pizzaface | ✓

13.

CHANGE YOUR mindset.

Noel had spent the last hour binge watching inspirational videos on YouTube. He wasn't sure what he was looking for, but he needed a few more words of encouragement.

His mom was staying in later at work and Cheryl was out doing cheerleader things, leaving Noel lying in his room facedown with the fan on, and a video playing with a perky, preppy girl telling the camera to love themselves.

Strangely, the door opened with a sickening thud and Noel saw Ron's presence swan in. His ginger hair was slicked against his forehead, dripping towards his murky pondwater green eyes, his lips were pinched and crinkled as he surveyed Noel's appearance.

"What are you doing here?" Noel's voice always came out quieter when he talked to Ron, there was something unsettling about him.

"I just wanted to talk to you." He sat on Noel's bed, his weight dipping the mattress lower, causing Noel to sit upright abruptly.

"Do you hate me Noel?" His voice was like thousands of thorns ripping against hot pink flesh, as if the blood gushing out was black gunk rather than a striking red. His body seemed to inch closer to Noel, his breath stinking of beer and leftovers from the fridge, his nostrils flaring slightly.

"N-n-no."

"Do you know what you're doing?"

Noel stared past Ron's face, his breath coming out in a quickened pace, he pressed his fingers into his woven jeans in an attempt to calm himself down.

"Answer me!" Ron's voice screeched out into the air, the tone icy cold and dripping through Noel's fingertips, he bared his teeth garishly, the colour slightly yellowed around the rim.

"I don't, I don't know what you mean."

Ron then laughed, tipping his head back as a sarcastic sound wormed out noisily, he then looked back at Noel, curling his lip into a sneer. "You're tearing this family apart, I don't know why your mother isn't disciplining you. You're like a black cloud, sucking the life out of all of us. Now that your mother is pregnant-"

"Wait- what?"

"You didn't know?" Another sapid laugh snaked out of Ron's lips. "We're going to be a family, me, your mother, Cheryl and the baby, a perfect family. That doesn't include you. You're far from perfect."

"And you are?" Noel couldn't stop the sarcastic remark that slipped out, he tried to edge further away from Ron, but he trapped Noel with his beefy arms, forming a small cage around Noel.

"How dare you!" His voice boomed out, before he raised a hand against Noel and slapped him across the face. A harsh sting pinged across Noel's left cheek as he stared at Ron in shock.

"Y-you c-c-can't do that."

"I can't let you get away with ripping this family to shreds, your mom is miserable because of you, there is no way we're bringing up a baby in a toxic environment. If you knew what was good for you, you'd stay away."

"This is my home. I'm not going anywhere." Noel's voice came out meek and troubled, but his forlorn glare said more than his words could.

Ron then slapped Noel's other cheek, harder, his thick palm coming into contact with Noel's prickly red and painful bumps.

"There's a lot more where that came from if you don't obey me. We eat lunch separately, you don't come to family outings and you're not invited to the wedding."

"Wedding?"

"I'm asking your mother to marry me." Noel said nothing, all his mind could focus on was the stinging on his right and left cheeks.

"Do you hate me Noel?" Ron unlatched himself from Noel's hold before standing up and walking out of his room door, stopping at the entrance.

"Because you should."