Never Give Up

Daily Life at the Grey Household

For the first couple of minutes, George didn't say anything, but I knew the elephant in the room was about to pop.

"I'm so confused." George looked at me and I could see the confusion plastered on his face.

"What do you want to know?" I asked and hoped that he wouldn't ask too many questions that I would rather not have answered.

"Was that woman Alex's mom?"

"No, that's his foster mom. Amber. She works at a diner on Wofford street. She doesn't have the best taste in men."

"I think that might be the understatement of the year." He replied.

"Alex has been through a lot. He has a foster brother; James. He's a senior, so soon he'll be 18 and won't be the state's anymore. He'll be on his own. Luckily for Alex."

"You say that like its a good thing."

"George look. Not everybody has a loving family like you. Just leave it at that, please. I've already told you too much."  Alex didn't like people knowing about him. He was embarrassed that he had to take careof his family and hurt that he didn't have a family like everybody else. 

"You have no idea how my family is." George got defensive.

The rest of the way to his house was awkward silence except for the distant sound of the radio.

~~

I pulled into his driveway. I couldn't see anything except the white garage in front of us that my headlights had shown.

"See you tomorrow." I said in hopes of him forgiving me for what I said.

"Yeah." Was all he said then he hopped out of my car and headed for the front door of his house.

 He walked toward the front steps and a light came on. It must've been motion censored because it wasn't on when I pulled up. He closed the door behind him and I backed out of his driveway to head home.

~~

I got to my house and walked in. It was silent, which wasn't unusual. It would've been unusual if there was noise. It was late, but I was hungry, so I went to the kitchen and microwaved some ramen noodles. We never really had anything to eat because my mom was always at work. Luckily I work a couple nights a week which gave me money for food or things that I needed. My mom was always at the hospital, so it was as if she was never there. I got used to doing things on my own.

I took the ramen noodles out of the microwave and put the seasoning in it and waited for it to cool off. I grabbed a fork from the drawer and ate quickly. I decided that since it was so late, I would wait until the morning to shower.

~~

Morning came and I sluggishly walked to my bathroom and turned on my shower. When I got in, the hot water flooded my body. It woke me up for sure.

I put a pair of blue jeans and a t shirt on along with my black converse. I didn't feel like getting dressed up, which was almost daily. I walked down the steps to grab something to eat and stopped when my I saw my mom sitting on the bar stool reading the newspaper.

"Mom?"

She looked at me, but didn't say anything.

I was taken back.  "What are you doing here? Don't you have surgeries or something to tend to?"

"Don't you have school?" She asked in a harsh tone.

"It's just out of character for you to be home." I said while getting a granola bar.

"Wow. 'out of character' You should write that on the SAT. Maybe it'll give you a chance of halfway passing it." She said, and didn't even look at me.

"What is that supposed to mean?"  I asked.

"Nothing Meredith. Just grab your breakfast and go to school."

I scoffed and grabbed my book bag and keys. "I work tonight, in case you wanted to know." I said as I slammed the door behind me.

Daily life at the Grey household.