Seeds of Tomorrow

29

The word was Olivia was still pregnant and still claiming it was his. Mark was not a religious person but best believe he prayed to God every muhfuckin' night that she was either lying on him or that it wasn't his kid.

His mother was on his case daily about how he better go get a job and get off his "lazy fucking ass and do something around this shithole" but still hadn't taken him to get an ID to get a job. Every time she brought his lack of work up, he reminded her of that to which she replied "Do I look like Im made of fuckin' money, Mark?"

Shit. May as well be, her drunk-driving fiance was up there living the high life in Walla Walla. All the soups, candy bars, and instant coffee he could ask for. The bitch probably ate better than Mark did, that was for damn sure.

Mark had been spending most of his time down the driveway with Liam smoking dope, working on bikes, and playing video games. Wasn't too bad, better than being home especially with his whore for a mother was home. Naveah was still steady drinking, bringing nasty old men home to fuck while proclaiming her love for Jimmy. Mark would be lying if he said he hadn't wished Jimmy paroled early and caught Naveah with one of her drunk fuck buddies.

"Bruhhhh...how did I know that was your brother?" Liam asked, cackling.

"Because he's like forty," Mark replied. His friend had realized at that moment that his old drug counselor was none other than Krist. "Guess he ain't too good to do at his job."

"He was coo' but, yeah, that fuckin' counseling did me no good. At all."

"How your parents gonna be cookin' that shit and send you to drug counseling?" Mark asked, lighting a cigarette.

"Wasn't them, but when caught with dope at school, they said part of my probation was to get drug treatment. I was honest with your brother and told him like...I'm not gonna be clean once this shit through, just doin' what I gotta do," Liam said, "He was like got it and that he appreciated me being upfront about all that but that he thought I ought to try it at least."

Mark took a drag off his Basic 100, blowing it out, "Fuck that shit."

"That's what I said," Liam grinned, "He was all, 'Oh when I was your age I had the same attitude, I get it," and then went on and on about the dumb shit he did 'cause he was tweaking."

"Sounds like Krist, dude never shuts up about it. I swear to god, bro, it seems like he misses it or some shit. Talking 'bout he used to break into cars an' be homeless an' all the hoes he was messing with. If he's trying to detour me from getting high, that right there is just gonna make me want to do it more. Hoes and breaking into cars? Shit. Sounds like a good day to me," Mark said taking another drag of the cigarette.

"Right? Where all these hoes at?"

The two laughed until Liam's four-year-old nephew ran outside, nearly into Mark's lit cigarette.

"Fucking watch it, Cody, your stupid ass almost got burnt!" Liam scolded him.

Cody rubbed his arm as if he had been hurt, "Oh, sorry," he said quickly before darting after one of them mangey ass feral cats that lived on the property.

"I can't wait for all them lil fuckers to be out of here," he muttered, "Joanna don't even watch them, she just fucking lays on the couch bitching about how Rodney had a new bitch and now he don't think the kids are his."

Joanna was Liam's twenty-three-year-old, soon-to-be divorcee sister. She had three kids who were four and under. Mark had made the mistake of sharing a cigarette with her one afternoon and got stuck on the patio listening to her life story. He hadn't paid her much attention, just nodding along with the occasional "Damn, the sucks," and "he's a piece of shit for that" as she ranted.

That resulted in her telling him he was such a good listener, throwing in "Especially for a man," followed by "So how old are you anyway?" He told her he was seventeen, leading to another rant. "Rodney's new bitch is eighteen, met her straight outta high school and she already saying she fuckin' pregnant," to which he replied, "Damn that sucks."

"You know she's jocking you," Liam told him with a laugh, "She kept asking if you was single and when you gonna turn eighteen."

Mark pretended to retch, "That's fucking nasty," he said. Mark wasn't exactly picky about who he put his dick in. He'd fucked some ugly bitches so the fact Joanna disgusted him said a lot.

It wasn't even her being older than him, he'd been with a few bitches who were like twenty, twenty-one, some of them even cute, but she was not hot. Or even kind of alright. Yeah, she had big titties but she also had a gut, flat ass, and somehow thin legs with thin arms. If he was gonna fuck with a fat bitch, he wanted one who wasn't built like the muhfuckin' penguin.

On top of her unfortunately shaped body, she had a short neck with a moon-shaped face and stringy brown hair always saying everybody said she looked like Christina Ricci. Only in the forehead. Dumb ass bitch.

As if on cue, the beast rose from her slumber, trudging herself outside in some stained Sitch pajama pants with a matching spaghetti strap tank top and no bra. Mark wondered why all the white broads were so obsessed with Stitch. And Tinkerbell. Any Disney or Looney Toon shit.

"Oh hey, Mark, I didn't know you were over," she said, packing her cigarettes loudly on her open palm.

Sure, bitch.

She sat down next to him. way too damn close causing him to instinctively scoot away from her. She had bothered him as it was but with Liam saying she was sweating him, he wasn't trying to give her no wrong ideas.

"Have you heard anything else about that girl being pregnant?" Joanna asked.

Mark tossed his cigarette into the coffee can at the bottom of the steps, rising to his feet, "Nope."

"I call bullshit on her even being pregnant," Joanna continued as though she knew his situation more than just her eavesdropping on him and Liam.

"Yup," he replied, glancing at Liam, "I'm gonna take off, hit me up later."

Mark really wasn't wanting to go home but he also didn't want Joanna fucking hassling him. At least his mom wasn't home.

Bored, he washed a load of laundry and lay in bed, mindlessly scrolling through his. Facebook feed. On a whim, he decided to unblock Olivia to see if she was still claiming to be pregnant.

His heart sank when he saw her profile picture had been updated to a sonogram photo with the words "It's a boy!" written in blue cursive. Olivia was someone who made everything public on her page. From her rants about her pregnancy symptoms to the belly pictures that revealed a small, barely noticeable bump to her rants about having to raise her baby as a single mom.

He was so damn tempted to comment that she wouldn't be in that predicament if she didn't let dudes bust up in her knowing she wasn't on birth control. Dumb ass bitch.