Teenage Troubles (Prequel for Teenage Baby)

Chapter 4 | Aaron

Chapter 4 | Aaron

There was no such thing as everlasting contentment. Never. Perhaps mathematics had made it to that conclusion before most people themselves did. Graphs alternated between highs and lows; first came the slope to the maximum which would be filled with hardship and struggle and strains, then you'd make it up. Up; the top where you'd stand with pride puffing your chest and arrogance squaring your shoulders as you'd bask in the contentment and the elegance of the spotlight.

Except that it was right after that highest point that the sharp tumble down to the start would come. So, was the highest point really one's optimum, or was it just a state of pre-calamity?

Jannette was balanced precariously on that point now, teetering towards calamity with her head in her hands and her eyes skipping anxiously across the messy, disorganized papers strewn on the table in front of her.

It'd been a year since she'd left the house with Aaron.

She'd demanded divorce, and she'd accused David of physical abuse towards Aaron. She'd thought that law would stand by her side, that it'd back her up and protect her and her precious son from that monstrous man. But she was oh-so-wrong, oh so naively trusting on morals and obligations and ethics which apparently had diminished the moment a piece of paper, so worthless yet so valuable, conquered the world.

In court, suddenly, she had no evidence. Suddenly, young Aaron had been too nervous to speak because he was diagnosed with anxiety which he didn't have, surely not because his father had threatened him just five minutes before. Suddenly, the bruises on his arm were the remains of his clumsy feet that would constantly send him stumbling down the pristine floors, surely not the imprints of a certain callous hand on soft skin.

All the lies were just a part of a dirty game and Jannette had known it the moment she'd witnessed the raw injustice before her own eyes. She'd known that there'd been green papers exchanged covertly underneath the tables, handed from sly rich hands to yearning greedy ones. She'd known that those who represent the epitome of equality and justice were as weak as everyone else was in front of the innate hunger for wealth.

Jannette had stood at the end of court with her case lost amongst the mess of distorted morals and corruption. Her eyes had leered at the attorney with all the wrath of the world embedded within her gaze, then they'd swept to her ex-husband. She'd snorted at his wicked triumphant smile. Then, she'd approached him and said,

"You won. But trust me, God will get you back for this. You and everyone who played this dirty game."

They'd divorced like normal couples; not as if he'd been a complete douche to both Jannette and Aaron.

She'd taken Aaron and traveled. Traveled because she'd failed to throw David in prison and keep him away from Aaron, traveled because she sought safety in the distance. And for a year, she'd managed to balance herself along a thin thread, working hard day and night to pay for the house she'd rented and for Aaron's school. This had been her highest point; maintaining Aaron's life there. Because her son was what her happiness meant.

Highest point or pre-calamity? Either way, the downfall came soon. All at once.

It started when the company Jannette worked in as an accountant went bankrupt. All the employees were abruptly sent out and the entire company crumpled down underneath the destroying weight of the debts, dragging them all down along. Like that she lost her job; the only source of income and the wooden stick which had kept her moving with balance along the frayed thread under her.

Things progressively started getting worse from then. The small amount of money she'd saved started dissolving month by month on the rent of the house and the daily needs. By the fourth month, she'd failed to find another job and she found herself empty-handed with thin pockets and non-bugling wallets.