Lunars

two

My family was horrible.

No offense or anything, but I kind of disliked them all with the burnijng passion of a thousand suns. Especially my Dad, but everyone contributed. They just don't know when to stop. Like, there's a line that you don't cross, but it's practically invisible to everybody except me.

And my mom, of course. Mom was perfect, no matter what my family did. She always tried, despite being sick, and that was enough. My dad still bitched about "having to do everything for this family" though. I'd never heard something less true, but okay, sure. Whatever flies your spaceship, Dad.

This was proved even more so when I got home from class. My friend had given me a ride because I knew my dad couldn't be bothered to come pick me up. He got home straight after I did, and immediately collapsed onto the couch, not doing anything or helping whatsoever. Mom was busy making dinner, while simultaneously dealing with my little brother, Louis. He yelled "Mama! Mama!" Every five seconds and I knew it was beginning to give her a headache.

"Yes, my love?" She said, crouching down so that she could speak to him face to face. I leaned on the entryway to the kitchen and watched as he stuck up his hand, which was clutching a small rock that he'd found. There was nothing special about it, but my mom still acted like it was the greatest discovery ever made.

The boiling corn had begun to bubble, but Mom was still talking to Louis, so I  walked farther into the kitchen to turn off the burner. As I reached for the switch, I caught a glimpse of something out the window. It was some dark object hurtling down from the sky and about to hit the ground. "What the he--"

My mom stood from the floor just in time to hear me. "What's wrong?" She asked. I quickly turned around and blocked her view of the window.

Reaching behind me to actually turn off the burner this time, I laughed lightly. "Oh, uh, nothing. I was just confused about why the burner wouldn't turn off, but I got it." I said and smiled.

She cocked and eyebrow and leaned around me to tend to the corn. "Mhm, okay." She said, disbelief evident in her tone. Thankfully, you couldn't see the weird thing through the window anymore, but I did want to know what it was. I couldn't go check now, though, that would be suspicious. Maybe after dinner I could make up some sort of excuse to leave.

Mom tapped my shoulder, and I glanced down at her. "Excuse me, sweetie," She pointed at the drawer behind me.

I pushed off the counter so that she could get to it. "Sorry," I muttered.
She didn't say anything as she grabbed a spoon and started to stir whatever was in the pot she had.

A moment later, Louis returned, yelling for his Mother again. I decided I should probably step in this time. "Hey, Lou, how about we give Mama some time to finish up dinner, and you come play with me."

He seemed to way the options for a second, then after looking at my pleading expression, he nodded. "Fine. . ." He said, not entirely happy about it.

Grabbing his shoulders, I guided him out of the kitchen. "Luke," Mom said quietly. I turned my head and she mouthed "thank you." I smiled and nodded, letting her continue making dinner.

Louis led me out to the back yard, which is also where my other siblings were. I love how they knew Mom was making dinner, and yet they just sat out here, letting Louis bother her non-stop.

I was an older child, with Louis, seven years old, as the youngest. Julianne was next at thirteen, then Danny at (fifteen), me (seventeen), and the eldest was Veronica (eighteen).

My little brother and I sat down in the  grass, a bit farther away from the others. He handed me a small figurine and a toy spaceship. I recognized them and smiled. These were the toys I'd given Louis for his fifth birthday. They were hand-me-downs, since we hadn't had enough money for more than one present for Louis that year. I hadn't wanted him to only get one present, so I gave him the figurines. They weren't really intended to be played with, since they were collectables, but that was okay. He had fun with them and that was all that mattered, even if he broke off one of the spaceship's wheels.

For a good ten minutes I played with him, pretending we were at war and shooting at one another. Then, when he said it was okay if I left him alone, I walked over to my other siblings. Danny and Julianne were using my tablet, of course, but I didn't say anything. If I took it away they would just steal it back, so what would even be the point. Veronica was reading a book and had an empty chair next to her, so I sat there. She glanced up as I plopped down into the chair.

Folding down the corner of her page, she closed the book and looked at me. "How was work with Dad?" She said, seeming like she actually cared. Veronica was the only sibling who knew how much Dad annoyed me, mostly because I didn't want to corrupt my younger brothers' and sister's view of him. Veronica had already formed her opinion of him, and had also seen first hand how much ruder Dad was to me than the other kids.

I brought my legs up to my chest and wrapped my arms around them. This was a way that I sat a lot. No idea why, but it just came naturally. "Okay, I guess. He made me fix a Simulator, then told me to go to class." I said, placing my chin on my knee.

She nodded, then reopened her book. Our conversations went like that a lot.  She just asked me a question, I answered, and she just left it like that. I didn't attempt to revive the conversation and neither did she.

We all just sat there, with the only noise coming from Danny and Juli's occasional whispers and Louis's sound effects for his fighting ships. Eventually, Mom came to out tell us dinner was ready. Veronica made sure to grab Louis before we headed inside.

Dad was already sitting at the table and had started eating. "Daniel," Mom said, but he didn't stop eating. She just shook her head and put a pill in her mouth, swallowing it with a sip of water. Everyone sat down and we started eating. Mom just picked at her food, seeming to down only a few bites the entire meal. After a while, she said she was full and gave Louis the rest of her food.

Everyone knew she was getting worse, but I guess they just wanted to ignore it. Maybe they believed that if they ignored the problem for long enough that it would go away. Well, it wouldn't, and they all just needed to accept that eventually she was going to die. It was a hard truth, but it was still a truth they needed to realize and spend as much time as they could with Mom now. Before it was too late.

Later, at about 8:00, I decided I should go check out whatever it was that I had seen out the window. Telling my parents some excuse about going to a friend's house, I got in the truck and started towards the fields outside of town. No one ever went out there, so people probably hadn't seen it yet. Everyone in our little town was pretty oblivious.

As I drove through the town, I saw some commotion over on the street in front of a restaurant. It was a group of four very oddly dressed individuals, one of which who was currently slamming another person against a wall. Quickly, I stopped the truck and jumped out, running over to the group of people.

"Hey! Hey," I grabbed the oddly dressed guy's arm from where it was shoving another man against the wall. I wrenched it off of him and pushed the weird guy away. He stumbled, narrowing his purple tinged eyes. "What the hell are you doing, dude?" I yelled.

"Nothing that concerns you," He said, trying to push past me. I stepped to the side and blocked his path. I was taller than him so he had to look up a little to meet my eyes. "Move." I didn't so he grabbed my shirt collar and slammed me against the wall.

Another weird guy with a white streak in his hair stepped forward, reaching for the guy holding onto me. "Kai, stop. We need to find Morgan and this isn't helping."

Weird guy #1 glared into my eyes, then released his hold on my shirt. I wondered about what Wierd guy #2 had said. Morgan? Like my last name kind of Morgan?

Momentarily forgetting about the sky object, I looked at the group of people  who had started walking away from me. "Wait a second," I said, making them pause and turn around. "Who are you looking for?"

Another person in their group, who I realized was actually a Weird girl, spoke first. "Lukas Morgan. You know him?"

"Uh, yeah, I am him."

author's note
Wow, two chapters so close together? That's unprecedented! I hope you enjoyed this chapter and I'll have more soon!

-CJ