?" I tried to defend myself as I motioned for her to sit on the couch. She reluctantly gave in, "Language." She snapped before giving me a pointed look.