Perfect Eve

12

Amelia wants me to stay a few more days with her. I'm sorry dear, I really am. Maria's voicemail played as I walked through the hallway.

I had two calls this morning. One from Claire, informing me that she won't be needing me today and the other one from Maria. She won't be coming back until next week and this was the second voicemail where she apologized for not coming back sooner.

Funny how she cares about us but our own mother doesn't.

It's been a few days since Maria went to Cincinnati and to be honest, I was messed up without her. But luckily, Sasha stepped up and declared she'll take care of the boys until Maria's back. She and Zack took turns staying with them. And Noel and Theo? They love to have Zack around them.

And mom?

She's oblivious to everything around us. Sometimes I wonder if she even remembers us. And this time, I'm actually happy that she doesn't come often. She was getting more and more aggressive, partly because what Zack said had an effect on me.

I spent nights thinking about what I've done and what I should've done. But at last, I decided that if enabling is what I'm doing then I should put a stop to it. And I started by refusing to keep money in my home.

But that had cost me. I had to take two days off from work to stay at home and make sure she didn't scream at her sons. But it went well. After shouting at me for a minute, she stormed out when I said I'm not giving money for her to buy medication anymore. I told her I'll buy it myself and I made sure to chip in the fact that she isn't taking them anyway.

I shook my head to get rid of the thoughts before stepping into the classroom. But a tap on my shoulder got my attention.

"Zack? Hey," I looked at those light brown eyes and smiled in confusion. "You're early."

"Yep, Sasha wanted to-" He pointed towards the library."-take some books and work?"

I nodded. I do remember her saying something about the library.

"Classes won't be starting for the next twenty minutes and I just thought we could..." He trailed off, looking at me, "Only if you are free."

"Yeah, sure."

And that's how we ended up in the cafeteria. He offered a granola bar to me with a smirk.

"I know your default response is no thanks but here you go. I'm having one, so you might as well give me some company here."

It was somewhat true. My go-to response to any help is to politely refuse. I do accept if they insist, but yeah...

My smile faltered when I looked around. There were only a few people inside and most of them were minding their own business except for one girl. A girl who's sitting a few tables away from us and is staring at me. More like through me.

It's not exactly friendliness or curiosity in her face. It's something sort of...I don't know what it is but I'll be lying if I say it didn't affect me.

Did I unknowingly do something to her? Oh, no. I didn't, did I? Well, there's no other reason for her to stare at me like I'm a ghost, so...

"How're boys doing?"

"They're perfectly fine." I smiled, looking at him.

Zack was slowly becoming their role model, and that was hard to handle.

I found them fighting last week. It was quite a scene to see Noel with a raised hand and glare, and Theo with a remote in his hands, aiming at Noel like it's a sword.

"Noel pulled my leg and made me fall."

"That's called tackling, you monkey!"

Was the answers I got when I asked what the hell was happening. And when I asked who taught him that, Noel's answer was predictable.