Professional Disaster

Chapter 15

"How do you feel, Anwylyd?" Kimberly stepped into her Daughter's bedroom, two cups of hot chocolate in her hand, one for her Daughter and the other for herself. The blinds were drawn, the curtains blacking out the room. Kimberly caught faint sight of Arabella's arm creeping out from under the covers to switch on her lamp.

"Like shit." She groaned. She followed her mother with her eyes as she came round to sit besides her in bed. Arabellatook the cup of hot chocolate, licking a dollop of whipped-cream off the top.

"I'm not surprised." Kim had a sympathetic smile. She patted her Daughter's head before wrapping an arm around her. Her room smelt of vomit, and Arabella's skin was clammy. She'd be happy to get the girl into the shower and air out the room.

"Why aren't you angry at me?" Ari placed her mug on her nightstand and cuddled into her mother, failing to meet her eyes.

"Believe me, your Brother and Father are." Kim shook her head and squeezed her daughter tighter, swirling a lock of hair around her finger.

"So why aren't you?"

"I grew up with Tadcu being overly protective. Anything I did wrong in the slightest he would scream for hours and that never made me listen, just made me feel depressed. I don't want that for you so instead I want to sit here and listen to you tell me why you did it." In a world full of bad people, Kim didn't believe her kids were bad. She didn't believe most kids were bad. Just like how a toddler discovers things by shoving anything and everything into their mouthes, Teenagers too experimented... by also putting stuff in their mouthes apparently. But Kim didn't believe that was punishable. Now, if Arabella were to do it again she would most certainly be angry. Possibly even angrier than Ari'sFather, but everyone deserves their first chance at doing something silly. Curiosity killed the cat and all.

"Thank you, Mam." Arabella relaxed. Her Father was angry, but wasn't he always? As long as she had one person who was willing to listen she was happy.

"So come on, explain." Kim urged.

"I met them a few months back, Izzy had annoyed me so I walked off and sat at the park for a while." Arabella began.

"Wasn't there a guard with you?" Kimberly questioned.

"No, I was at Mason's house but she took a nap and Ricky was at work so we were alone and after the argument, I just walked out for a while. I sat at the park on the swing just swinging back and forth until this girl came up to me and started talking. We talked for a while until she introduced me to her friends, that's the two boys that were there. They added me on Snapchat and we've been talking for a while since then."

Kim sighed. That bastard Snapchat. "And they started giving you drugs?"

"Well, I've only tried Cigarettes, Weed and Coke, but-"

"Cocaine?" Kim sputtered.

"I thought this was a judgment free zone?"

Kimberly crossed her arms over her chest, really not sure how to feel. "It's a shouting free zone. I can judge all I want."

"I tried that one. Truthfully I hated the snorting so Zack said he knew something else I could try." Ari spoke truthfully. "Besides, you guys sell it, you can hardly say a thing."

"Not to kids we bloody well don't." Kim shook her head, wanting to move past the conversation at hand. "Well, I don't want you doing this stuff. You've tried it now, and yes there's plenty of drugs in the world, there's plenty of ways your Father and I can punish you too. Don't make me have to have this conversation with you again."

"I am really sorry." Bella meant it too. "I won't do it anymore, I promise Mumma."

"But I don't want you promising me something if you know you can't stick to it." Kimberly took a sip from her mug and laid further into her Daughter's large bed.