The Struggles of Being Me.

Chapter 1

It was the day Terrance turned 18. A horrible day in his opinion. He had enjoyed 10 years of being totally irresponsible. When he was born up until he was 8 years old, his parents were really strict and overprotective. Then his Dad died and his mother fell into alcoholism and drug abuse. From then on, he was free to do anything he wanted as long as he was out of the house and away from his Mom. Now that he's 18, he now has responsibility which was incredibly scary for him. Terrance's Mom had gone to rehab and had been clean for 3 years next month. His Dad was the controlling one. Not his Mom. He laid in his bed, thinking about what he was going to do with his new-found age. One more year and he could buy alcohol himself. Terrance didn't drink much due to what it caused his Mom, not wanting to turn out like her. He would, however, have an occasional drink with his friends and made sure not to be around his Mom when he did because he didn't want her to relapse and get back into the habit.
"Terry," his Mom called up the stairs "Birthday breakfast is ready." She said as he could hear her walk back to the kitchen. He sighed and got out of bed, throwing his wife-beater shirt on before leaving his room and down the stairs. His Mom had made his favorite breakfast, pancakes, and put whipped cream on top with a candle.
"Good morning!" She said happily, placing the plate on the table with a big smile on her face. They had a small house but it was just the two of them living in it.
"Never thought I would have made it to 18, to be honest." Terrance replied.
"When I was your age, I never thought I would have made it to 18 either, let alone 36." She said and pulled the chair out for Terrance to sit and eat. He walked over and thanked his Mom as he sat down. She placed the maple syrup on the table and smiled as she went back into the kitchen to make her usual oatmeal and brown sugar. Her oatmeal was her go-to comfort food, especially since rehab. If she was really feeling the crave, she'd add some chocolate chips or maple syrup to it. Terrance didn't want to end up like his Mom. She never graduated high school because she got pregnant with him when she was 18, before she could graduate. Her parents kicked her out as soon as they found out and had to live with the baby-daddy who then proposed to her. They married before Terrance was born which turned out to be two days after the wedding. It was important to Terrance that he finished high school and avoid relationships which wasn't hard for him. He was homosexual and hadn't come out to anyone yet. He was afraid to tell his Mom because they never talked about it, meaning he wasn't sure how she'd react. He didn't want to be disowned by someone he cared about a lot. He wanted to have his own place and graduate before he told anyone. It was Saturday morning, which meant Terrance had nothing scheduled except watch Saturday morning cartoons on Cartoon Network and sleep. His Mom had AA meetings on Saturdays and hadn't missed one without reason for the time she'd been 100% sober. She would often make cookies or something to bring to the group along with advice for those who were struggling with the addiction. Terrance would go sometimes with his Mom as a support. He enjoyed helping in anyway he could. He hated seeing others struggle and in pain. He'd pick up hitchhikers and take them where they needed to go and was safe about it. He had a gun license and a handgun under the seat of his car just in case something went wrong, which, thankfully nothing ever went wrong so he'd never had to use it. Terrance's Mom sat across from him and sighed.
"Going to stay home today?" She asked before starting to eat. He nodded and finished his mouthful.
"Yeah. Got cartoons to catch up on." He replied and finished his plate, taking it to the sink and washing his dishes. His Mom gave a little laugh.
"You mean documentaries and whatever else us adults watch? You're one of us old people now, you know." He laughed.
"Yes. That is definitely what I mean. Going to watch some educational stuff and stuff with lots of sex and violence. Blood and guts being squeezed out of the victim's mouth." He said as he placed his now clean dishes in the dish rack to dry. He did have a dark sense of humor and mind.
"Oh, Terrance! Please, I'm eating!" His Mom exclaimed. "Don't make me pull your middle name out of the deepest, darkest crevices of my being." She said, taking another bite of oatmeal. She too had a dark, twisted mind. That's usually how people could identify they were related. Terrance looked more like his Dad and had his Mom's sense of humor and strange ways of thinking.
Before going to the living room, Terrance ran back up to his room and grabbed a blanket and his laptop, quickly changed and ran back down and into the living room. He sat on the couch and wrapped himself in the blanket, pulled the coffee table closer to him and put his laptop on it, turning it on. He then grabbed the remote and turned the TV on, changing the channel to Cartoon Network. It was great in, his opinion, not having many friends or much of a life. No one to hang out with, meaning more hours of cartoons and naps. No one to bother him during these events, and never being late to classes because of hanging out at lunch or 10 minute break periods between classes. He didn't get great marks, but as long as he was passing, he was happy. Terrance had no idea what he wanted to do when he graduated. He had an idea, but there was so much work required to get into that field of work. Too much math for his functionality. His dad may have been an accountant, but that doesn't mean that part of his Dad made it into his brain capacity. Terrance used to be really good at math and enjoyed it, but that was in grade 5-8. After that, he didn't understand any of what was being said and hated the fact that there was only one way to do things and only one right answer. Because Terrance had failed all of his grade 9 classes when he first started high school, he had to take math for an extra year which seemed to really butter his bread.

"I'm leaving now," his Mom said as she grabbed the keys. "I have some shopping and errands to do before AA today."

"Alright. I'll be here." Terrance replied, logging into his laptop as his Mom left. He'd left Skype open the night before by accident. The program dinged multiple times, signaling that he had messages. He sighed and opened the program, clicking on the icon that was lit up. His online friend, Conner, had messaged him. Conner was offline now, as he was from England and probably at work. Terrance lived in Canada, so there was a bit of a time difference.

The two had been friends for quite a while.

Terrance's Mom was worried about him most of his life because he'd have no friends "in real life". When he was introduced to the internet, the first thing he did was look for friends and watch cartoons from other countries, like Anime, cartoons from Japan. One of his favorites was called "Soul Eater" and "Bleach". He liked the fantasy aspect of collecting souls before the evil did. It was something he dreamed about after his Dad died. Save his Father's soul before evil could get it.