candy lovers | aspir | ✓

06 | fun dip

For the artists,

"An artist cannot fail. It is a success just to be one."

- Charles Horton Cooley

___________

CH 6

I'm still standing on the road staring in the direction of his car, except now the road's empty.

He didn't even seem sorry to leave. What the hell is his problem? This dude is bipolar and I'm pretty sure about it. I don't think anyone else can master the art of being sweet one second and rude the next, as much as Chase.

I begin to turn to enter my house when a strange sight catches my eyes.

An old wrinkled lady is standing still watching me from behind her large window. Her grey hair's as messy as a bird's nest, and what's even more peculiar is the fact that there are two black cats perched on her hunched shoulders, and they're staring at me too.

Yepp, all she's missing is a black pointy hat, and she'd pass for a witch.

Or a more plausible explanation is that I've finally found my neighborhood crazy cat lady.

I slowly turn away from her and walk up my front porch. Taking a deep breath, I twist open the knob on my front door and step in.

The stench of alcohol reaches my nose, and I know my mom's been drinking. No, she isn't an alcoholic if that's what you're going to assume. She just likes to have a glass or two when she's real stressed.

And I somehow feel responsible for this stress.

I hear the clacking of her Jimmy Choos, and my palms begin to perspire. Intuition tells me to make a run for it. The front doors just a foot away, I could run out, find a cheap one- way ticket to California, marry Hugh Jackman.... wait this is going nowhere.

I stay rooted to the spot on the carpet and she comes in through the archway into the living room.

To say she looks livid, would be the understatement of the century. She's seething and I almost expect smoke to come billowing out of her ears.

She's still in her formal wear. Oh, unless you guys didn't know, both my parents work as professors in a nearby renowned college.

My mom teaches Math, and today's Saturday so she didn't have to take a class. She probably just had meeting with her other colleagues.

She steps forward until there's about a foot of space between us. She's clutching onto a glass of wine and her other hand's behind her, holding something that I can't see.

"What the hell, have I taught you all these years, you scumbag?!" she spits.

I back away pathetically. Shit, what did I do?!

"Have I taught you to hide things from your parents? The people who work their lives off for you?! We go to work everyday and slave ourselves off, just so we can send you to a respectable college. And this act of ungrateful disloyalty is what we get in return?!" she shouts

My mind's racing as I think about what might have happened. What did I screw up? Did she find the...oh hell, I hope she didn't find them....

Just as if confirming my doubts my mom pulls out the bunch of papers and my progress card from behind her back and she throws them on my face.

"You. You're the daughter of a fricking math professor and you've managed to fail in all your math exams last year? Have you no shame?! What else do you want me to do for you? I've tutored you every night, and this is what I get in return?"