Drunken voices would be heard coming from the hallway of the house. Upbeat music would sound through the walls, its vibrations hitting of the floors and travelling to the little boy's ears as he tried to sleep. His sister had asked him to read himself a comic so that he would fall asleep, but he couldn't, not with the amount of sound that was going on.
His mind was filled with strong superheros and evil villains from the comics he read, but he was told that they weren't real. Joey may have been coming onto the age of four, but the child's mind was already mature enough to understand the difference between fictional and reality. His life was an ongoing battle between heroes and villains.
Joey may not have understood what was going on, but through his eyes Josette was his hero and the men with suits were the villains. Josette was the hero fighting villains every night downstairs and the music, it was her fighting sequence. However, Joey could hear the screams and cries of help from time to time, even though the word wasn't "help".
All the fighting had been downstairs, but occasionally, he would hear the footsteps running up and down the hallway upstairs. He knew it was his mother and father, but he couldn't understand why they were running or whether they were the good guys or not. His father was a man who liked to show intimidation to give out fear; it's how he lived.
The character of his father would change from a villain to a superhero sometimes because he would be asking the men in suits to go, but once they did, the shouting began. His father's voice would thunder across the household and scare Joey to the point where he would hide underneath his covers.
His father was a man who could fight evil but be evil himself. Once his sister would come upstairs, Joey would pretend to be asleep but he would be wide awake. He would hear slaps from his father and bad words that Josette always reminds him not to listen to or copy because that wouldn't make the superheroes happy.
But Josette wasn't happy. He wouldn't question why the door was always locked, but he wondered if it may have been because he was too young to fight. He would turn to face Josette while she slept and watched the tears on her face dry and the light fighting battles on her skin get worse. She was the hero that always lived.
Josette could sleep through their parents' constantly arguing though. With each hit and each scream, Joey failed to go to sleep and wondered what it would be like if he was ever to come across his father as a hero. Would Joey be able to stop his mother from getting hurt? Or was his mother also facing the villain and getting fighting battles like Josette?
His mind would wonder to why he rarely saw his father, but at the times where they did, his hero would shield him from the sinister smile of the villain who tore apart his life.
I woke up with my hair stuck to my head and sweat dampening my body. My breathing was harsh and came out painfully as I tried to get my mind around the fact that I had a nightmare, but I was back in reality. It would take me a long time to get my breathing back in order, but the pain in my memory would burn.
"Time for a cigarette, then." I muttered to myself as I pushed the covers off of me. Unlike yesterday, the morning was now rainy and dark. The irony was too much to ignore; I still got up and walked to my bathroom, not even caring what the time was. The images of the dream burned me in my mind and I was not wanting to start my day angry.
After brushing my teeth and having a shower, I didn't bother wearing a top as I walked to my window and pulled out a cigarette from my bag along with a lighter. There were a couple stupid things I was currently doing right now, one of them being that I wasn't smoking a blunt but that was because it had a stronger clingy scent.
The other thing was that I had showered and I needed to get the smell away and being near a window would help, but a little. At this point, I couldn't care less so I opened the window and sat on the window sill, putting the cigarette in my mouth before lighting it. It took me everything not to moan because of the poison that was burning in my lungs.
It wasn't as good as a blunt, but it would have to do for now. My mind had slowly relaxed after each puff, but I knew the thoughts would be back sooner or later and I was going to have to deal with it then, but for now, I was going to enjoy my smoke.
It was the early hours of the morning and the rain was only a little, so I guess it would give me a sense of calmness for a little bit. The rain didn't bother me on bit but it was the shitty stuff we'd have to do after school for practice that made me mind the rain. Another day of school just made me want to smoke a lot more, especially since I was going to be seeing the nerd.
After the episode yesterday, I didn't know what to feel towards her. She had obviously gone through something to have that weird scar on her back, but everything else about her seemed fine. She was a nerd, a shy and innocent girl that can't look at a boy without looking like a twelve year old and everything that had happened yesterday made me smirk.
She was hot, I was not going to lie about that but I wasn't going to be telling the world. The nerd wasn't the type of girl I would go with anyway, no matter what they say about opposites attracting; I just didn't see myself doing anything with the nerd, not even sex. I scrunched my nose thinking about what she would be like if we did fuck.
My dick stirred through my boxers and poked out a little through my sweats, just thinking about the girl in her bra. I growled at the thoughts I was having but hey, at least it got me to stop thinking about the nightmare I was having. Flicking the ash off the end, I took it out of my mouth and stared at it.
