Smothered (bxb)

A New Beginning

"Rain!" My mum yells at me from the bottom of the winding stairs.

"What!?"

"Can you bring down the last boxes from my bedroom please? The movers are wanting to leave in five minutes!" She yells up to me.

"Fine!" I shout back, rolling my dark blue eyes in annoyance. She should have already brought all the boxes downstairs, I reminded her like six times already! Uhhhg!

Frustrated, I walked into my mum's empty room and look at the light walls and the thought that I might never see this room again, the room that I grew up loving, haunts me. When I was younger my mother and I would make blanket forts on her bed and we would haul a bunch of our favorite books into the fort to read all day long. She'd read me my all time favorite books like the Harry Potter series, The Series of Unfortunate Events and The Spiderwick Chronicles. And I would snuggle up next to her under a massive amount of fluffy blankets; that was one of the happiest memories I had in my childhood home. Just the pure joy of reading with my loving mother with her soft voice speaking of futuristic worlds and fantasy lands that I escaped to throughout my childhood. It fostered an undying love of books and reading which I still carry with me.

I think that by being able to escape from reality into these written down worlds was one of the reasons the divorce didn't hit me as hard as it should have. My parents split up last year, after constant fighting, bickering and drunken mishaps, I think my mother just finally put her foot down.

I was interrupted out of my thoughts by my mother yelling up at me again.

"Rain?! You coming?" I rolled my eyes again and picked up the last of the boxes. 

"One minute!" I called back to her as I took in my home one last time.

God, I was going to really miss this place. My entire childhood lived out in this one house, with the light yellow painted walls, white furniture and beach decorations placed meticulously throughout it. I loved where I grew up; a little beach town filled with sea shells, sand, and the salty air coming off the ocean. Yes, I would definitely miss this beautiful place that I had called home for so long. In this small town everyone knew each other, I went to school with the same kids that I went to preschool with and we were all on good terms, even the adults seemed to get along. But it was all a façade, my home life looked from the outside to be perfect when in actuality it was a disaster. My father and mother held hands when we went for family walks and always came to town meetings with smiles, but as soon as they stepped inside our front door, my father would grab a bottle of vodka and a few beers off the shelf. He was an abusive alcoholic and his snide remarks at my mother worsened over time. Often by the end of a night he would through an empty bottle at my mother or at the wall, shattering glass everywhere. My mother's beautiful face would be contorted with sadness as tears dripped down her dampened cheeks. She would come into my room to see if I was okay, and we would sit in my room, holding each other in a strong embrace until we were sure my father had passed out. Not every night was that bad, but he only got worse as the years passed.

I also noticed how some of the towns people looked at her with a strange gaze when we would go to the post office or the grocery store together. I noticed how uncomfortable my mother looked when she walked the isles or bumped into someone on the street. It bothered me that In this seemingly welcoming and peaceful town, someone so kind and sweet would be made to feel so... I don't know... hated. Maybe they blamed her for the yelling anyone could hear from our house, maybe they thought she had provoked him? The unwelcoming feeling of the town was definitely taking a toll on my mother; I knew that we had to move, for her sake, but I was still leaving this place with a heavy heart.

I blinked the saddened thoughts out of my mind and walked down the stairs to the moving van to where my mother was waiting with a large smile.

As we drove in our beaten up Ford pickup truck down the long stretch of highway, I looked out the passenger side window at the tall evergreen trees we were leaving behind.

"Rain?" My mother asked me as she looked ahead towards the winding road.

"Hum?" I answered still thinking about the life I was leaving behind.

"It will be an adventure you know." She said taking her gaze off the road and looking into my dark eyes.

"Yeah mom, I know." I replied with a sigh and a halfhearted smile.

"You might meet a cute girl!" She exclaims trying to lift the mood a little as she directs her gaze back to the long and winding road. letting go of one hand on the steering wheel, she grabs my dark, olive skinned hand and squeezes it reassuringly.

"Or... a cute boy. You know, I don't care as long as your happy, right Rain?" She squeezes my hand again and I groan with embarrassment as she laughs at me squirming in my seat, visibly uncomfortable.

"Mom, I'm straight." I roll my eyes as she fakes a small pout and I laugh a little.

"You never know those things Rain, you just never know." Her eyes glaze over like she's remembering something from her past. But as quick as it came, It was gone and she started talking to me about the new apartment we were moving into, changing the subject just like that.

"It's much smaller than the house, but I think It will be the perfect size for the two of us!" She exclaims excitedly, "You can have the master bedroom If you'd like! It has it's own bathroom, shower and everything! It will be great! We even have a balcony that we can watch the city from!" She seems so ecstatic about the move. I know it was hard for her to be living so close to my dad all that time. It took a huge toll on her and I could see my mother trying to keep herself in one piece for years. This new life that we were going to be starting was going to be good for her, and I hope it would be good for me as well.

I smile over at my mum, her olive skin and her black hair soaking in the afternoon light. Her smile was wide and I could see a future where the two of us live happily together, without the confinement living in such a small town.