Conflicted (Boyxboy)

113

I didn't go back inside until it was beginning to get cold.

There seemed to be fighting in one of the reading rooms as I walked past, and I stopped to listen curiously.

One voice was definitely my mother's, being the only female and all. And the other was deep, older. Must be Andrew.

They seemed to be arguing about business, with my mother being the only one passionately raising her voice.

Andrew's voice seemed slightly confused, and I'm sure Clarisse was blowing things out of proportion to sow the seeds of doubt in their relationship, like she usually begins with.

Strange, she is doing that a bit earlier than usual. She usually waits until they've been happily together for a while before beginning to cause tension.

I sighed before turning away, but the door opened furiously a few moments later.

I didn't turn around and tried to walk faster as I heard my mother sigh.

"Riley!" She snapped when she noticed me.

Shit!

I disappeared round the corner but she was fast, grabbing my wrist aggressively and dragging me into the laundry room.

"You little shit." She growled as soon as she checked no one was around, and I sighed and crossed my arms.

"What did I do this time?" I asked and she glared at me.

"How dare you! You have no respect for your mother, after all I've done for you! You go crawling back to your father, don't love me anymore huh? Am I not good enough??"

"That wasn't my intention, really. I went to England for personal issues."

"Personal?? How come next thing I know you're in a custody trial??"

"Well, that wasn't my fault."

"How am I supposed to believe that!"

"If I wanted to stay with my father, I would have testified against you and wouldn't be here right now."

She narrowed her eyes at me.

"You're on thin ice, kid."

"And what are you going to do? Dissown me? That was obviously your plan because you didn't even bother turning up for the trial. Don't disguise it as something else."

"I was busy! We couldn't get there in time. And what do you think I've been looking after you all these years for, I'm not going to suddenly let you run off and leave me!"

"You've been 'looking after me' because you need someone to be your nurse for free whenever you've wasted all your money away. What, do you feel like you no longer needed me and that's why you wanted to give me away??"

She gasped in offense before immediately striking my face with her palm. I hissed from the stinging pain and turned my head away from her as she pulled me closer by my top's collar.

"If you dare ever say something so... disrespectful again, I'll have a huge problem with you, brat!"

"Okay, sorry." I sighed, and rubbed my cheek when she released me.

She glared at me, before changing her behaviour as she heard someone walking down the stairs above us.

"Just be careful sweetie, please behave, we don't want any more drama." She smiled at me, before walking out, and I bit my lip.

I moved my jaw from side to side and caressed it with my hand as I exited the room, jumping when I nearly walked into something.

I looked up to see Aaron with a surprised expression, obviously he wasn't expecting to see me in this part of the house.