Twisted Minds

Stage 11 - Confrontation

"It's time you answer some of our questions, Jensen." My mother ordered, with her arms folded and a deeply set frown on her face. Dad just stood there, being the ever dominating, yet silent figure he always is.

"What would you like to know? I'm an open book." I muttered, looking around the room at everything but her.

"Well, you sure as hell weren't yesterday, young man." She snapped, obviously she wasn't happy with my tone.

"I'm ready now." I stated, whilst tapping my foot on the floor. I was getting antsy and just wanted to answer her questions, so I could go upstairs and get on with some schoolwork.

"First if all, why did you storm out on Friday?" Mum asked.

"Because I broke up with Cassie last week, and it's still raw." I informed her, my voice emotionless. I saw her frown disintegrate and sympathy fill her eyes. She placed a hand on my arm and tried to make eye contact with me, but I just looked at the family picture on the wall, until Jaba trotted into the room, so I bent down and gave him the real nice scratches for being such a good boy. I decided to risk it and take down my mental wall, so I could take a peak at Mum's thoughts; I instantly regretted it.

'Finally! I've been waiting for him to get rid of that girl, she was so awful!' Her thoughts admitted. "Oh my goodness! Honey, I'm so sorry! Why didn't you tell us?" Was her contrasting vocalisation.

"It is kind of humiliating to find out your long-term girlfriend has been cheating on you with your best friend for months without me knowing." I answered, ignoring her thoughts and replacing the wall, as I continued to pet Jaba, who had rolled over so I could give him a belly rub.

"That means you were angry at Max too, I'm guessing. Whom did you stay with over the weekend then?" Dad deduced with his arms folded and looking down at me, as I distracted myself with Jaba.

"I stayed with Shane and Sean." I deadpanned, as I listened into his thoughts.

'Can't say I didn't see this coming.' He thought. Seriously, was it that destined to fail?

"That's no excuse young man, your mother and I were worried about you. We almost called the police! You could have at least texted us to say you were alive. We're not living in the dark ages you know, we have mobile phones, too," My Father said sternly. "There will be consequences to your actions, Jensen. Starting now, you will only be allowed out on weekends when you have our permission-"

"Woah, what?" I interrupted; I was being grounded right after I had made plans with Blue? This was not happening. "I have plans with a friend tonight! We were going to have a maths study session." I protested. Obviously I couldn't tell them that I was going out with a girl to ask her about my new ability of hearing everything they were thinking.

'Maths study session my ass, he's probably just going out to play video games.' Mum thought skeptically. "If you're having a study session, why don't you have it here where we can keep an eye on you." She suggested, I could tell by her tone of voice this was going to be the best compromise I could get. I signed and plucked my phone out from my back pocket.

"What are you doing?" Dad asked.

"I'm inviting my friend over for a maths study session." I said, looking them both in the eye, before looking back down at my phone. I found Blue's contact details and began typing out a text.

Me: Hey, Blue, ran into a bit of trouble with my parents. Would you mind coming round to mine instead?

When it had sent I looked back at Mum and dad who were still standing there with their arms folded.

"I'm going to do some econ work whilst I wait. Do you have any other questions?" I offered, trying to sound open, but Mum shook her head.

"No, that's all, honey. Can you do your work in kitchen, please? Just so I know you haven't decided to sneak out."

"Ok, whatever."

I headed upstairs and dumped my bag on my bedroom floor, before collapsing on my bed with a huff. This is not how I wanted this evening to go, but I didn't want to cancel my plans with Blue, I still had so much to ask her. It was in that moment that my phone vibrated.

Blue: That's cool, what's your address? My mum has given me her blessing to leave, oh so alone.

Me: Your poor mother! Maybe you shouldn't leave her...

Blue: She'll be fine, she has her evening TV and the dog. Give me your address, Holder.

I proceeded to send her my address and ask about her dog, who happened to be a St. Bernard, called Bernie. So original, I know.

She said she was going to arrive at six, so I had two hours to kill before she arrived. Grabbing my economics textbook, note book and pencil case out of my bag, I headed back downstairs, only to be greeted by Jaba with his favourite toy – a very chewed rabbit with its eyes chewed out. I grabbed one of the toy's feet and began tugging, to which Jaba let out a growl and began pulling back. His claws scraped along the wooden floor as he failed to get a grip on it. I managed to pull him all the way into the kitchen, before he finally gave up and let me have the toy. As soon as he let go, I threw it back down the corridor we had just come down and Jaba ran off, chasing after it.

"You're not bullying that dog, are you?" Mum called from the kitchen. She'd probably just started cooking dinner.

"Of course not, Mother; I would never do such a thing." I joked, trying to sound appalled at her accusation as I walked into the kitchen. She smiled at me, when she saw me and then gestured for me to come over to her, which I did. She proceeded to hug me very tightly and I hugged her back a little awkwardly, due to my height. My six feet and three inches towered over her five feet and four inches. 

"What's this for? Get back to cooking, woman, I'm hungry." I ordered, earning me a slap on the arm.

"I swear, if you weren't my only child, I would have murdered you a long time ago." She scowled at me, before breaking out into a grin. "Get to work, before your friend gets here."

I huffed then sat down at the table, opening my textbook to the page we had been looking at in the lesson this morning and then proceeded to answer the questions.

"Will your friend be staying for dinner?" Mum asked.

"I don't know, I'll ask her, and please don't say friend like that, Mum, I know what you're insinuating and no." I said, getting out my phone and sending Blue a quick message. She responded immediately with a 'yes', before my mum stole away my attention, again.

"Oh, so your friend is a her, is she? Moving on a bit soon, aren't you?" Mum teased with a raised eyebrow.

"Oh, shush, Mother, you know boys and girls can be friends. Our relationship is purely platonic. She will be eating with us." I stated, still looking down at my books and with that she fell silent, apart from the occasional humming. I put some headphones in and knuckled down with my work.

It felt like only minutes had passed when the doorbell rang.