Chapter 3: A Long Day: Home
Mikey Appleton: Later that same day
The bus comes to a sudden stop, it’s arrived at my stop. I get up from my seat and walk over to the door, I quickly thank the bus driver and exit the bus. I sigh, once again, I don’t want to return back to my house. After a bit of hesitation, I open the door and enter my house. I notice my mom laying on the couch again, giggling and hiccuping. As I quietly approach the beast, I notice the smell. The smell of beer… oh no she’s been drinking again… I hear her mumble out something.
“Oh Dennis… oh cutie…” She says, in between hiccups and giggles.
I’m a little scared, but I have to ask her eventually…
“H-Hi ma… C-Can I give y-you the c-change?” I mumble.
“Oh, it’s you…” She replies in a slurred manner, “T-Thank the Lord you have the ch-change…”
She grabs into my pocket and takes the 12 cents, not caring for my own personal space. Oh well, I might find my dad; he might be in a better mood. I check the backyard window and notice him outside, smoking as usual. I walk to the backyard to greet him.
“H-Hi dad… How a-are you?” I say.
“Oh, hi Mikey. How was school? Clearly there should be a class to make you speak louder.” He giggles out, mocking me again.
“Yeah… ha ha…” I say, doing a nervous and fake laugh.
I enter my room, to hopefully escape from this mess. Well, I probably need to get some homework done anyways. I take the binder from my backpack and find the math homework I have for today. At least it doesn’t have letters yet… the math Cherry likes to do scares me. Well, I do alright in math; mostly because I know if I don’t my parents would probably get mad at me for failing school… I take my time to do this math, I want to make sure I get around 100% anyways. After a little while I finish my homework, and I sit and look around my room. I don’t really have many toys anyways, they just get taken or broken by my parents as a part of their stupid “punishments.” Oh man how much I hate those punishment, why do they ever need t-
“Hey shy boy! Get yourself in this living room now!” My dad exclaims, I might know what this is about…
I head out to the living room, I see him standing in front of the TV.
“Come on, help your ma out; she out again.”
I sigh, well she had too much to drink again… the usual I guess. I pour a glass of water and find saltine crackers for mom, cause that’s what my dad tells me to prepare for whatever reason. He prepares an ice bag, and places it on her forehead. I take a sigh of relief, at least this time my mom didn’t get violent. It’s happened before… and I wish it didn’t happen… I stand back, just observing the scene; I don’t really have much to say anyways. I think about dinner, it’s unlikely I even get anything from it anyways; oh well it’ll get revealed to me in about an hour and so.
“Well good Mikey, the shy boy is helping out his ma I see.” My dad replies in a mocking way, blowing the cigarette smoke right into my face.
. Well, knock on wood I hope I even get dinner…
Later that evening
In my room, I smell the scent from the kitchen. It’s quite wonderful! My mom, finally awake, can cook pretty well. At least I have one good thing about her… even if she hits and picks on me often. I walk over to the kitchen, hoping to see if there’s some food for me. My mom turns around to see who entered, and immediately replies.
“Mikey… you better not come here to annoy me. I still have the stupid headache! I don’t need you to make it worse!” She exclaims.
“B-But can I-I get d-dinner…” I quietly say.
She stops and thinks for a moment, “Sure… I guess.”
I sit down, my dad walks in, happily greeting my mom.
“Hi Josie!”
“Hi Dennis! I made your favorite dish.”
“Mushroom and beef stew!” They both said excitedly.
She adds a little more pepper to a bowl full of it, and serves it… to me? Not again, don’t they know I can’t handle spices? Nevermind, they do know… Anyways we sit down and eat, it’s fairly quiet because I’m too afraid of even speaking without being shunned for just about anything. We continue to eat, just as I’m about to finish I hear the phone ring. I wonder who that can be? My dad gets up to answer the phone…
“Hello?” He says in his ‘normal’ voice, “Oh hi Johannes!”
They chat for a little while, until he gives me a surprising offer.
“Guess what Mikey, do you want to spend Saturday with the Ways?” He asks, surprisingly being in a good mood with me.
“U-Uh… I w-would love t-too!” I reply, I feel a bit better about myself. I get to spend a day with Cherry and her family! That’s nice I’ll say.
I finish dinner and I head to my room, feeling happy about the future playdate. I pace around my room happily, but I hear my parents chat. I eavesdrop on them.
“Come on Josie, we still have to have our facade you know. We just can’t let people know what we truly do to him.”
“I don’t know Dennis… Are you sure he won’t tell Cherry or even Johannes and Alice?” I hear my mom ask worriedly.
“It’ll be fine, I’ll just give him the talk. You know, what we always do.”
Oh no… I did in fact tell Cherry I get bullied at home… And her parents do also know that… I mean, Mr. and Mrs. Way says that we’ll need to wait for the right time to tell more people. Well, on the bright side I think a day with the Ways will be fun! Finally, something I look forward to. Well… it’s almost bedtime… Well, I’m going to get nightmares again; oh great… I can’t really catch a break anywhere, can I?