The Parental Bond

The Bombshell

Chapter Three... The Bombshell

 

A week after the fight with my mom, she still barely came near me. Thankfully, she'd found herself a job... bartender. Great. But she worked every night so she'd come home drunk, and go straight to bed, and wouldn't wake up until midday. By then I was safely at school, safely away from her.

And I'd learnt so much more about her.

I don't know what was more appalling. Her relationship with a married man who turned out to be a murderer, or her earning money for her drinking and drug habits by working as an illegal stripper at some dirty club! She'd slept with at least four men that Mr Gowan actually knew of around the time I was conceived, so the possibility of ever finding my father was dwindling away sadly.

How different would my life be if I knew my father, I wondered.

"Holly?" Mr Gowan was waving his hand in front of my face. I leapt instantly out of my day dream.

"Too much on my mind," I muttered, reddening. He laughed.

"Well, the rest of the class left when the bell rang, and I was sure you'd want lunch sometime today," he chuckled, looking amused.

"My mother is a whore," I stated dryly. "There is seriously no other word for it."

"I'm surprised you're her only child," he confessed. "I mean, I remember her being seventeen and having a pregnancy scare, and her boyfriend then broke up with her because she'd cheated on him!"

"Well, my grandmother told me that I wasn't the only one, just the only one that stuck," I replied, and then my face fell. "I'm almost certain that the only reason she stayed pregnant with me was because it was too late for an abortion. And she would've returned to my grandmother because she would've needed money. I'm just a hinderance in her life, I'm holding her down. If she didn't have me... I'm actually rather scared to think of where she might be," I admitted, tears welling in my eyes.

"She probably... wouldn't be alive," he said softly.

"You read my mind," I breathed.

"The truth is, Holly, that you're the best thing that happened to your mother, no matter how it happened." He chuckled, then smiled at me. "But, knowing Tilly, she hasn't seen it yet."

"That's not really making me feel any better," I sighed.

"Don't stress too much over your mother's past," he advised. "It was in the past. And you're a different person, you're nothing like her. One day, you'll find your dad. I know it."

"No, you don't know it," I groaned, grabbing my bag and exiting the room.

***

Over the next two weeks, I didn't learn anything new about my mom. But that was because Mr Gowan insisted on knowing things about me! And I was starting to get a little suspicious about it all.

This man is married! He has kids! Why does he want to get to know an almost seventeen year old girl?! I was actually sick of answering questions about myself, and thinking isn't this what men do when they want to get to know a girl they might seduce?

 

"What's running through that mind of yours there, peanut?" mom asked, and I forgot that I was now at home, watching TV. My mind was literally on overdrive.