Strip

Chapter 11

Chapter 11

When I was little, my mom and I used to go on road trips.

Back before James was born. She was actually a good mom back then. She had a job that she went to every day, and I went to school, and she'd pick me up and drop me off everyday. We lived in this nice little house with 3 bedrooms, one for me, one for her, and one that we had turned into a second living room. We would hang out in there after school, and I'd do my homework, and she'd do whatever it was she had to do for work(It involved a lot of papers), and then we'd watch some tv, and eat dinner. She'd watch cartoons with me most of the time, and sometimes I'd watch the news with her. Then she'd tuck me into bed, and read me a story from the Grimm's Fairy Tales (Which are often much more gruesome or depressing than the ones that are told today, but I still loved them). The next morning, she'd wake me up, and it would repeat.

But every now and then, on Fridays when she picked me up from school, we'd drive right past our house. She'd keep driving for over an hour, until we reached a hotel, any hotel, that we both wanted to stay at. We never stayed at one twice. And we'd go and check in, and spend the weekend together doing stuff, and window shopping, and eating at nice restaurants. I loved those weekends.

The fanciest place we ever stayed at was the suite, with 2 bedrooms, a full living room, a full kitchen, and a bathroom that basically had a Jacuzzi instead of a bath tub. It was amazing.

I remember going into the bath tub, and turning on the jets, and laying in there for a good hour. It was so relaxing. I was as still and as quiet as possible- Any noise that was made echoed off the walls in an creepy way. I almost fell asleep in there, but I got out before I dozed off and accidentally drowned.

After my bath, I got into my pajamas, even though it was only 5:30. I sat and watched cartoons, and I heard my mom running the bath. I kept watching Sponge Bob until I heard something. There was a strange noise coming from the bath room. But when I listened for it, it was gone. A minute later it came back, a quick short noise. It was starting to scare me. When I heard the third one, I could place what it was; Sobs. My mom was sitting in the bath tub crying, as quietly as she good. The noise bounced off the walls of the bathroom and reverberated through the whole suite. I could hear it all.

Eventually I turned off the tv and went to bed. I lay there for around and hour, wondering why my mom would be crying in the bathroom. I was just starting to doze off when she came into my room.

"Molly?" She whispered. "Are you awake?"

"Yeah," I answered, sitting up.

"You shouldn't be," Mom said. "It's late."

"I know."

Mom sighed, and crawled into bed next to me.

"Would you like to live here?" She asked.

"Yeah," I said, excitement rising in my voice.

"We could just stay here, in this suite, and eat every meal in the restaurant down stairs."

"And we could spend all day window shopping and watching cartoons," I added.

Mom laughed. "You'd never have to go to school again, and I'd never have to go to work."

I giggled. "That would be nice."

She was quiet for a minute. I lay there, waiting, hoping we would just stay there so much it hurt.

"We can't live here," She whispered finally.

I felt my heart shatter, even though I knew that would be her answer. "Yeah."

"Tomorrow, we're gonna go home, and on Monday you'll go to school, and I'll go to work, and we'll keep living our happy lives."

I nodded. She didn't say anything else. Eventually I fell asleep. When I woke up, she was already dressed, and packed, ready to leave.

That Monday, I went to school, and she went to work. She picked me up, and we went home, and we went on with the same routine we had been so used to. But it was different. Before it had been comforting, and easy, living through our planned routine. But it felt forced. Our conversations were the same each day, we woke up and went to sleep like clockwork, we became machines, living out what had been programmed into our heads, forcing us to live out the dull lives that had seemed to enjoyable before.

I didn't realize it, but something had happened to my mom when we had gone to the suite. Something inside of her had snapped. She couldn't keep willingly living the same day over and over again. So she had to force it. She forced it on herself, and she forced it on me, until she couldn't take it anymore.

I kept thinking that I just had to wait. One Friday, she'd pick me up from school, and she'd drive until we found a hotel. She'd break the cycle, and our lives would stop being forced when we went back to them. We would go back to the happy family we had been before.

We never went to another hotel. We just kept living out the same forced cycle until the day she broke down.

And that's when things got really bad.

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Kermit the Frog here!

Hi everyone! Sorry this chapter is different from the others, but I thought I'd start giving some back ground on what happened with Molly and her mom. Also, I am currently in an awesome suite, which inspired the setting for this chapter. And yes, it is awesome.

I will be going back to the regular stuff in this story in the next chapter. But let me know if you liked this one, so I know if I should add more stuff like this!

I apologize if there are any spelling/grammar mistakes.

Thanks for reading!

XOX