𝑰𝒏 𝑭𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒏𝒐

3 : School Grass

𝕊 𝕆 𝕄 𝔼 ℝ

February 14th, 20xx

Walking into the apartment, I had noticed that most of the lights were off. Checking to see if she was near, or if she was even there, I went to the bathroom to find my mother. Sighing, I picked her up from the floor. I had to groan as I had seen what lay inside the toilet.

"Why must you drown your sorrows with alcohol when I have school the next day? You know I worry about you when I'm not near."

"Mhm, Som-"

Grimacing at her breath, I finally got her to lay down. Pain filled my chest as I heard her labored breath, never ceasing to exist but never evening. The men she had loved with everything had had wronged her.

Her ex-boyfriend, Adam, had helped her and made her happy not that long after she had overworked herself and fell into depression. I wished he could have stayed. But work got in the way and he had to leave for Wyoming. 

Of course, it wasn't strange that she couldn't bounce back, she barely managed to survive the heartbreak my father had pushed on her. 

A ping had me looking at her phone. There was no notification so I looked at mine. On the screen, in bold letters with angry faces around it, was Taylor's name. What could he possibly want?

I quickly filled a glass with water and laid it on my mother's bedside table. It was days like this do I wish I left Fresno with my father. He was all the way in New Jersey with his job as his family.

It whisked him away like Prince Charming with Cinderella. One faithful day, he was given the opportunity to be the manager at another site and he took it. Never once looked back for his wife, only his daughter.

So in turn, I closed the door on him to show him that my mother and I were a package deal. There was no way around it. I still couldn't tell if I did it to be loyal to my mother or to pity her.

After grabbing some pills for her headache in the morning, I'd be too tired in the morning to put them beside her, I walked across our tiny hall to my room. A sigh left my lips as I flung myself onto the tiny bed. The heat of the night had seeped in, I could feel the light layer of sweat start to form on my body. I got up to turn the cooler on.

"Shit," I said as I read the note I left to myself earlier in the day.

AC doesn't work, call the landlord
- you

Groaning, I went to turn on our fans. I hated even doing that because even though it helped, it meant they were everywhere. After I turned on our hallway fan, I went down the hall and turned the rest of the fans on.

When I got back to my room, another ping sounded. Turning my phone around, Taylor's name showed once again. I swiped on the notification as I dismissed him in general. Taylor was no one I wanted to associate myself with again. He had made me the least me I could be.

If it hadn't been for me finding out myself, I would have stayed ignorantly by his side. How pathetic.

I needed air. The web of lies I had let be created strangled me, cutting off my oxygen supply as each thread tightened and made my fingers bleed as I tried to pry them off. I needed out. 

My mother was in her bed sound asleep so I knew she was safe. She couldn't escape. She also disliked me leaving too late in the night but she couldn't drag me back in as she slept.

Locking the door behind me, I walked out into the hot night. My clammy hands came back as I typed away on my phone. I could see the disgusting sweat trails so I wiped them off. When I looked up, I saw Oakley.