Fractured Family

Chapter 1

Alex was checking out groceries at the cash registers. It had been a pretty boring day, but Alex was dreading the amount of homework he had to do when he got home. The lady he was checking out was an older woman who kept trying to make conversation with him.

"Did you know I have a son around your age?" She questioned him. "I wish he was as motivated as you."

Alex smiled at the lady and replied, "Well I can imagine he is still an amazing son."

The lady he checked out was older, so he was also packing her groceries for her while maintaining a conversation. When the lady was done he told her to have a wonderful day.

After checking out the nice lady, Alex's manager told him it was time to take lunch. During his lunch break, he was texting his mom and eating a bologna sandwich.

Mama: I'll be home around 7 tonight and is it okay if you make dinner?

Alex: It's no problem, Mama. I'll be home around 4.

Mama: Thank you, honey. Love you

Alex: Love you too mama.

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When Alex got home that evening, his stepfather had been sitting on the couch while watching the news. Alex's stepfather wasn't a mean man, but he was always bitter.

"Mama said she was going to be home around 7," he said while clearing off his stepfather's dishes.

"Is she making dinner, or are you?" He questioned him while staring at the TV.

"No. I'm tonight. What are you feeling like?" Alex said to his stepfather.

"Do we have pasta noodles and tomato sauce?" Jeremy grumbled

"Yes, we do!" Alex responded in a chipper voice.

"Then that's what I want." He said, finishing the conversation.

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The noodles were boiling in the pot while Alex was trying to complete his homework that was due a week ago. Everyone in the household worked, but where they lived it was still hard to keep up with bills. Alex was an okay student, but thenhis grades started slipping even more once he got a job, but neither his mom nor stepfather cared.

By the time the food was done, Alex had cleaned the kitchen and did two out of the four math assignments he had. He was working on the third one while eating dinner and his stepfather, Jeremy was sitting across from him eating before he had to go to work.

"What's that assignment about?" Jeremy said in a polite voice.

"Math. It was due a few days ago, but my teacher gave me an extension." Alex responded while concentrating on the paper.

"Oh. Well, if you ever need help, I wouldn't mind," Jeremy told his stepson. He had felt bad for being a tad rude to him earlier.

"Okay," Alex replied, giving him a fake smile.

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When Alex's mom, Maria walked in it was already 7:30. She saw that dinner was made and the house was tidy. She walked to Alex's room, he was sitting at his desk doing homework. He was pretty focused so she observed his room, clothes only over the ground, the bed unmade, and glassware on the nightstand. While deep into her thoughts, then Alex finally acknowledges her.

"Hi mama, how was work?" He said, trying to get her to stop looking at his messy room.

"It was fine." She responded bluntly. "I thought I told you to clean your room and by my observations, this is anything but clean,"

"I didn't have the time to clean it. I was doing my homework and then studying for my test coming up soon," Alex said, looking at his homework.

"When I tell you to do something, do it." She stated while walking closer to him. "I appreciate you making dinner tonight. I'm still disappointed that you didn't listen to me. You're grounded for a week because this isn't the first and not the second time this has happened."

"Yes, mama." He said, handing his phone over.

"Love you, honey," she said sweetly.

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Maria walked back to her room to change out of her work clothes. She worked in an office that had a strict dress code, so the only thing she wanted was to change into pajamas. After changing, she ate dinner and went back to her room. While sitting on her bed, she got a phone call from her ex-husband she looked at the calendar and realized why he was calling.

After the two got divorced, they agreed to call once a month to check on the kids and today was that day. She answered and went to lock the door.

Manuel: Hi Maria, how is Alexandre?

Maria: He's fine. I just grounded him through.

Manuel: Why's that?

Maria: I told him to clean his room multiple times, but still didn't.

Manuel: You just grounded him? I would have given him a spanking and you know it.

Maria: Well, he's under my custody, and I could never do that. He's been through enough.

Manuel: Fine. Can you tell me what else he's been up to?

The conversation went on for another 15 minutes, then they both decided to go to bed. When Maria was lying down in bed, she thought about how much she missed her other children. Her eldest boy, Miguel is working harder than ever, Cristiano is in university studying business, and her Lorenzo is in his last year of school. Then she started thinking about Manuel. She knew that he actually wasn't going to sleep and would probably stay up in his office working.

Soon after all her thinking she finally decided to close her eyes and go to sleep.

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After Alexandre's mom took away his phone, he knew he should clean his room, but there was something about that he hated doing. About 30 minutes later, he heard his mom talking on the phone with somebody. He never actually knew who it was because whenever he asked about it, she would get mad at him and send him to his room.

Alex managed to clean about half his room because he just got too bored. He layed on his bed, thinking about all the other things in this world, like if his biological father was alive and if he missed him or if his mom would someday stop overworking herself. All these 'what ifs' slowly stopped and Alex fell asleep.