Real boys do...

Hungry Kitty

I gasped covering my eyes.

I will never unsee that.

My mother wriggled out from under that pudgy man, who was becoming more of a nuisance by the minute.

She stood up with her shirt unbuttoned exposing some of her cleavage. Her hair was ruffled and her tired face was washed with embarrassment.

I looked over to the fat man, who reminded me of Pumbaa from the lion king. Only Pumbaa was cute. This man made me dry reach just looking at him. He had a smug look on his face that made me want to slap my hand across his face for taking advantage of my vulnerable wreck of a mother.

"Honey..." She started, bringing a hand to her swollen lips and rubbing her face in embarrassment.

"Don't even start mum. Could you imagine being me? Coming home to this!? You can bearly get dressed and out of bed in the morning! You really think that this-" I waved my hand over at Pumbaa keeping my eyes on my mum. "You think this will help you?" I spoke sternly crossing my arms. I felt like the tables had turned and I was in control, I felt like a parent lecturing their delinquent child.

She paused a moment and put a hand on her neck looking away from my eyes. "Well, Clarence-"

"Oh so he has a name, not just some random guy that was happy to feed your hungry kitty?" I growled cruelly.

"Hey- that's uncalled for. Clarence has been helping me a lot. He had fixed our sink and we-" She shrugged, "we got along swell." I saw the pain in her eyes, it reminded me of Rose when she was saying good bye to Jack in the Titanic. It was heartbreaking, she was broken, no matter what she said.

I cleared my throat, acknowledging what she was saying. "I'm sorry." I nodded towards Clarence darting my eyes towards him for a second.

"I'm a nice guy when you get to know me." Clarence announced as he scratched his belly that hung out the bottom of his too-tight-t-shirt.

Ew

I lifted an eyebrow, and nodded uneasily. My mother saw through my act and smiled slightly, letting me know things were getting better.

"Okay, well. I'll be in my room." I pointed behind me as I started to leave holding the strap of my backpack tightly.

"Wait..." I turned, mum walked towards me and wrapped her arms around me tightly. I was stunned, my arms hung by my sides and I awkwardly patted her back. "I'm sorry about last night. You're a good kid." She told me through my hair as she was still holding me tight.

At that note, I felt like it was the right time to ask permission to go to the party. "Hey mum?" I breathed.

"Mmmm?" She replied pulling away to look at my face.

"There is a party this weekend... that I want to go to. All my friends are going. So, can I?" I asked innocently giving her the sweetest puppy dog eyes I could manage.

She waited a moment crossing her arms in a huff. "We'll see." She spoke in a defeated tone like she owed me.

I nodded and trailed off to my room with a glance over my shoulder at her.

-

I crash landed onto my bed and curled into a ball. Still traumatized from mum's little 'incident'.

I was jolted out of my thought as my hip vibrated. I reached down and patted the pocket of my school dress. It was my phone. I pulled it out and unlocked it searching for the sly app who had disturbed my thoughts.

It was messenger. A little red 1 on the app symbol. I opened it hoping it was Nyjah. But it wasn't, it was Michael.

Hey :) the message said. It surprised me a little. But I replied just the same. Hey :)