"Fuck, might as well get ready." I whispered before climbing back inside and leaving the window open. I didn't bother wearing a shirt because...well, I lived here and I could do damn well as I pleased! Opening my door, I didn't miss the random colours that were still on my door but I wasn't as angry about it like I was yesterday.
By getting ready, I hadn't meant that I was going to get myself ready. Since it was Thursday, I was going to have to make breakfast and get the girls ready for school. Josette had given me this chore to do since I was around fourteen, saying something about the importance of having responsibility and her having a five year old kid at the time, I didn't argue with her.
I decided to walk into Chelsie's room and I laughed quietly when I saw her asleep, but her head was at the foot of her bed instead of being at the head. Gently, I woke the little rat from her sleep and she whined and moved her hand away in order to shoo me away. What the hell was she complaining about? She got more sleep than I did.
"I'll be back to get you up again, fatso." I told her before turning around and walking out the room and towards Josette and Drew's room to get Skye. Josette wouldn't allow the kids to be sleeping in separate rooms from them until they were at least four and in her defence, it was because part of their DNA was Drew's.
I loudly knocked on the door and when I didn't hear anything, I walked inside and thankfully saw the two sleeping while Skye was standing up in her crib. She held her arms out as I got closer to her crib before I picked her up and carried her out the room just as I witnessed Drew pulling Josette closer, making me rush out of there.
Sighing with happiness, I looked down at the little dribble maker and saw that she didn't waste any time in dribbling on me. The tattoo on my shoulder glistened with Skye's saliva and I groaned with disgust as she grinned up at me. "I'm still not happy with you Skye. The state of my room may be clean now, but you didn't draw me a picture."
She giggled at me and I rolled my eyes, a smile playing at my lips. I walked back into Chelsie's room and saw that she wasn't there; must be in the bathroom then. Skye was sat comfortably on my side, putting her finger in her mouth and probably messing with the new teeth that were growing, but I wasn't bothered to move her finger as I opened Chelsie's curtains.
"It's raining Skye, baby. Meaning I can be late for school, between you and me." I whispered to her before turning around and walking to Chelsie's wardrobe. The worst possible thing that I could do was dress the two girls because according to my sister, I didn't match up the clothes and it didn't look good. Why would a kid care?
I continued to dig through the wardrobe when I realized that clothes had been laid out for her and it was hanging on the door. Skye giggled on my shoulder and pointed towards the door, making me give her a deadpanned look. "You knew, didn't you? Little devil." I told her as I began searching for Skye's clothes, making sure none were already set out.
My eyes wandered over to the time and I watched as the clock ticked to 7:30. There was probably enough time for me to make them breakfast after getting them ready because I didn't want them to be late. See, they had more potential in life to learn and understand things more than I had done, so there was a point for them to go to school.
"I don't like this!" Chelsie complained as I was changing Skye's nappy in the front room downstairs. Since there was two changing place thingy's in the house, it was more convenient to be downstairs, but of course, Chelsie had to make a shit ton of complaints. "Why not? You look better than what I would dress you in." I told her as I finished up changing Skye.
I put her in the onesie that I picked out, giving myself a pat on the back because she hadn't started crying, but I knew that she would soon enough because she hadn't had her breakfast yet. Chelsie started throwing a tantrum on the spot and I just looked at her before walking into the kitchen and placing Skye onto the high chair.
Chelsie continued to shout and scream as I cleaned up the mess and walked outside for a second to throw the rubbish then walk back in to wash my hands at the sink. She then continued to annoy me by hitting me and then proceeded to bite my leg like an animal, then started crying. She would soon give up, but that wouldn't take away the pain of her bite.
The child was a monster!
Just like I had predicted, the little fatso had stopped screaming and shouting and had sat on the table, sulking. I made them their food and placed the bowl in front of Chelsie who looked away and continued to sulk, well at least I had a reason for being late this time. I shrugged my shoulders and then walked to Skye.
"Do you think I should go into school today? Or should I stay at home and be with the fatso?" I asked Chelsie using a baby voice. She just babbled incoherent words; the thing about Chelsie was that she hasn't said her first words yet and it worried the hell out of Josette and Drew, but I didn't think it was anything to worry about. So she was a late talker, there was no big deal.
"Mom!" Rushed footsteps were coming down the stairs and I saw Drew. "You didn't mom, you got the next best thing though." Drew answered, tying his tie and I scoffed at his response to Chelsie. He looked up and glared at me, making me throw my hands up as a surrender sign before I started feeding Skye again.
