Riverton High School

~8~

                  "If you're not lighting any candles, don't complain about being in the dark."

                                                                                                                         --Unknown

Ashton sat up late at night in his room texting Charlie for the last few days. He noticed she was distant, seemingly preoccupied and reluctant to have a full meaningful conversation. He would text her at 1 pm and wouldn't get a text back until near 5 in the evening. He actually stopped texting other girls and tried to focus all his attention on contacting Charlie. Ashton laid in his bed blanket covering his head, when he heard his door swing open and hit the wall. He jumped, throwing the covers aside. "What the Fu-"

"Finish that sentence if you want to." His mom bellowed. She stood in the doorway in her cotton fluffy purple bathrobe that she wore everyday all day long. She was smoking a cigarette staring at Ashton with bitterness. She scratched her head slightly, adjusting her hair rollers. Her face looked as if she smelled rotten cheese, but she was looking right into Ashton's eyes.

"I thought I told you to take out the trash." She hissed.

"Look man I -"

She raced toward him with a quickness and pushed the end of her cigarette into his right arm. Ashton yelled and grabbed his arm, jumping up from his bed causing him to fall to the floor. revealing the circle shaped reddish burn "Fuck!" He yelled as the pain stung him. He glared back at his mother, blowing on the scar.

"Yeah - fuck is right!" She barked. His mother was mildly abusive, she was also strung out of various laced drugs. Causing her behavior to be more frantic as usual. She was a single parent, Ashton's father left the two of them when Ashton was only 3. After his mother got divorced she went downhill from there, spending time not with her son, but cuddling and cradling drugs and alcohol instead.

 Ashton was surprised she kept her job Vons supermarket in California. She had spoiled into a bitter and hard hearted woman after her divorce, as if the only light in her life was that man, rather than her own son. Ashton resented her for disregarding him and abusing him all these years after the split.

 He never talked to her about how he felt, he knew the last thing she'd do was care. As Ashton's mother became withdrawn with him, he also became remote from his home, not finding comfort there. He got involved with skateboarding and weed to pass the time, typical teenaged boy things, soon staying at night parties, having sex and becoming recognized as a local drug dealer. Of his community fame his mom wasn't informed. 

He had his own separate life going outside of home and in anger and pain he wanted nothing to do with his mother anymore. He planned to raise enough drug money to move out before senior year was over. No one knew of his struggles at home besides Amber.

"Now take out the fucking trash before I kick your ass." She cut her eyes at him, slamming the door behind her.

"Bitch." He mumbled getting up from the ground. He looked at his phone and Charlie was texting her classic replies to him 'yeah' 'kool' 'oh' 'nun' 'gtg' 

He got annoyed when she did that. Plus he was tired of all this non verbal communication, he figured she couldn't be distant and unresponsive if they hung out in person. So he decided to invite Charlie to go out somewhere, as friends. He usually never had to work this hard just to sleep with someone, most girls willingly put out for him within the first few days of talking. He'd been talking to charlie for a week with not so much of a strand of sexual chemistry floating around. He decided he had to do something about it.