I woke up with sunlight glaring through the window and Michael taking some Advil and drinking some water. “Where’d you get the Advil?” I asked.
“They’re in the kitchen right on the counter.” He answered obviously hungover.
I nodded once and made my way to the kitchen. I found a piece of paper and a pen and wrote a quick thank you to April and set out some pills and water for her. I made my way back to Michael and just gave him a “we need to go” look and he nodded. I agreed to drive us back to his house because of his hangover. When we showed up we ran to his room as he flopped on his bed I changed my shirt back to the one I wore at school and grabbed my skateboard saying quiet goodbye’s and thank you’s and skated back to my house.
I entered my house to be greeted by a dim light and smoke filled air. I ran to my room to drop off my stuff and grabbed a trashbag and cleaned the kitchen. Just as I finished my mom walked down the stairs. “Morning mom, want coffee?” I asked.
“You’re in deep shit mister.” She plainly said. I’d like to think it was the alcohol that made her say this stuff to me, thinking that if it was taken away things would be better, but ever since the divorce she’s never been the same. It was only alcohol she turned to that made her worse. My father left when I was 12 for a woman half his age. My mom took that to heart and said she was never pretty enough for him. I don’t really talk to him anymore. Sometimes I get a random text from him saying “how are things?” but never a reply when I answer. I stay with my mom because my father went somewhere new with his beach babe and said it'd be better if I stayed here with my friends. I know that if child services got called I’d be taken away. I bet that’s why I got so good at keeping things in.
“What did I do? I cleaned the kitch-”
“You hung up on me, ignored what I said to do, you stayed out all night, and came home slamming doors.”
“I didn’t-”
“I’m not done yet,” she held up her finger with the blood red nail polish. “You’re grounded. In fact, you will have no life until I say so. Now start cleaning. We have a guest coming over.” I cringed when she said “guest” because I know that just meant another man was coming over for the night to have dinner with us and leave early in the morning. My mom used to be so much better and I try my best not to think of her poorly but with her new “guests” coming over all the time I started to not like this place anymore. I opened all the windows and started to vacuum the living room. The house was small so it was easy to clean. Only two bedrooms, one bathroom, small living room, small kitchen, small dining room, and really no backyard. My mom came out in her normal "Pink" jacket and shorts, her thin blonde hair in a ponytail, and her makeup caked on blocking out her baby blue eyes. The only thing I was thank full I got from her. “I’m going to the store. I’ll be back soon. Keep cleaning.” I nodded and did as I was told. I finished the living room and walked by the already clean bathroom. I shrugged and turned left into my room. I closed the door and sighed. I looked around the small room and took in the scent of vanilla. The only freedom I had in this house was my room. I covered the walls in posters and doodles. In the corner of my room was all the things I needed in life: my guitar, laptop, notebook, some pens, and a crewneck. I looked at my bed and almost fell onto it before realizing I should change my clothes. I moaned as I took a look at my small closet filled with band t-shirts, crewnecks, and some floral button-up shirts. I grabbed some local bands tee and a pair of skinny jeans off the floor and got a towel.
I headed into the bathroom when I heard the front door open and laughter booming through the hollow walls. I casually walked to the living room when I saw my mom with a man’s arms wrapped around her waist and his lips attached to her neck. I sighed to myself before catching my mom’s eye. “I’m going to shower.” I said as turned around and sped off into the bathroom before I could get a response. Showering was my time to really process everything. After mentally freaking out about the strange man attached to my mom I traced my lips again remembering April. I felt something strange in my stomach. Almost as if I got nervous thinking of our kiss. I wonder if I was good kisser. I have only kissed one other girl and that was in 7th grade. I mean she did catch me off guard but she was so gentle and her lips were so soft. I snapping back into reality when the flesh melting water became frostbite water I got out of the shower. I changed into my pants and not putting on my shirt yet I went back into my room and grabbed my phone off the charger when I saw I had a missed text.
