Wrong Answer, Dumb-ass [ 1 ] (Thiam)

Chapter 011

When Melissa returns home, she finds Liam sitting in front of the television playing video games, Mason’s face appears on the boys phone screen which is propped up against the TV stand, he too is playing video games, hanging her jacket on a peg near the door, she smiles fondly at her step son and waves to Mason who’d already seen her through the screen.

“You boys having fun?”

Jumping to his feet and almost falling into the sofa behind him, Liam muffles his voice whilst cussing at Melissa for making him scared, plus getting caught during mid mission.

Raising her eyebrows in disbelief, Melissa walks towards Liam with a finger pointing right at his chest, “you do not use that sort of language in my house, do you understand? Dealing with Scott swearing was one thing because she knew who he got it from, however she won’t tolerate Liam swearing no matter who his parents were, he was her son now and she’ll do anything to raise him the right way.

“Y-yeah, we’re having fun, right Mason?” Liam stutters, turning slightly to look at his phone screen.

“Totally” smirks Mason as he stares at his friend through the camera on his phone,the amount of time Mason hears stories about Melissa catching him in the act of swearing is somewhat impressive, once she was in the front garden and heard Liam swearing at Scott on the landing, “how was work, you look like you could use some coffee” Mason asks quickly changing the subject away from his best-friend swearing.

Liam heads to the kitchen to make Melissa some coffee, it’s the least he could for her, then maybe she’ll forgive him for swearing under his breath.

“Trust me I could” she laughs, looking towards the kitchen she waits patiently for the mug of caffeine, “I’ve had better days, fifteen minutes before my shift was due end, we had a girl come in with an arrow protruding from her calf, according to her dad she’d been doing archery and someone accidentally hit her.”

Mason sits wide eyed with his hands covering his mouth in shock, it’s times like this where he wishes he didn’t take such an interest in Melissa’s work life, maybe he’ll rethink his choice of career, “do you think she’ll be okay or will she end up losing her leg?” He asks, still feeling slightly nauseous, maybe picturing the image in his head hadn’t been such a wise move.

“Thank you honey” Melissa beams as she grabs the large mug of milky white coffee, drinking it quickly she finishes the drink in under a minute, impressing both Liam and Mason in the process, sitting down on the sofa and taking her shoes off, she replies, “unless she catches an infection or something goes wrong within the surgery I’m thinking she’ll be completely fine, there’s a possibility she could end up with a limp though, it’s a small price to pay if it means keeping her leg.”

A few hours have past, Melissa’s sound asleep upstairs and Mason left the game to eat dinner with his family, leaving Liam to stare at the black television screen in silence, the lamps in the living room were on making the room cosier, yet the lingering sense of being alone still eats at him, no amount of comfort can fix that, it’s times like this that makes Liam wish he had more siblings instead of a brother that spends most of his time away at college, pulling the sleeves of his jumper down, he balls the fabric into his fists protecting his skin from his nails.

Walking around the kitchen Liam searches for something that isn’t sheets of pasta, the cupboards were empty of basically everything, his stomach rumbles loudly making a point that he needs to get food or else he’ll grow more hungry, it’s not long before he’s sitting in the corner of the kitchen panicking about what he’s got to do, after years of ‘caring’ for his mum the thought of food shopping terrifies him, for the soul purpose it brings back bad memories that Liam’s been trying to suppress for years, but lately they’ve been making a comeback.