Psychos and Passion

Chapter 2

[Karen]

The front door opened and my mom came in.

Dwayne backed away from me and went down the staircase chugging on his drink. Mom had just finished closing her umbrella, then placing it against the wall adjacent to the door.

"Hey hun!" Dwayne greeted her while wrapping his arm around my mom's shoulder and then kissing her cheek. I felt like puking but I did my best not to.

"Oh my Karen!" Mom ignored him and turned her attention to me. "Why are you so wet?!"

Dwayne smirked at this which made mom and me confused. We both gave him a 'what's-so-funny?' look but he only responded with a shrug followed by another sip on his drink.

"I don't know. Perhaps the rain had something to do with it," I replied sarcastically before pivoting around and strutted to my room. I opened the door to my room, hastily went inside, then slammed the door shut.

The first thing I did when I got to my room was get dry clothes from my drawer. I threw my wet clothes in my laundry basket and slipped the new set of clothes on. Once dressed in warm clothing once more, I hopped on my bed and settled myself down.

I could hear mom and Dwayne giggling from downstairs. Annoyed, I grabbed a pillow and used it to cover my ears. I wanted to sleep, skip dinner, but something tells me I'm going to have a hard time doing it again tonight with all the giggling and other noises I dare not say.

You see, my dad died two years ago. Cause of death? Murdered. Yeah. He was just passing by when all of a sudden, he got shot with a stray bullet. There were two guys fighting one night when my dad unfortunately passed by somewhere near them. One of them started running to the direction where my dad was, and the other one pulled the trigger. I lost my dad the next day.

The bastard that fired the gun was captured right away. But who cares anymore. It didn't bring my dad back. My life continued to feel worse.

One year and three months later and my mother met Dwayne. Dwayne's not that bad... Oh who am I kidding. Dwayne is the worst of all worsts! He's a creep. And I am suspecting him to be a pervert. Why? Because I caught him peeking at me while I was putting on some clothes after taking a shower.

I told my mom about it. But she took his side instead of mine.

And my second proof was earlier. The way he was gawking at me... The way his hand caressed my shoulder all of a sudden.

Ugh. I'm cringing just remembering it.

Also, Dwayne's an idiot. He has no other job except as a freelance technician at an old-built apartment somewhere downtown. It would have been okay if only he was actually good at his job. However, he wasn't. And last I heard, he was filed a restraining order by one of the tenants because she caught him putting up a CCTV camera inside her bathroom.

Why my mom still goes out with him? I don't know. Plus, she refuses to believe those rumors about him.

Anyways, I noticed the giggling has stopped. Finally. I felt relieved. I can finally have my sleep.

Or so I thought.

As I was about to close my eyes, mom's voice began screaming.

"Oh fuck yes!"

I squeezed my eyes shut out of frustration. Trying to sleep on my own efforts won't work tonight. They're at it again. Like they always do. Most night. And when I say most nights I meant four times a week.

There is one thing left to do.

Frustrated, I got up from bed and went into the bathroom. Standing in front of the medicine cabinet, I opened the door and grabbed the small bottle of sleeping pills that was right next to my anti-depressants.