I Do It For Avory

Chapter One: A New Start

Everyone has fears, it’s a known fact. If you don’t have a fear... well kudos for you but one thing’s for sure: I do. But I’m not going to tell you what it is. You’ll either figure it out on your own or live without knowing. Nothing personal, really. Hell, I didn’t even tell my friends. I mean, we’d be talking about our fears at a girly slumber party (the ones I rarely go to) and one says, “I’m afraid of spiders.” Okay, spiders, nice. Oh, wait; you want me to tell you mine? Oh hell no. I think we can be friends if I don’t tell you my fear. So now you wanna say I need to you or else we won’t be friends? Alright I’ll take my leave. It’s not you, it’s me.

Because of this fear, I moved from Phoenix, Arizona to Los Angeles. Long drive and scorching hot but it was worth it. My new apartment was beautiful, couldn’t ask for more. There was a nice view of the ocean and the inside looked like a penthouse. The counters were made of brown wood and black marble tops. The kitchen had white tile, the same as the bathrooms. The living room was big, big enough to fit dad’s gift (a flat screen), a love seat and a seat for three, and a coffee table.

There was only one bedroom but that was okay. Dad insisted that I get two but, really? What’s the difference? Whether there’s two rooms or not, I’ll still be woken up at midnight. But, to make up for that, the bathroom was an eighteen year old’s dream. The shower was also a bath tub so I could wash Avory and the sink had a wide mirror. “Ma,” Avory screamed when set him on the ground of the living room. “Ma!” I ignored him, moving through the archway into the kitchen, attempting to empty a few more boxes. The movers took care of the furniture placement last week; I was responsible for emptying the boxes.

The first box I wanted to knockout first was the food because I didn’t want to get caught up in the dishes and have to search through boxes to find something to eat. No, if I did that, Avory would throw a fit and I can’t stand his fits. First, they start with him screaming ‘Ma’ ten million times. Then, he’d make a weird growling sound while thumping at the ground. After that was the worst part; he’d break things. This would go on until he got attention unless he found something to do. That’s when I recalled his previous series of ‘Ma!’

I got curious because 1) he was quiet and 2)… he was quiet! That boy was never quiet whether it was having a fit or just because. So, just to be safe, I took two steps back until I was in the center of the archway. “Ma,” Avory smiled when he saw me staring at him. He was sitting on the couch, occupied with T.V. controller. He held it up for me to see. “Ma!”Then he went to pressing buttons. The T.V. wasn’t hooked up yet so I went back into the kitchen.

It was when I was almost finished with all of the boxes before I heard a loud crash. From the sound of it, it sounded like he was in my bedroom bathroom (there’s two bathrooms by the way. The other one is by the door). That’s when I came running into the living room and, low and behold, Avory wasn’t there. “Shit,” I muttered. So I ran to my bathroom, hoping something fell on its own. But, when I skidded to a halt in the bathroom door frame, I got something quite different; Avory, wrapped up in toilet paper, knocked my tampons into the open toilet. “Avory no!” Just to let you know, that was my last box and I was due from my period any day now. Now, instead of focusing on emptying the boxes, I needed to take my last bit of money, head to Wal-Mart, and buy some tampons. Oh, and I couldn’t leave Avory! Taking Avory to Wal-Mart was like letting a monkey out of its cage at the zoo; complete disaster.

“Oops,” he gave me that look that meant ‘I didn’t mean to’ and stuck his bottom lip out. It quivered and little tiny tears formed in his eyes before he started bawling. I can’t even yell at that boy without him bursting into tears.

“No,” I changed my tone to a softer one. “Mommy didn’t mean to yell. Accident, it was an accident.”

He tried to copy me but ended up saying something like ‘Ksiden?’ It was cute and it actually made me laugh which made him laugh. So he was sitting there laughing as I was unwrapping the toilet paper… laughing. Sometimes, he could make me so… ugh! But I couldn’t stay that way, he was just too cute! “Do you want to go to the store?”