Differences (Interracial Urban love Story) (SAMPLE)

☯ 1.| Small World

I mute.

Keegan sucked his teeth, shutting off the water before snatching his towel off the rack that was barely hanging on the rack against the wall. Wrapping the white towel around his sculpted lower half, he snatched open the bathroom door and walked towards the front where his mother stood at the stove puffing on a cigarette.

Her curly brown hair sat in a messy ponytail, while her small frame held onto the dingy pink robe that fell down to her ankles. She was so deep in her thoughts, she never noticed Keegan enter the kitchen let alone call her name.

"Ma!" Keegan growled causing Beth to jump, and clutch her chest looking at her son, who stood in the kitchen with water dripping from his torso into the dark wooden floor.

"You scared me Keegan, you can't do that." Beth mumbled with the cigarette dangling between her lips, as she moved the bacon around in the skillet.

She was trying to hide the black eye, but it was too late since Keegan had already seen it. Her eye was the least of his worries right now, there was other things on his mind.

"Ma did you pay the water bill with the money I gave you last week?" Keegan asked furrowing his eyebrows, while his green eyes stayed fixated on his mother.

Beth rolled her eyes in annoyance, as she slid the bacon out the skillet and onto a plate before cutting the eye off on the stove. Keegan was always scolding her as if she was a child, but if she would do what she was supposed to do as a parent they wouldn't have the set of problems they have.

"Yes Keegan, I paid the damn water bill." Beth said viciously, as she walked over to the table with her house shoes scrubbing the floor before she tossed the plate on the table, and snatched the cigarette from her dry lips letting smoke come out.

"The water is cold." Keegan said with no emotion in his tone, as little feet patted the floor and his niece Eliza scurried past him with her book bag attached to her back.

"Maybe it's the pipes or something, damn it Keegan don't start with me this morning." Beth spoke putting out the cigarette, blowing smoke out the side of her mouth while forcing a smile at her granddaughter.

"Good morning everybody." Eliza said in her soft voice, climbing up into the folding chair in front of the plate of food her grandmother had managed to scrape together just for her.

It consisted of a breakfast sandwich, a BLT to be exact. Bacon, lettuce, tomatoes, with a slight wave of mayonnaise. Eliza licked her lips, and smiled big at the sight.

"Oh boy, my favorite!" She squealed quickly dropping her book bag onto the wooden floor, and picking up a piece of the sandwich biting into it before moaning and shutting her eyes.

Beth couldn't help but smile at the sight, her granddaughter was everything to her.

The thing about kids and struggle, they never understood it. You could  convince them of many things, and they'd run wild with their imagination.

Beth glanced at Keegan, who was watching his niece eat the thrown together meal.

"We're low on groceries." Beth mumbled causing Keegan to suck his teeth in aggravation.

There was never a time Keegan woke up, and he didn't have to solve a problem. With four grown people plus a teen living in the three bedroom apartment, there shouldn't have been a reason why they were struggling.

"What happened to the food stamps Nisha gave you earlier?" Keegan asked swiping at his flared nostrils, still clutching the towel showing his many unique tattoos.