Street Art

Street Art ((It's Troye With An E))

Troye's POV

"Do you think mom loves him?" Tyde mumbled.

I looked up, my ears pricking with wonder.

"It's possible."

I've never believed in love, or at least true love. Or that whole soul mates bullshit. Or love at first sight, first glance, first word. No one could possibly fall in love with anyone after having a short five minute conversation about coffee while sitting on some dirty park bench. Oh, but my mom sure did believe in it. She believed in everything that anyone told her.

"Troye!" Her shriek met my ear and I felt my little brother flinch next to me. "Tyde!" Then, she was there, yellow dress on, flowing due to the wind provided by my fan that barely ever did its job but for some reason decided to work now. She was dazzling, a totally different presence from her usual tired and utterly confused look. She leaned on the door frame, staring at me but when she talked, she directed the question at both of us. "Are you excited?"

I snorted but managed to barely nod while Tyde shrugged. Okay, no, I wasn't completely excited about the whole new daddy idea. I knew that deep down, Tyde was a little estatic to be moving into an actual house with actual heating and air conditioning where we could actually relax and stuff, but the thought still nipped at me that I wasn't going to be the only man in her life to take care of her. In fact, there would be two new men. Two new rich men. Two new good looking rich men that would have to get through me to get a hand on my mother. Unless, they were over six feet.

"Tyde, hon," her voice softened but she never broke her eye contact with me, "Run downstairs and wait for them to get here."

Dammit.

Tyde threw an apologetic look at me and I nodded, waving him off. When he left mom took his spot within a second. "They're nice people, Troye." She rushed out, sensing that I was still a little betrayed and hostile towards the situation.

I grunted, getting lost in my book again.  

"The little girl, Selena," She babbled, "She's really nice and she's Tyde's age. She's really funny but I don't understand her jokes because she uses a lot of big words. She'll be 13 tomorrow." She pitched, trying again to cheer me up. I skimmed the page and turned it without acknowledging her. "They're really rich."

I flicked my eyes up at her for a moment, "And is that why you're marrying him?"

"No, Shaun is really, really nice."

That earned her the most annoyed eye roll I could summon. "Oh, yes, because you fall in love with someone because they're nice."

"And what is wrong with that?"

"Nice is a word you use to describe a tree or a apple or sex that isn't really all that good but isn't all that bad, not someone you're supposedly in love with." I looked directly at her green eyes that were blank and confused. "Are you marrying him because you're tired of...you know." She smiled gracefully, shrugging and petting my hair back.

"Yes, I'm tired of spending my nights on the street corner but I'm not marrying him because of that." She leaned in and kissed my cheek, a warmth spreading through me that reassured me she was alright. "I love him."

Even though I disagreed with that, I nodded. If I didn't know what love was, there was no way she did. She barely remembered her times tables or how to tell time on a clock. I was a thousand percent sure she was in it for the money, but if she wanted to deny it, who was I to judge? After all, I think any mother in her situation would do the same. Tyde and I were considered underweight, she could barely afford to keep the water and electricity on at the same time, I had to take on two jobs to help us pay rent while going to school. And even though we were struggling, I still took some of the money I made for myself.