He's Just a Kid

The Open Floodgates

I didn't expect to find the police at my home when I returned.

But of course, who ever does expect such a thing?

The red and blue lights of the cop car blinked rapidly, the policemen standing at the front door to my house, speaking to my very distraught-looking mother. Oh how I wanted to wipe that false concern and sadness off of her face with just a simple slap. I would feel so much better.

And then you'd go to jail for battery, I told myself.

Gritting my teeth, I approached the front door angrily, but trying my best to hide it, of course. Remaining calm was the best way to deal with police. If you act as afraid as you are, they'll think you're guilty of something else that you didn't actually do. In all of my experience with police, none of them ever wanted to hurt me or my friends, they were just there to help.

Maybe using that information I could get out of this situation without much trouble.

As I neared the front door, my mother spotted me and let out a fake cry of relief. I know that women took years of acting classes in performing arts school, and even I could barely see through that Oscar-worthy performance. The one thing that gave her away was the look of pure hatred that flashed behind her eyes for the briefest moment. It was subtle, but it was there. And over the years I learned to look out for those things.

"Oh, my baby!" The cry from Mom made me almost physically recoil. I almost barfed when she threw her arms around me and squeezed. "You think about leaving again and I'll actually have you arrested," she added, whispering menacingly in my ear, facing away from the cops.

I forced a smile, making sure the cops saw it. "And you get me arrested under false charges and I'll break out of jail and take Landon away from you," I whispered back through my teeth.

She tensed and released me. She faced me with pure hatred in her eyes, but I smiled a sweet smile at her, sending her death threats through my eyes and making my meaning very clear.

The one thing Mom couldn't stand not having control of was Landon. Despite the fact that she never showered him with affection, never told him she loved him, never even told him goodnight, she couldn't stand to live without him. He looked too much like Dad.

"Is everything alright now, Miss?" the policeman on the right asked Mom.

In an instant her face changed and she sniffed, facing the policeman once again. "Yes, Officer, thank you both so much," she sobbed, rushing up to him and grasping his hand in hers. "My baby is home now. I'm so sorry for calling you for no reason."

The policeman flashed a smile. "It's no problem, Ma'am," he replied sweetly. "You couldn't find your daughter and panicked, my wife would have done the same thing."

"Speaking of," the other policeman spoke up. He was young, probably barely out of college, by the looks of it, "where did you go, young lady?"

When I tell you it took every ounce of my being not to make a face at him for calling me "young lady", I mean it. "I went into town for ice cream," I explained calmly. "I was on a date with a guy I met, and I told Mom where I was going, but apparently she forgot and decided to call 911 for a miscommunication."

"Ah, makes sense," he said. He looked at his partner. "Alright, well, we should probably head out now that things have been settled, don't you think?"

"Yes," the other agreed. "You two take care."

After they left our line of sight in the police car, my mom grabbed my ear and drug me inside, slamming the door behind us.

I hissed and slapped her hand off of me. "Don't touch me!"

"I'm allowed to!" she snapped. "I'm your mother and you just pulled a stunt like that! Of course I'm going to pinch your ear, of all things! You're lucky I'm not doing anything else!"

I started breathing heavily and pressed my fingers into my temples, massaging intently. "Look, I'll admit that leaving without your permission wasn't the right thing to do, and for that I'm sorry. But keeping your daughter from doing everyday things because of one thing that happened when she was a kid was probably the worst decision you've ever made."

Fire burned behind my mom's icy gaze. "It's not my fault you are the way you are!" she shouted.

"Oh! Wonderful! And you didn't even think for a second to try to help your daughter rather than call her a monster and then treat her like dirt? And not only that, but you also decided to completely neglect Landon for whatever reason?"

"Don't you bring Landon into this!"

"Why? Because you don't want to talk about him at all? Because you're so disgusted of your own children that even a mention of either of their names will make you want to puke?"

Her face was turning redder by the minute. "You don't even have the slightest idea of what you're talking about!"

"And you do?"

She screamed out of pure rage, hurling a glass at my head. My hand moved on pure instinct and caught the glass before it collided with my face. It brushed the frame of my glasses, my eyes wide. This was the second time in not even a whole day. Something was definitely going on other than just me. We always butted heads like this, but she never actually tried throwing things at me before until just recently.

"Something else is going on with you," I observed aloud, barely audible. 

Her face slackened for a moment before she scrunched her brow and stormed off into her bedroom, slamming the door behind her. I definitely didn't know what was up, but it also definitely looked like she didn't want to talk about it.

And it wasn't like I was about to push the subject in the slightest.

"This is the world's most broken family," I said to no one as I carefully set the glass back on the table gingerly, still slightly shaken up.

I just prayed that Landon didn't hear it.

A faint crying in the room to my left told me that he heard all of it. I closed my eyes and couldn't help letting a few tears fall at the sound.