Run (On Hold)

Chapter 2 - Confused

2. Confused

Ring! Ring! Ring!

I gasped. And when I realized what had awakened me from my short, dreamless slumber, I moaned.

What? It's seven in the morning already?! But that was impossible! It felt just like a few minutes had passed since I closed my eyes!

Though I still want to sleep for a few hours - few for me is about five - I slowly opened my ultra heavy lids, hoping not to see the yellow square on my white bedroom wall that will verify the nightmare.

"Ugh," I blurted in disgust when the nightmare came to reality. Whether I like it or not, I should start moving for school if I don't want Mrs. Hepburn, our terror English teacher, to make fun of me again in the class by making me stand at the back for the rest of her time. I stretched my arms, shrugged my head as if it would wipe away the dizziness, and dragged my body - which weighs a ton every morning, no lapses, by the way - to the bathroom without even bothering to make the bed.

I was going down the stairs when I saw my mother Therese on her apron, cooking on our small kitchen. Fried rice and sausages, I'm dead sure with that, and I knew it not because I smelled it or something.

"Morning, ma," I greeted, my voice thick from sleeping.

She turned on me, and her beautiful wrinkled face lit up a lovely smile. "Good morning, honey," she greeted back in her sweet voice.

"What are you cooking there?" I asked, as if I didn't know it already. Only sausages and fried rice were our breakfast since the dawn of time - here at house, I mean. It's all we can afford, and it's all she can cook the best.

"Guess what?" she was riding my humor.

I paused for a moment to give way to the thinking part.

"Fried rice?"

"Wow! How d'you know, honey?"

"Whoa, whoa," I widened my eyes dramatically. "So I'm correct? I can't believe this!"

Her smile returned. "Yeah, I can't believe that, either! How d'you do that? We'll then, lets see it this time. What's the other one?"

I theatrically looked at the ceiling for seconds. "No clue?" I asked.

"Nope."

"I'll just guess, then, "I can't take the hunger anymore, I tell you, so I didn't try for any more preliminaries. "How about sausages?"

She faked the wide eyes. "W-O-W," she mumbled, and then laughed; I joined.

"Ready for the breakfast?" She asked after the laughs that made my empty stomach hurt for seconds.

"I'm always ready for food, Ma. Bring it on."

She grabbed a plate. "Okay, honey," then gestured a hand on our small dining table. "Sit back, relax, and the train will come in a few sec."

"Might as well include the railways," I suggested, then she laughed and I heard it again: the beautiful music only two persons in this world can play. Although it was childish to consider, I really like it when my mother treat me that way. Yes, I'm not the typical teenager who doesn't want to be treated like a child. I'm the one who likes to be treated as her seven-year-old Ember instead of the seventeen-year-old one.

Any problem with that? Good.

As my mother laid the fried rice and the sausages, I instantly dug in, Hungry as I was.

The food was . . . uhm, its not good, to be honest. But I'm perfectly immune to that now. You know, my mom was a very busy person so I understand. She had to go for work ten to eleven hours a day just to be able to get money enough for us both. I loved her for that, and I promised to myself that as soon as I graduated, I'll look for something to make money of so that she won't have to work hard and all.