Strip

Chapter 23

Chapter 23

I didn't go back to school.

Like I said, there was less than a hour left in school, and I didn't find it necessary to go back. Plus, I don't think you return to school after you're done doing whatever you were doing while ditching school.

I went home instead. I didn't stop at Mrs. Copper's to get James, or even check on him before I went to McDonald's, where I had to be in 35 minutes. I just walked up the stairs to my apartment, jiggled the key inside the lock, threw the door open, and started sobbing.

I didn't even make it to the couch before I started crying, which I had meant to do. Actually, I had meant to not cry at all, because I hated crying. Crying was messy, and gross, and for me, it usually ended with snot in my hair somehow.

But when I did cry, I always went for the couch, not my bed. Our couch was old and ugly, It had been ugly since it was brand new- it was a weird shade of maroon, with green stripes. And over the years, it had been stained with an endless amount of things- hot chocolate, finger paint, a very greasy slice of pizza. But it was the one piece of furniture from my old house. 

I missed my old house so much. I missed it more than I actually missed mom, because mom wasn't a comforting memory anymore.

We were forced to move from our old house just before mom realized she was pregnant. It was 6 months after out final road trip, and I had heard mom crying in her room a few more times since that first time. Mom had just been fired, and even though she had been under so much stress at that job, I guess she was happier with all the paperwork, than without the money. We almost immediately found an apartment in the next town over, and even though it was smaller, and greyer, we moved in pretty quickly. Our beautiful little house was bought almost a little under 2 weeks after it was put on the market.

We moved into our new apartment. It was not the apartment that I lived in with James without our mom in case you were wondering. This one wasn't very nice, but it was still nicer than that one. We had only brought a few pieces of furniture with us, the couch being one of them.

That was where mom found out she was pregnant. I found the little stick with a pink plus sign in the bathroom trash the day afterwards. I didn't know what it was of course- my mom had never given me the talk- so I didn't think anything of it. She told me I was going to have a little brother or sister a few months later.

It was not good news.

I saw it as good news. I had always wanted a little sister, and I was sure James was going to be a girl. I spent hours thinking of names (My favorite was Olivia, or Samantha), and found baby catalogs where I circled pink baby clothes. 

Meanwhile, my mom was not doing well. Despite her pregnancy, I caught her drinking a few times, and I'm sure there were more times I didn't know about. I still wasn't aware that you weren't supposed to drink during pregnancy, and didn't even know what alcohol was (I was a very, very sheltered child).

James was born a bit after my 12 birthday. At first I was disappointed that he was a boy, but I quickly adjusted. He was really an adorably baby, and a happy one too. He rarely cried, slept well, and wasn't one for spilling his food on the floor for fun. I loved helping with him, baby sitting him, feeding him, changing his diapers (this was one I didn't like as much).

My mother however was a different story.

Now that her pregnancy was over, she drank even more than she had during it. She spent a lot of time locked up in her room, which often changed, because where we lived often changed. Over the next 3 years, we moved 5 times. I didn't like it. James didn't like it. I'm pretty sure mom didn't like it either, though I never asked. 

I did ask about James' father though. I had never had any interest in my own father- he didn't seem important to me. I had mom. That was all I needed. But as it became more and more clear to me that mom wasn't a very stable parent any more, I felt I needed James to have a dad for support. 

Even though I still didn't know the specifics of the birds and the bees until I was 16, and went to my first mandatory sex-ed class (I almost threw up afterwards), I knew that you needed a guy to be involved. Every time I asked my mom, she would either get this weird look on her face, like she had just downed a glass of pickle juice, or yell at me. She yelled a lot. She never hurt us, not at all, but she did yell.

When we moved for the final time, into the house that James and I lived in, she didn't have a room. She insisted that we both had different rooms, because her priorities obviously weren't in order. She slept on our couch, in the living room. Sometimes when I couldn't sleep, I would come to her in the middle of the night.

"Mom?" I would whisper.

"Urmumfluh." Ok, she wasn't dead.

"Mom?"

"Molly?" She wasn't so drunk she thought I was a younger version of herself here to tell her that she had failed in life (that happened once. Not a nice experience.)

"I can't sleep."

"Urmf." That was the sound of her moving over so I could get under the blanket with her.

She always went right back to sleep after that, but I was comforting to know she was there, and at least could still do this one thing for me.

But then he came.

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Where in the world is Superwoman today?

What up Superwoman Reference!

Ok, I have clearly binge watched to many IISuperWomanII videos today.

Hi.

Thank you for reading! I hope you liked this chapter, a little more back story. I haven't done one of these chapters in a while, so I thought I would give you guys some more info. Unless you hate these chapters and want to here more about whats happening with Molly and Max (OH MY LORD I JUST REALIZED THERE NAMES BOTH START WITH M THIS IS AMAZING I AM SO GOOD AT DOING USELESS THINGS NO ONE INCLUDING ME REALIZES!!!) or Janice and Liam, or James and Isabelle, or Drew (who I have not actually added in yet but is coming for you soon Bebe!). If you do, more of that coming next chapter!

Wow, 23 chapters. Over 2,000 reads/views/whatevers. Who's have thought this would happen?

Speaking of which, thank you guys so much for all the reading-ness! I would keep writing this even without you guys because I love writing it, but I also really love all of you, so thank you!

Sorry for any Grammar/Spelling mistakes, as always. 

This is a very long authors note. Time to wrap it up.

Thanks again!

XOX