Espresso Cookie/Espresseleine Oneshots

Oneshot 20 || Angst

E + L's age: 11

"Mother, please, I really tried! You... You have to believe me!" Espresso begged, staring at his mother with the most pleading eyes he could possibly muster. "I-I'm really sorry. I'll study extra hard so I'll get a perfect score next time."

Mother scoffed, staring down at Espresso's test in her hands. He had gotten a 78, which was much lower than he normally got. But this test was really hard; nobody in his class had gotten past a 70 beside him. Mother didn't seem to understand that. "This is pathetic, honestly," She mumbled. She crumbled it up, throwing the balled-up test at Espresso. It hit his face. "Who do you think you are, getting these shitty test scores and daring to talk back to me?"

He looked down, guilt filling his mind. "I'm really sorry."

"I don't want your apologies," She hissed, closing her eyes as she took a drag of her cigarette. She leaned forward, exhaling the smoke in Espresso's face.

He winced, coughing as he turned his head away.

Mother sighed, closing her eyes as she took a deep breath. "You make me sick. You're supposed to be smart, why aren't you smart anymore?!"

Espresso's eyes trailed down to the floor before he shrugged.

"You're so useless!" She yelled, screaming in his face, causing him to flinch. "You're pathetic and worthless, nobody will ever fucking love such a stupid and weak rat like you!" She snarled, her fists clenching.

He stared at her, his eyes wide in fear. He looked down at her clenched fists, wondering if she was mad enough to hit him. Mother rarely hit Espresso, so whenever she made threatening gestures at him while she told him how badly she was going to beat him, she never did. It gave Espresso a sort of comfort to realize his mother probably wouldn't hit him. And although her mental abuse hurt just as badly as the physical abuse from his father... at least he wasn't being beaten half to death..?

She took another step towards him, and Espresso took a step back. She grinned as he had him backed against the wall. "You'll never be good enough for anyone, especially not me or your father. Why are you even trying?"

Espresso tensed up as he felt his back press up against the wall. Mother leaned in close to his face as she grinned her scary grin.

"Espresso, do you think you're smart?"

He blinked, wondering if this was a trick question. He slowly nodded.

"Hm." She stayed silent for a moment. "Not smart enough. Millions of people are smarter than you are, and you dare call yourself smart. You're not even close to some of the brilliant geniuses who walked this Earth. Sure, you get good grades sometimes, but does that make you... Albert Einstein?"

He shook his head.

"No. It doesn't." She narrowed her eyes at him. "You are nothing compared to some people. You're so dumb compared to the smarts of some people. Why are you even trying?"

Espresso felt his breath catch in his throat as tears stung the backs of his eyes. "All... All I want is to make you and Father proud," He choked out, his voice breaking. "I just want you to be proud of me..."

Mother smirked at his response. "Oh? Do you want my praise? My validation?"

He continued to keep the tears back, but it was getting harder. He nodded.

"You want us to love you?"

A sob escaped his lips as he looked down. All he wanted was to be loved. All he wanted was for Mother and Father to be proud of him. He just wanted them to hold him and love him and tell him how proud they were of him.