I'm Still Human

Chapter 2

Why, why does he have to come home, Jackson says to himself as he hears the car door slam from his dad coming home after a long night of drinking. He hears the front door open and his father's feet stumbling into the kitchen where his mother was rolling her cigarettes. Jackson gets out of bed and slowly opens his door to hear his mom and dad talking.

"So baby, you wanna go to bed early?" his dad says crouching down beside her reaching his hand up her thigh.

His mom slaps his hand away from her leg saying, "Go to bed, Richard, I can't stand the smell the alcohol on your breath. It's making me sick."

"Goddammit Teresa!" Richard yells, slamming his hands on the table. "We never do anything anymore!"

"Well maybe if you'd stop being an abusive drunk I would. Did you ever think of that? All you ever do anymore is drink. You have a problem?" she yells back at him.

She bends over to pick up the cigarette wrappers that were just knocked on the ground. Jackson was still watching to make sure nothing would happen. He knows how his father gets.

"Stand up!" Richard yells, but Teresa just ignored his command.

"I said stand up!" he screamed again while kicking her in the stomach. She got up and was greeted with a slap in the face, making her lip bleed. She let out a scream.

"That's what you get, you bitch," he says, slurring his words. He grabs her by the hair and pulls up his fist. Jackson jumps up and runs into the kitchen.

"Don't you dare hit her again Dick!"

Richard turns his head still holding her hair in his fist."What are you gonna do about it puss boy?" he asked.

"Just go away Jackson!" his mother yells.

"I'll kick your ass, old man, you think you can just come in here and start terrorizing us? That's not how this works."

"Since when did you become the man of the house little boy?"

"I became it when you started hitting your wife you alcoholic piece of shit!"

Richard threw Teresa into the oven, shattering the glass. She pulled herself up with shards stuck inside her face, releasing lots of blood.

"Richard stop!" she yelled as Richard ran after Jackson. Tripping over the furniture he makes his way over to him. Seeing his dad coming, he pulls up his fists up. Before he could do anything, Richard grabbed his arms and threw him into the wall leaving a boy-shaped hole.

"Richard!" Teresa screamed, balling her eyes out.

"Shut up whore! If he wants to talk like a man, then he's gonna get his ass kicked like one."

Jackson fell to the ground. His dad flipped him over and started punching him in the face until Jackson's face became bloody and extremely bruised.

"Stop Richard," she yelled again barely getting the words out. She lunged onto Richards back and ripped him off of Jackson. She crawled over to Jackson, shaking his face trying to wake him up.

"Wake up baby, please wake up," she cried. Teresa ran over to the phone.

"What are you doing?" Richard said.

"I'm calling the police. You're not staying here anymore."

"I'm not going anywhere," Richard grabbed the phone and slammed it on the ground exposing the circuitry of the phone.

"Our son is lying there on the floor unconscious because of you. Don't you get that? You're the problem in this family, you and your drinking. You don't even know what goes on in this house. Our son has gotten sixteen discipline referrals in the past two months. He has so much anger for you he takes it out on other people. You're the problem."

"So I'm the problem, really? And what the pipe in your nightstand isn't?" Richard said making the room silent. Richard got up off the ground and grabbed a cigarette. He lit it and took a deep inhale, and with the exhale he said, "We're gonna have a little chat on what happens from here."

Richard picks up Jackson and puts him on the couch and walks away.