The Way The World Ends ✓

Chapter 33. Nate

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Between the potency

And the existence

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After he left Indigo, begrudgingly, his thoughts wandered back to his parents. If he could call his mom a parent after her absence. It wasn't like she had raised him at all, even when she was still living with them. She traveled all of the time to get ahead in the fashion world, and upon further reflection, Nate realized she was probably having affairs as well. Meanwhile, his father had done all of the work with Nate; his father who was going to be back any time from his trip. Nate was still worried about his mom showing up out of the blue and completely ruining his father after the little recovery he made in the romance department. Nate knew that his father wouldn't be able to handle seeing her again. He would either completely backslide and beg for her to take him back and go into a deep depression that would end in drowning himself in alcohol.

Nate didn't know what to do. He had no way of getting in touch with his mother, and even though he didn't want to speak to her, he wanted to tell her not to bother his father. He was worried that maybe she achieved some sort of sick sense of achievement by toying with his father. It was one of those moments for Nate that felt like he had to be much older than he was; act like the father instead of the son when he should be carefree knowing he was accepted into college. But for Nate, one problem just came after the next.

As soon as he pulled in front of his house a deep seed of fear began to grow. There was an unfamiliar car on the street, something unusual in such a small town. He knew it wasn't his father or Indigo, and those were the only two people who ever parked there, aside from the occasional visit from his friend Jason. The car was a bright pink and had a bumper sticker in the shape of California.

Nate shakily exited his car and slowly approached the house, afraid of his own home. He didn't want his suspicions to be confirmed. He thanked God that his dad wasn't home yet, but he didn't know how much time he had left to convince he mom to leave. He peeked around in the darkness, but couldn't see her outside, which only made him upset that she must have let herself into the house on her own accord. His eyebrows drawn together in anger, he pushed the front door open and stopped in the hallway that was bathed in yellow light. He tossed his keys onto the little table and shut the door behind him, hand lingering on the knob. He wished this place wasn't so safe that everyone kept their doors locked, because then it would have been harder for his mom to just waltz into the house. He steeled his nerves and turned to meet the face of his mother, who was currently making herself at home on the couch with a can of soda and her other hand buried in Bo's fur, scratching away.

"Bo, come here," Nate ordered, not wanting his dog anywhere near this woman. Bo barked playfully and ran to Nate's side, ready for even more affection. Nate crouched down and rubbed the dog's neck, not making eye contact when he asked sharply, "what are you doing here?"

"I wanted to see my son when he became an adult. Is that a crime?" She asked defensively, putting down her drink and reclining back on the couch.

Nate didn't know how this woman could be his mother. He looked exactly like his father, acted like his father, talked like his father. This woman in front of him had on a tight long sleeved red dress, big pearls, long manicured nails, and a faux fur coat thrown over the back of the couch.

"Why did you really come?" Nate pushed, crossing his arms over his chest and standing his ground when his mother beckoned for him to sit next to her.

"You know you look just like your father when he was young," she reminisced wistfully, looking through Nate instead of at him.

"Yeah, and if he sees you he's going to lose his mind just like the last time he saw you. You can't just come back after thirteen years. Why now?" Nate took off his jacket angrily and flung it over the back of one of the kitchen chairs behind his mother.