Into the Fire

Well Be Ok

"Screw you mother!" I scream at her.

"Screw you too!" She screams back.

"Go fuck yourself, because father obviously won't!"

"You're such a little brat! I gave you life! I gave you a home, food, water, clothes, an education, and this is how you treat me?!" She throws a cup at me. I duck and it smashes against the wall.

"That might be true but that does not make you a mother, certainly not a good one either!" I spit in her face.

"You know what young lady, you're grounded, no food for the rest of the day! Get your ass up to your room!" She shouts in my face.

"Yeah right, like I'm gonna listen to you, you haven't even been here for the past week!"

"And you haven't been to school for the past week either! Did you know they're gonna expel you if you don't go to school? Then what, you'll be on your own because I will not have a daughter that can't even manage to stay in school, non the less be a respectfully good daughter!" She loses it.

"You know what?! I don't give a fuck! I don't give two flying fucks! I couldn't care less! You don't care about me! You don't care about this family! If you had've you would've fought for father to not leave! You would've dealt with your problems instead of drinking and not being here over half of the time now!"

"You're a fucking hypocrite Veronica! Such a hypocrite!"

"Fuck you!" I cry.

I storm out of the house, making sure to slam the door extra hard, just to piss her off more than she already is.

Grounded my ass, she hasn't even been home to take care of me, who is she to tell me what to do.

She is not even my mother anymore.

I need a drink.

"I heard you and your mother fighting," I hear Ben's voice behind me.

"You could hear that?" I ask.

"I'm sure the whole neighbourhood could hear," Ben chuckles, wrapping his arm around me.

I sink into his body and sigh.

"It was a rough morning," I look up at him.

"I'm sorry to hear that,"

"It's whatever, I'm heading for a drink, do you want to come with me?" I offer.

"How about," Ben stops and takes my hand, making me face him, smiling. "We just hang out, without drinking, maybe study a bit so you can catch up on late work,"

"Ben," I take my hands from his.

"What?"

"Stop it! Okay! Stop trying to change me!"

"I'm not trying to change you Roni, I'm just worried about you, you're flying off the rails, you only drink and get high, you don't go to school, they're going to expel you if you don't go sometime soon and keep a good attendance record, and you even gave up on your friendship with Cindy!" Ben confronts me.

"You wanted me to loosen up, so I did!" I yell at him, clearly pissed. He is the last person I want to hear this lecture from.

"Not like this! I meant every once and a while! Go back to believing in God and be more mature!"

I thought Ben liked the kind of person I am now. I didn't expect this from him. He's the one who I related to the most now, who I thought I could trust to not judge me.

"Why does it matter?! Ben isn't it obvious that God doesn't exist! God hasn't done shit for me! My parents split, my dad gave up on us, my mother is an alcoholic, her and I fight every time she decides to show up at home, which is not often now, I lost my virginity to some fuck boy, and I don't even remember it! He lets bad things happen to good people, he can't be real, why does it even matter to you?!" I scream, letting go of everything.

"Because I care about you for fuck sakes! I've grown to care about you, hell I really like you!" Ben screams in my face.

Suddenly hands go on my cheeks and lips attack mine. My eyes close and I kiss back, letting all my anger go, I push more into the kiss, making it fierce but passionate.

This feels right. The only right thing in my life.

Ben breaks the kiss and rests his forehead on mine, he looks me in the eyes, and I look him in the eyes.

"You bitch!" I hear someone screech.