hey jealousy || Liam Dunbar

5

"Ryder!" A feminine voice calls, followed by a knock on his bedroom door. The boy groans and rolls over, uninterested in getting out of bed. "Ryder?" Katrina's voice questions softly, and he hears the sound of his bedroom door opening and the owner of the voice steps inside. "Time to get up, you have school." Ryder pulls his duvet over his head, intent on making this difficult for the woman. She taps her foot on the floor and Ryder can practically sense her annoyance. It makes him smile almost. "Get up." She says, her voice stern and authoritative. Ryder, continues to ignore her attempts to get him up. She sighs, and suddenly his duvet is pulled from his grasp, and tossed onto the floor. "School." She says, as if that's supposed to make him jump out of bed with excitement. "Don't fucking do that!" Ryder shouts, sitting up and crawling to the end of his bed, pulling his duvet back onto the mattress. "How else am I supposed to get you up for school?" She questions, placing her hands on her hips. "Drag you out of bed by your ear?" Ryder's anger flares and he cracks his knuckles, giving the woman an evil smile. "You fucking touch me, and I'll beat you to death with my PS4 controller." He threatens, his honest and cruel smile never faltering. "You don't have the right to come get me up for school anyway. You forfeited that when you ditched me and Dad." He spits, accentuating the 'ditched' part of the sentence. Katrina looks like she saw a ghost.

 "Oh, Honey, I'm so sorry I left. I just, I was having issues with my mental state, but-" Mental state, huh? What'd the doc diagnose ya with? The incapability to look after the ones your supposed to love?" Katrina looks guilty for a second, before schooling her features into a perfect smile. "I didn't go to the doctor." Ryder pretends to cringe. "Really? Not even a psychologist or something?" Katrina shakes her head softly. "I went to my parents and they said to go home. I couldn't. So, I didn't." She says with a small shrug, her smile still on her face, not faltering for a moment. Ryder is fuming now, barely holding onto his self control. How could she do that? "So, you just decided not to come home? Because of some issues with your mental state? It was that easy to leave us?" He growls, pointing at the door. "Go." Katrina looks startled. "I didn't mean it like-" "Get the fuck out!" Ryder yells, moving towards her threateningly. She backs off immediately. Mark runs in, his hair disheveled from the way he was sleeping. "What the hell is going on?" He asks, looking between the two. Ryder gives his dad a small shrug. "Nothing, we're done. Get out Katrina." Mark nods,gesturing to the door. Katrina steps out, and Mark turns to his son.

"What the hell was that?" He asks, tilting his head in question. Ryder shrugs, sitting down on the edge of his bed again. "Nothing." He tells his father, holding back his rage and sadness and heartbreak from learning how easy it was for his mother to leave him. That he wasn't worth staying for. Ryder will never be worth staying for. "You want to talk about it?" His dad asks kindly, but Ryder shakes his head. "Ask her about it. If she lies I'll kick her ass." Ryder says, walking out of his room, through with the conversation. His dad knows he'll talk if he decides he's ready. 

All day at school Ryder's been tense, trying not to convey anything's wrong. After school, at Lacrosse practice, Ryder's been off. Being too distracted to make all the shots, or even most of them. "Ryder, are you okay?" Scott asks, placing a hand on his shoulder. "I'm fine." Ryder lies, giving Scott a smirk and shrugging his hand off. "I'm just stressed." Scott gives him a disbelieving look, but nods. "I hope so, you can come to me if you need anything Ryder." Ryder nods, then turns around and walks off towards the locker rooms. As soon as he walks in, he throws his stick and helmet at the lockers, he sits down on one of the benches and puts his head in head in his hands. He changes before any of the other players come in and leaves in a hurry. 

When he get's home, his father tells him the story of what happened that morning, and surprisingly, it was all right. She hadn't lied. Ryder spent his time playing video games. Trying to forget about the stress and heartache. His mother was okay with leaving him. Was okay with Ryder never knowing why she left. Now she's back, but for what? Ryder can't deal with what's going on in his head. He doesn't want to. He feels as though what little stability he had in his life is being demolished. He can't face the idea of it all going to hell. Can't face his mother.