"Sorry, honey. Food for you is still in the makes." I said to Drew using a falsetto voice, earning me a slap on the back of the head. "Stop calling my daughter fatso, it's not a nice thing to say, Joey and you should know better!" I rolled my eyes and looked up at my brother in law with raised eyebrows, considering he just slapped the back of my head.
My phone started ringing and I dug it out from my pocket. Eli's name flashed across the screen and I scrunched up my eyebrows. "Yeah?" I questioned as I picked up the spoon that Skye was trying to hold. Drew came over and kissed Skye on the head and the cheek, before walking to make his coffee.
"My mom's going into labour, fuck! I need to take her to the hospital, can you just tell someone, anyone?" There was screaming and swearing in the background and I guess it was really loud because Drew turned around and gave me a questioning look. "Fuck, Joey! This is so gross and I think I'm going to end up in hospital too." I laughed at him.
"Listen man, I can run to you right now and help if you want?" I asked, ignoring the look Drew was giving me. "It's cool, it's...oh my fuck, it's so disgusting. Ow! Sorry!" Eli apologised, obviously to his mom who was going through the worst pain she could face in her life. With a quick goodbye, Eli hung up the phone.
"Well, looks like I'm walking to school." I said to Drew. Chelsie ran to him and he sneered at me before looking down at the fatso niece of mine and smiling at her. "You can finish this. Bye my little baby." I made a kissy fish face before kissing Skye's nose and then bending down and attempting to get a hug from Chelsie, but she hugged Drew's legs instead.
I stood to my full height and sighed. "I guess I'm going to have to tell Brett how mean you're being to me." I said, but after he started whining and hugging my leg, I laughed. I turned around and Drew gave me a death stare, deceasing all the fun and laughter. "You go straight to school, do you understand me? I don't want you f-, messing around." I smirked at his mistake.
Both our eyes flickered to Chelsie who was hugging the life out of my leg still. "By the way, your kid is evil. She bit me a billion times and threw a tantrum, okay bye fatso and Skye!" I managed to get the kid off of me and ran up the stairs with Chelsie's shout following me. Getting dressed in record timing and then ran downstairs, missing Josette on the way there.
The reason why I was wanting to get to school quicker was because I wasn't actually going to go to school yet. Even though the last hour of the morning was practically me hanging out with the kids, which did help me forget about everything bad that was happening, they were like the cigarette; they were a temporary happiness.
Stuff like weed made me forget for a little bit more and I knew it wasn't the best way to deal with my problems, but I would rather be high and dealing rather than staying miserable. Fuck, I didn't even know how it got to this point, but if my mother could do it for a long time without getting caught then so could I, right?
Wrong. I knew it, Drew knew it and that was why he was suspicious of what I was doing before school and he was smart enough to look through my lies. I knew my limits, but I also knew how far this could go and it could make my anger ten times worse than what it currently was at but I knew myself. It wouldn't get to that point, I wouldn't let it and that's why I was fine after three years.
I rounded a block into an alleyway, cliche place to meet but anyone rarely went down this place so it was fine. Fine place to not get caught and possible face death while a possible overdose, my thoughts were screaming at me, but I ignored them and met the guy. He was a shady looking motherfucker, but I was way stronger than him and that may have been due to the fact that he was constantly high.
We did the exchange and I hid the bag in my bag. It was enough to take some for myself and deal around, so I gave him the cash and walked away without another word. As for the money, I would be selling this for more than I bought it because that's what you call unfair business with the bad boy.
The rain was getting heavier by the second and I pulled my hood up before I started my trek to school. I took another cigarette out because the second it started thundering, I felt parts of the nightmare clash at the same time as the lightening. Flashes of my father's face came to mind and even though I haven't seen him for a long, long time, I still had the fresh memory.
I took out the cigarette and threw it into a puddle when my head started to ache and everything felt ten times heavier. I tried to think about happy things, but nothing would stop the ache that tormented me at least once a day. The times where I would have nightmares were the days where the pain would get worse.
Out of no where, everything stopped as soon as someone pushed past me, running as they did and I yelled out to them. I was close to chasing them, but I noticed it was some girl who looked like she was skilled in running and right now, I couldn't run. Coach would be so proud of me right now, being outrun by some small girl, who had more things than I had to carry.
"Watch whereyou're fucking going." She turned around and shouted an apology. Well ifit wasn't the fucking nerd that has started to end most of my days