Augustine's Sanity

c h a p t e r. 7

"Right now we're both yard sales of emotions. A penny for pain. A dime for bitterness. A quarter for grief. A dollar for silence. It binds us together, but I don't want him to pay the price for the parts of me that are used and broken."
― Courtney C. Stevens

chapter 7

Augustine yawned as he came through the front door of his house, ready to take a nap after practicing his martial arts for hours on end and luckily avoiding an asthma attack.

Kane, his co-worker from the garage, helps him learn and teaching him for three hours whenever they can after work.

It's exhausting, but a great workout and great to know how to defend himself.

Augustine knows that most times, he can't protect his own feelings. So he might as well be able to protect his body and others, too.

But instead of just going to his comfortable bed and sleeping as one does on a Friday night, a wet rag was thrown at his face-- which he easily dodged but it wasn't pleasant either way.

The broken boy looked between his glaring mother and the rag, trying to scope out the situation.

He didn't know what she was mad about this time.

He didn't want to know, either.

"What a warm welcome home," He finally decided on saying, brushing past the small entryway and walking towards his room, stopping with a sigh as his mother spoke.

He just wanted to sleep.

Why was that too much to ask for?

"Don't walk away from me, Zeno!" His mother sneered out, normally calling Augustine his middle name and rarely his first one. "And quit being such a freak, stop smiling so much. It's giving me a headache."

"Ma," He said, turning to face her and keeping his hazel eyes towards the ground. "If you have a headache maybe you should take medicine or--"

"Don't patronize me," Claire, his mother, sneers out. "I don't need your crazy, stupid ass lecturing me."

Crazy.

Stupid.

Was that all he was to her? Just a lunatic that she tried-- and failed-- to raise?

"Say something!" His mother steps closer. "You never shut up, never! I know you have something to say. Say it, Zeno. Say it. Say it!"

Augustine just stares down at the ground, hunched in on himself, and waiting for the yelling to end like usual.

Waiting for him to be able to escape to his room.

"Oh, I'm not worth your words, it that it?" Claire sneers, stepping forward and she throws both hands into the air. "Is that it!"

His hazel eyes snapped up to hers at that, knowing she's getting hysterical at this point, "No, ma, I never said that. I--"

She cute him off with a harsh slap to Augustine's cheek, her wedding ring digging into his skin and leaving behind a cut.

The broken boy didn't even wince, he just looked down at his mother, ignored the stinging, red skin, and turned around.

"Don't walk away from me, freak!" His mother shrieked, banging her fist into a wall. "Come back here you worthless ape of a child!"

He went straight to his room with nothing to say.

Augustine knew his mother and he knew she wouldn't follow him, she'll just scream until her throat goes raw or break things that he'll later have to clean around the house.