Young Adult

Chapter fourty eight - Boys without moms

Friday had finally rolled around and I had finished work at twelve like I normally do, but unlike other weeks I was heading over to help out Ms Walters for her after school art club.

"Are you leaving now?" Ezra asked as I collected my coat from my desk, I nodded "I'll drive you." He called out to me smiling as he joined me to the car park.

"You don't have to." I replied as we walked over to his car, "I don't want you effecting your Uber driving with your cold." I smirked at his response.

"Why did you agree to help out exactly? You're pretty good at saying no to things." Ezra asked, making small talk in the car. I sighed "I know right. Ms Walters seems nice and motivated too, after her husband died she raised her son alone taking any part time job that she good get."

I couldn't read Ezra's face but he definitely didn't seem happy like he normally does, but then he went back to smiling "you can't tell if someone is nice from their backstory, she has the same backstory as my mom." He muttered.

So that's why he looked like that, "I'm sorry." I whispered apologetically, Ezra shook his head and smiled at me "what are you sorry for? My wife is just a nice person that shouldn't be influenced by her opinions too much." I smiled back at him, luckily therapy is working a bit, if this was before he would've broke down inside at the topic of his mom.

"I'll pick you up in two hours." Ezra said as he dropped me off at the school.

"Addison" Ms Walters called me over to her classroom from the hallway, I ran over to go and help her with her after-school class.

"You don't look that good are you okay?" She asked me after the class finished and we were packing up everything by ourselves. I nodded "yeah I've just had bad body aches this week, I've pushed myself with work a lot recently. My husband said that I should've taken a sick leave this week but I would've just been bored at home."

Ms Walters giggled, "my husband is like that some times, it used to feel weird at the start to have someone look after me again after all the time of being a single mom, but I like having someone look after me." I smiled, I hope that when I'm her age Ezra will still look after me.

"I can relate to that, I looked after my cousin like she was my own younger sister for years, now it feels strange for someone to look out for me." I spoke whilst shoving some boxes into a cabinet.

"I miss being young and in love, how long have you two been married for?" She asked, I think it was may last year we got married? "It's been over a year now, is your son married?" I instantly regretted saying that, I only realised after I spoke that they're not on good terms.

Ms Walters looked sad for a second before smiling again "we haven't spoken in a while, but I hope he's happy." I nodded, cringing at myself for asking.

"Is your husband picking you up?" She asked changing the subject, I nodded, "he should be waiting for me now, are you going home now too?" She nodded "since we've finished packing up so you want to leave now?" She asked and we began to walk down the hallway, with ms Walters carrying a ceramic vase that she had painted to demonstrate to the kids how to paint.

"Thank you for helping out though, the teacher replacing you should be off maternity leave in a couple weeks." I shook my head at her gratitude, "it's been fun teaching kids how to paint, I was never around other kids that much growing up so it's fun to be around them now." She smiled at me, thanking me for thinking that way.

"Addison!" Ezra called out to me as we exited the kindergarten, "Ezra!" I ran over to him and hugged him. He smiled as we broke apart, "was it fun?" He asked me as he fucked some of my hair behind my ear, I nodded as I began to walk to the other side of the car to get in.

All of a sudden I heard Ms Walters ceramic shatter, I looked over to her covering her hands with her mouth looking directly at Ezra.

I walked over to Ezra to see him frozen looking at her aswell.

"Ezra?" Ms Walters stuttered as she began to cry.

Ezra gulped, his eyes also brimming with tears.

That's when it all began to click in my brain, Ms Walters, whose husband died and raised her now estranged son as a single mom before remarrying.

Ezra, whose dad died at a young age and was raised by his widowed mom before being abandoned after his mom remarried.

Ms Walters was Ezra's mom.

"Mom..." he wheezed not trying to cry.