Sociopathic [ On Hold ]

Chapter 3

- The evening of April 8th, 1994

"Tate, honey, time for dinner!" Constance's obviously fake cheerful tone breaks Tate out of his daydreaming and causes him to roll his eyes.
Did this woman really need to put up this act now that she had the house back? Larry was already head over heels in love with the cockersucker, for fucksake, his family even burned themselves because of his love for her!
Surely, her regular personality couldn't scare him off now. They were all he had.
What a stupid son of a bitch. Why the fuck couldn t he see past his mother's act and kick her the hell out?
Tate didn't even care if that meant he was being kicked out as well.
He hated this place. It would be a blessing to get out of here.
All Larry was asking for was an early death.
Groaning, Tate stood up from his bed, going over to his cassette player and pressing stop on his Nevermind cassette.
"I'm going to miss you, Kurt," he muttered, closing his eyes and having a moment of silence.
Clearing his throat, Tate opened his eyes and walked out of his bedroom door.
Walking through the hall and down the stairs, he could almost swear he heard voices through the walls.
Tate always heard voices coming from behind closed doors. Though, he usually ignored it.
He knew he had to be insane. After all, what normal teenager would have thoughts of murder, suicide, sex, rape, torture and voices in their head to top it off? But he didn't mind that he wasn't normal. Normal people scared him.
When he finally reached the dining room, Larry and Addie were already seated.
"Hey, Addie," he said with a small smile, walking over to his usual chair and sitting down. His sister giggled in response.
Looking over at Larry, his face went emotionless while his tone of voice was cold. "Lawrence."
Larry shifted uncomfortably under Tate's gaze. This caused him to grin for only a moment.
The tension in the room could be cut with a knife.
Thankfully, after a few seconds that seemed like eternity, his mother's cheery voice came again.
"Ladies and gentlemen, the ham." Strutting out of the kitchen, his mother held a silver platter with ham on it.
Tate felt a disgusted look cross his face, how could his mother expect them to eat that?
Then, as an idea quickly came his mind, he grinned and tried to hold back his laughter at the thought.
Larry clapped as Constance made her way over to the table.
"Ah... Wow. That looks lovely," Larry said with a look that resembled a lovesick puppy.
This only made Tate's laughter harder to hold back, but he was managing.
As his mother set down the ham, he looked up at her expectantly, his face now going emotionless.
It was kind of scary how fast he could switch his emotions.
"Now, who wants to say grace?" His mother said with a huge smile on her face, trying to act the part of the perfect house wife.
Which, was pretty ironic, considering the fact that she was the exact opposite of that.
As his mother sat down, Tate spoke up. "Oh mother, may I?"
Constance gave him an incredulous look, with a glint of fear in her eye. She had good reason to be afraid of what he could say.
"Of course, son," Larry immediately replied, trying to act the part of the perfect husband and father. "I was hoping you would choose to become a part of this family."
Tate couldn't help but smile, not because he was happy, but because he couldn't wait to speak.
Holding out his hands to Larry and Constance, the smile stayed on his face as he closed his eyes, bowing his head down in prayer.
Now it was time for him to play the part of the perfect son from hell.
Waiting a few seconds for everyone to get settled, he then started speaking. "Dear God, thank you for the salty pig meat we re about to eat, along with the rest of the indigestible swill."
He could feel his mother tightening the grip on his hand, clearly starting to get pissed. But that definitely wasn t stopping him. Actually, it was egging him on. "And thank you for our new charade of a family. My father ran away when I was only six and if I had known any better, I would have joined him."
Constance pulled her hand away from Tate's, very annoyed at this point, hitting his arm.
While he flinched, he still continued. "And also because she's been trying to get back in this house ever since she lost it. Lord, a big thank you for blinding the asshole that s doing my mother."
At this point, both Larry and Constance had let go of Tate's hands.
Finally opening his eyes and looking up, he finished. "So that he can t see what everybody knows," he looked over into Larry's eyes, "she doesn t really love him."
Addie was the first to speak, wearing a huge grin. "Amen."
Tate looked over at her, giving her a smile.
Click. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw his mother lighting up a cigarette.
Typical Constance. Smoking and drinking her life away. All that was going to bring her was an early death.
"Ah," Larry laughed nervously, clapping his hands together.
"Now, Tate," he looked over at the man, wondering how the hell he was going to try and play the father role this time.
"I know that you've been having a hard time making the adjustment with all the recent changes." Rolling his eyes at Larry, it was taking everything Tate had to hold back his anger.
"Moving back in here after the," Larry made a hand gesture towards the ceiling, "the tragedy that my only family went through."
Almost immediately, Tate replied, leaning in closer to Larry.
"They burned themselves alive after you were cheating on your wife with Constance, Lawrence." His eyes bore into Larry's, his voice cold and bitter.
Larry looked away for a moment, no doubt trying to find the perfect thing to say.
His voice started off weak, "That was nobodies fault, passion drove her to it. One day you'll understand."
Tate gritted his teeth, still trying to hold back his anger, his eyes glaring at Larry with the intensity of a thousand suns.
"There are sacrifices you have to make in the name of love." Larry was looking over at Constance, but Tate will still staring straight at him, using all of his willpower not to get up and kill Larry right then and there.
"On a light note," Larry reached over to the bread basket in the middle of the table, grabbing a slice, then putting it back.
"I have reserved tickets for everybody for Saturday at our community theater," now Larry was serving himself salad as everyone was grabbing food from the center, but Tate still stayed unmoving, focused on his prey.
"For the opening night of Brigadoon!" Larry sang the last word in the cheery voice, almost making Tate want to lose it.
"And I'm delighted to be debuting in the chorus."
From the other side of the table, Constance lifted her wine glass up, smiling over at her boyfriend.
"Well, I, for one, shall will be there with bells on."
Larry seemed delighted at her answer, clapping his hands together. "Thank you, darling, for being so supportive and encouraging. You have allowed me to explore another facet of myself."
Out of the corner of his eye, Tate saw Addie smile. "Yay! I love the theater!"
That made him lose it.
Banging his fist on the table, breaking a plate, Tate turned to look at her, yelling, "NO, ADDIE!"
Shock was clear on her face, but he didn't care.
"You're a smart girl! You know he killed our brother!"
That was the moment his mother lost it. "Stop it!"
He looked over at Constance, feeling his eyes beginning to water.
"Beau died in his slumber of natural causes."
Narrowing his eyes at her, his mind screamed one word. Bullshit.
"Now you know he had a respiratory addlement."
Tate felt tears threatening to pour out of his eyes. Who knew that the fun little prayer he made would turn into this?
"Your brother s in a better place," Constance was now sounding like she was not only trying to convince him, but herself as well.
"He suffered with every breath that he took!"
Bullshit.
"He only suffered because of you!" Tate said in a surprisingly normal voice.
Constance only shook her head and laughed.
"You know Tate, unlike your siblings, you were graced with so many gifts!"
Tate felt the tears slowly coming down his face, but he didn t dare to bring his hand up to wipe them.
"How is it that you can't bring yourself to use them?"
He had to look away now, letting out the breath he didn t realize he was holding in and taking in another.
He then met his mother's eyes again.
"Just a smile, or a kind word could open the gates to heaven!"
Finally, Tate brought a hand up to wipe the tears off of his face, sniffling.
Putting a sad smile on his face, he looked over at Constance.
"No matter how much you want it," he paused, the smile disappearing and his voice going cold, "I will never be your perfect son."
Constance gave him a sad smile back.
At that moment, Tate knew what he needed to do.
Getting up from the table, he walked off to his room without a word.