The Boy With the Brown Eyes (Discontinued)

Chapter 3: Life Like a Rollercoaster

Recap:

There were no more unwanted mentions of our family, and overall it was a pretty good day after school. Janelle and I stayed a bit longer to hang out with Timothy, and decided to leave at 10. As I was walking off the front porch, I noticed something different about our driveway. There was another car. Not just any random car though. It was a car I've known for all my life, and I'd recognize it anywhere; it was my mom's car.

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"What the hell is she doing home?" Janelle yelled.

"I don't know. Maybe she's actually sober today." I suggested.

"What's the matter?" Daniel asked as he walked up behind me.

"That's our mom... I don't know what we're supposed to do." Janelle sighed.

"Here, I'll have my mum talk to yours about whatever needs to be taken care of. It'll be fine, I promise." Daniel said.

After endlessly trying to convince me, I finally gave in to the idea of Theresa talking to our mom, but before she could, I had to see what kind of mood my mom was in. That basically meant whether or not she was drunk because she had two regular moods: angry and intoxicated. In the back of my mind, I was hoping that it was one of those days she was normal; I haven't seen that mom in a while. With Theresa and Daniel watching from their front yard, Janelle and I took a deep breath before stepping in the front doors of our house. At first sight, we could tell she was still here, as the dining room and living room lights were shining brightly, but we weren't the ones who turned them on. Together, we walked toward the bright lights in our family area and saw what we were dreading the most: our mother. She was lying down on the coach, staring up at the ceiling, but we were positive that she knew we were in the room. It became evident that she wasn't going to speak first ensuing that she just lie down there, silent.

"Mom?" I asked falteringly.

We awaited an answer. Unexpectedly, she jumped up from the sofa and faced both of us. I took in her appearance: her clothes were regular, eyes weren't dilated, and her hair wasn't too astray. She was sober.

"Yes. And where have you two girls been? It is.." She glanced at the clock. "10 o'clock and you're just beginning to get home? Care to explain yourselves?"

"Look, just because you gave birth to us, doesn't mean you can boss us around. Especially with how you're never home, you don't deserve to know what's going on in our lives! Like you would care!" Janelle seethed.

I put my arm on her shoulder reassuringly and stopped her rant.

"Look, mother." I spat the word as if it were poison. "We were just at the new neigbor's house where the Johnson's used to live. Oh yeah, you didn't know the Johnson's left right? Too busy getting drunk and going to hotel rooms all the time, without even bothering to call?"

"You don't know how I've been feeling. When your father left-" she began.

"Don't give us any of that bullshit." Janelle snapped. "We felt hurt when dad left too, and it doesn't mean you can take away another parental figure from us! We needed you. And you were never there." 

"Watch your language Janelle. I said I was sorry, okay? I came back to say, that I'm going to change. For you guys. I don't want to be like your father, at least I'm trying." Mom said while tears started threatening to leave her eyes.

Janelle and I glanced at each other; we hated seeing our mom cry no matter how much we didn't like her.

"What are you going to do about it? What if you start drinking again? What if you start to-" I started.