The water in the kitchen faucet didn't run like it used to... it was more pulled back and slow.
"Mom, mom the sink is acting up again... I need your help." She leaned against her beer bottle and glanced at me with star drifted eyes.
"Again? I thought your father fixed it! Bloody man can't do anything right. " I stepped back slowly as she raised from the couch. When mother has been drinking it's a gut feeling to keep your distance.
I wish father was around more often but work is more important when your mother can't do anything. You see? My family just doesn't do things like your average family. I am 14 and I have more of a life than my 30 year old mother... after father came back from the hospital she drained her pain in the bottom of bottles. It made her feel happy and every one else around her feel shallow. I feel so empty when I walk to school and see other mothers kissing their children goodbye. I don't have any siblings but a brother or a sister would be amazing... I've always wanted someone to hang around and to always be there for me and someone I can be there for, besides my parents. I felt kind of bad for my parents though, they thought when they were younger that their lives would be mystifying and lovely. When it got to the point of growing up, nothing came up to what it should have been. For either of them.
I could see why mother turned to drinking, it was much easier than paying for a therapist and it was more do able than excersice. I am an athlete that's how I deal with my problems. I just run them off. I tend to drift off and it makes me think my life is perfect. Then something from reality hits and I realize that my life isn't perfect. It never has been and it never will be. Certainly of where I am now, it's not something I am proud of. Who your parents are is not who you are, but what they do to help you become yourself is who you are. My parents don't do anything but you cannot bite the hand that feeds you. It just wouldn't be right.
I may only be 14 but I want to make a change. I want to be the reason that my parents become better. I know that's the parents job but who says a child can't do that? No one, that's who. So I've taken it upon myself to make my parents a better version of well, themselves. My mother intruded my thoughts with her harsh voice.
"Naomi?" I peaked over the edge of the stairs and peered to my mother who was standing below.
"Yes mother?" She began to walk up the steps as if she didn't need my help any longer.
"I want another one." She raised her beer bottle above her head, signaling for me to grab another beer from the fridge. I didn't want her drinking and I wanted to stick to my word. So I raised my voice and spoke what I wanted.
"I'm sorry, but I cannot do that for you." Mother's eyes got really big. As if I just denied her royal order. Then a wild idea struck into my head. " Actually, I will get you another one. Just give me a second." I ran to the kitchen as quickly as I could.
I then opened the fridge and grabbed the whole case of beer. As the bottles clanked mother made her way back down the stairs. I unscrewed all the tops and poured the alcohol down the drain and then filled them all up with water. I then screwed all the caps back on and put them back into the case. Closing the refrigerator door as my plan was complete. I ran down the stairs and met my mother's gaze as I handed her a bottle. Her dazey eyes met mine. I have never been more proud of myself.
I patted myself on the back as I headed to my room.
As soon as I touched the handle to peace a shrill yell climbed the stairs.
"NAOMI BETH VERMIN!" My shoulders shook with the fear of what was to come. "THIS IS NOT WHAT I ASKED FOR, NOW COME DOWN HERE RIGHT THIS INSTANT!" I let go of the handle and walked towards the stairs.
Mother was not by them, she had gone back to her lair. She was like a witch that never ceased her orders always wanting this and that. Yet, when someone asked her for a favor she always turned them down as if they hadn't done 20,000,000 things for her before. I guess she could say she forgot as a valid excuse... she forgot many things ever since we moved to Minnesota. Father was in the hospital a lot so her second brain was always absent. Maybe that was a time that she was supposed to compose of a meaning for herself. Instead she just drank as if she didn't have a 6 year old in the other room... as you can see I've grown out of being forgotten. Being 14 is a hard age as it is. The world is less and less excepting of you as you grow, I've never been beautiful or popular. Father says otherwise then again he is always kind. I don't know how such a man ended up with such a woman. I've just always been smart, losing myself in books with adventures. Leading me to Wonderland or mysterious worlds through your very own closet doors. I just like the feeling of losing myself in someone else's life... it made me think more of what I wanted my life to be. I wanted to explore things like Nancy Drew and Trixie Beldon. I want to adventure out like the Hardy Boys... I just want to be somewhere other than where I am right now. If books are the way I can travel as a teenager, I'll take it. When I grow up I want to be more than the girl that took care of her own mother. I want people to look and my life with awe and say: I want that.
I reached the bottom of the stairs and left my imagination for a little while. I always like to think but sometimes it gets me in trouble. I walked over to the couch watching my feet so the cold stare of mother didn't give me chills. I could feel her eyes burning in the top of my skull. I was practically melting where I stood before her. Her words met my ears.
YOU ARE READING
Who I Once Was
General Fiction"You're gonna regret ever coming down here." Those are the words that drove Naomi out of her house... she couldn't take her parents anymore. She runs into her past self in her adventure... if she does anything she could ruin her future...
