We Are Young

Mia Vera

    My mom decided that it was necessary to move closer to her family after what happened with my dad. A single mom working as a waitress and doing night shifts at the gas station on the corner wasn’t going to cut it. The bills had to be paid and now we had a new mouth to feed. I wish my dad had the balls to stay with us, but since he didn’t I was determined to find him and give him a piece of my mind.  

   I noticed a clump of dirt on my right shoe tip and leaned over to flick it off. I grasped my old black converse’s frayed laces and tied them as well. It wouldn’t be long before I had reached my stop. I had been on the bus for about an hour now; I took it after my brief train ride from home. I was now slowly making my way along flushing avenue in the heart of Queens, and my destination wasn’t too far along.  

    My silver flip phone rang loudly in my pocket, but I paid it no mind. An old man sitting next to me made a weird noise that sounded somewhere in between a cough and a sneeze. I rolled my eyes and slipped my battered pre-paid phone out of my pocket and opened it to check the caller I.e. My mom’s almond shaped light brown eyes smiled at me from the small picture in my phone. She wore one of her rare smiles and her black hair was pulled back into a high pony tail and she was holding my newborn baby brother who was busy sucking his foot. I shook my head as I looked at the picture and blanked out for a few minutes. A single tear fell down my face and hit the screen causing me to come back to my senses.The shrill sound of my phone ringing instantly snapped me out of my trance and by utter reflex I picked up.  

   That night was about four years ago again regardless of my cunning attempt to escape my mother’s clutches, I didn’t get very far, because on the corner of west street parked in his old black truck was my cousin Bryan. He dragged me in the car and drove me back home where I was forced to pack my bags and leave.   

     As it turns out, Georgia isn’t as bad as I thought. We live in Atlanta so we’re pretty close to downtown. Of course it isn’t the same, because now I require the use of a car since I’m too broke to take the metro. Not that my family is still broke. My parents are divorced now, my dad is remarried, and my mom is doing pretty well in her new job. Well enough to sustain me and my brother Sebastian who just turned 5 two weeks ago and still is able to buy me a car and have some money left over for when Sebastian gets older.       

      I was all in all pretty happy with my high school and the ridiculous amount of friends I had made. If it wasn’t for my mother’s constant bitching and random mood swings, my life would be perfect. 

      I woke up to a loud thud which seemed to have come from the other room. I figured it was just my mother slamming doors again. It seemed as if every day her mood worsened and I was always the target. I closed my eyes and placed the soft white pillow which was behind my head on my face. I clutched the other pillow closest to my side, to my head and groaned. I counted to ten, and just as I had expected, my mother came storming into my room.

       My small 5 foot 1 mother grabbed my comforter off of my bed and tossed it aside. Her face looked murderous as she proceeded to yell,   “MIA! What the hell are you doing! Tenes que estar en la escuela! Get up right now and get your lazy ass out of my damn house. You should be at school! You are late!”   I groaned and rolled over to the side resting my head on my fist as I held myself up with one arm and looked at her with one eye open. Suddenly her face started to turn red and she gritted her teeth. She grabbed me by the floor leg and yanked hard until I had fallen on the hard wood floor with a thud. Ouch.  

   I got up to my feet before she could do anything else and walked to my bathroom with my mother following me and barking orders the entire time. I expected this kind of thing to happen since I was never late, but I was tired from the night before and honestly didn’t want to deal with another week of school. What I didn’t expect was what my mom did next.