Falling Apart

Exhibit A

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It was a crisp September afternoon with parents racing to the store to get their precious little ones the supplies needed to go back to the warzone. That's right, it was around the end of back to school season and one teenage kid, Nathan, was just not feeling it. Nathan never really enjoyed school for many reasons: the anxiety, bullying, stress and all of the other pains in between. But of course, he has to go through the rigors of high school in order to fulfill a meaningful life. This means that he too has to get prepared, and who else better to help him than his dear mother.

Nate's mom is a strong independent woman who's always felt like the dominant figure in his household. Even though she is very close to Nate, she doesn't really know of his school situation despite how much of a toll it's really taken on him. If she ever found out what her precious blueberry was going through, she'd probably be incredibly stressed and upset. At least, that's what Nate believes.

A lot has happened to his family in the past year, and a majority of it isn't sunshine and rainbows. He never liked to talk about it with anyone, especially not his mom because he knows how she feels about it, even if she keeps saying that she's okay. Things might not be the way they wanted, but life still goes on, it has too, and Nate really needs those pencils.

"Excuse me! I believe I saw those first!", Nate's mom viciously barked, piercing the soul of another shopper.

"Ahh, I... I'm sorry I got in your way!" The woman whimpered, turning tail and running in the other direction, with her words sounding a bit warbly.

"Ah Geez... I didn't mean to make her cry. I just really needed to get you your pencils, and I was not ready to go to a fourth store."

"That did seem like a bit much, but I'm sure she'll be okay. It's not like those are the last pencils in the world," Nate said to his mom, really not wanting the whole situation to continue. They had already been out of the house for hours, and Nate really just wanted to head home and watch his show. It already sucked that school was starting so soon, so he didn't want his precious last couple of days to be wasted with school related tasks.

"Alright then, I think that's the last item on our school material checklist. How bout you say we get out of here and grab something to eat?" Nate's mom shouted whilst rubbing her belly. Nate looked back with embarrassment on his face.

"Mom... Please don't do that... I'm not five years old, and I'm not really feeling too hungry."

"Not too hungry!? You used to eat like a king all the time! Did you even have anything to eat at all today?"

"Of course I did. Now, let's just get back-" Something had caught Nate's eye in this moment. A completely ordinary object that was used every day made his heart skip a beat, and it wasn't anything crazy really, it was just a door in the back of the store, a completely regular door. He was kind of wondering why that of all things made him stop dead in his tracks, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it. Before thinking much more of it, his mom snapped him back to reality.

"You okay there blueberry? You look a bit pale."

"Oh... I'm sure it's nothing... but, is there anything up with that door over there?"

"Hmm, what door?", His mom said with a questionable look on her face.

"The door over th-", While Nate started to point in the direction that the completely normal door was in, he had realized that it was no longer in sight. He thought that this would disturb him even more than before, but for some reason, he felt more at ease. Maybe there was never a door there to begin with.

The two walked out of the store with bags filled to the brim with plenty of school type goodies and headed on back to their car. They weren't driving the hottest set of wheels around, but it was something handed down to Nate's mom. It was a pretty old car, a 1967 Chevy Impala, but it was in pristine condition, probably thanks to the upkeep Nate's grandparents kept it in before they passed away. The car was almost like a sanctuary for Nate's mom. It was almost like her two parents were holding her tight whenever she sat behind the wheel, and she needed their love now more than ever.

"You still saying no to the food idea? I'll take you to Chick-fil-A," Nate's mom hollered with an appealing tone in her voice.

"I already told you, I'm good," Nate said with a slight chuckle. "We have plenty of food at home anyways. If I get hungry, I can just make something there."

"Okay, Okay... I was kind of hoping to get some Chick-fil-A though...", Nate's mom whispered under her breath.

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