Status: INACTIVE UNTIL STATED OTHERWISE
Beautiful Somehow
Time For A Change
"Edison! Edison you open this door right now!"
I groan loudly rolling onto the floor in a cocoon of blankets. My mom keeps banging on the door, harder than the cops would during a drug bust. Tiny fists inside my skull are pounding just as hard. I groan louder, crawling over to the door slowly and reaching up towards the knob. As soon as I turn it a few degrees she bursts into the room, red in the face. I can tell she’s been fuming for a while.
"Maaaaa" I moan burrowing into my covers on the hard floor. At this point I’ll sleep on any surface. I didn’t get home until 2, 3 in the morning. I wasn’t planning on getting drunk but after Henry left someone had to be the life of the party. After a few shots of some really strong tonic it was like being seventeen and care-free all over again with Walter and friends.
My mom rips the covers from my body and starts screaming curses at me. "You're nineteen Edison! Get a job! Get ana education! Get the hell out of my house! What kind of example are you setting for your siblings walking in here at 3 am drunk!? Just like your father, always staring into a bottle well I'm sick of it Edison! I want you out!" She storms out of the room, grabbing half of the cash I got from Walter off my dresser. I don't even have the energy to follow her. I just curl up on the floor and drift back off into lala land.
When I do wake up it’s to the sound of the garbage truck making its rounds through the neighborhood. I yawn loudly and sit up, wincing at the ache in my neck from sleeping on the floor. There's also a pounding in my head that makes me regret drinking last night. I get up and open my dresser to look for something to wear today but...it’s empty. I open the next three and they're all empty too.
"What the fuck" I think aloud. All of my drawers are empty. I know I'm behind on laundry but this doesn’t make sense. I go downstairs to check the dryer. My little sisters are sitting on the living room floor giggling at the TV.
"Eddy!" Georgina exclaims getting up to hug me. Despite the pain her shrill voice causes me I scoop the seven year old up in my arms and spin her around.
"Hey Georgie, where’s mom?"
"She had to go pay a bill but she'll be back. She’s really really mad Eddy" Georgina whispers the last part in my ear
"Yeah," my thirteen year old sister Dolores agrees. "She left you a note on the table." I toss a squirming Georgina onto the sofa and make my way to the kitchen. Like Dolly said there's a note on the table along with bulging black trash bags near the door. I scoff hoping mom didn't expect me to get up early to take them out. I pop two waffles into the toaster and pick up the sheet of paper skimming it.
It starts with "I want you out today Edison." And ends somewhere along the lines of "if you aren't going to support this family then you have to no reason to be here. If you are here I will call the cops." The bags by the door are apparently all my missing clothes and she’s not going to pay me back the 80 dollars she stole. I pull my phone out and dial her number.
"Edison." She answers.
"Are you shitting me Ma? I'm your son! You can't throw me out!"
"I'm not discussing this with you. Dolly’s friend is picking her up at noon and a babysitter will be here for Georgie by 11:30. Leave before she gets her. I'm serious Edison, I'm sick of it."
"Wow, fuck you too mom." I hang up angrily, growling in frustration. It’s almost 10:30 giving me an hour to get the rest of my crap together only one problem...where to go? I scroll through my contacts. Devon. Gregory. Thomas. Ajay. Walter. Henry...Henry. I know Henry lives not too far away in his own little apartment and unlike Walter, doesn't throw parties every night. I've done a lot for him so he shouldn't mind me crashing on his couch until I get some cash.
I press the call button and listen to the phone ring. On the seventh ring he picks up sounding grumpy and hung-over.
"Mmm 'ter be 'porant" he mumbles.
"Henry, hey man. Can I stay with you for a while? Mom kicked me out." It takes him a while to reply. I can hear him fumbling through his apartment as he wakes up more
"Dunsee why not." He says in the middle of a yawn.
"Thanks H. I owe you."
"Yeah right. If anything I still owe you. I'd be dead without you Ed."
"Let’s just call it even then. I'll be at yours in a few." I spend the next hour cramming everything of importance into the backseat of my car. My loaded guitar cases go up front though. If anything matters, it’s my babies. After kissing my sisters goodbye and reminding them to call me when the babysitter arrives I leave the house and drive to Henry's. Maybe it is time for a change.
I groan loudly rolling onto the floor in a cocoon of blankets. My mom keeps banging on the door, harder than the cops would during a drug bust. Tiny fists inside my skull are pounding just as hard. I groan louder, crawling over to the door slowly and reaching up towards the knob. As soon as I turn it a few degrees she bursts into the room, red in the face. I can tell she’s been fuming for a while.
"Maaaaa" I moan burrowing into my covers on the hard floor. At this point I’ll sleep on any surface. I didn’t get home until 2, 3 in the morning. I wasn’t planning on getting drunk but after Henry left someone had to be the life of the party. After a few shots of some really strong tonic it was like being seventeen and care-free all over again with Walter and friends.
My mom rips the covers from my body and starts screaming curses at me. "You're nineteen Edison! Get a job! Get ana education! Get the hell out of my house! What kind of example are you setting for your siblings walking in here at 3 am drunk!? Just like your father, always staring into a bottle well I'm sick of it Edison! I want you out!" She storms out of the room, grabbing half of the cash I got from Walter off my dresser. I don't even have the energy to follow her. I just curl up on the floor and drift back off into lala land.
When I do wake up it’s to the sound of the garbage truck making its rounds through the neighborhood. I yawn loudly and sit up, wincing at the ache in my neck from sleeping on the floor. There's also a pounding in my head that makes me regret drinking last night. I get up and open my dresser to look for something to wear today but...it’s empty. I open the next three and they're all empty too.
"What the fuck" I think aloud. All of my drawers are empty. I know I'm behind on laundry but this doesn’t make sense. I go downstairs to check the dryer. My little sisters are sitting on the living room floor giggling at the TV.
"Eddy!" Georgina exclaims getting up to hug me. Despite the pain her shrill voice causes me I scoop the seven year old up in my arms and spin her around.
"Hey Georgie, where’s mom?"
"She had to go pay a bill but she'll be back. She’s really really mad Eddy" Georgina whispers the last part in my ear
"Yeah," my thirteen year old sister Dolores agrees. "She left you a note on the table." I toss a squirming Georgina onto the sofa and make my way to the kitchen. Like Dolly said there's a note on the table along with bulging black trash bags near the door. I scoff hoping mom didn't expect me to get up early to take them out. I pop two waffles into the toaster and pick up the sheet of paper skimming it.
It starts with "I want you out today Edison." And ends somewhere along the lines of "if you aren't going to support this family then you have to no reason to be here. If you are here I will call the cops." The bags by the door are apparently all my missing clothes and she’s not going to pay me back the 80 dollars she stole. I pull my phone out and dial her number.
"Edison." She answers.
"Are you shitting me Ma? I'm your son! You can't throw me out!"
"I'm not discussing this with you. Dolly’s friend is picking her up at noon and a babysitter will be here for Georgie by 11:30. Leave before she gets her. I'm serious Edison, I'm sick of it."
"Wow, fuck you too mom." I hang up angrily, growling in frustration. It’s almost 10:30 giving me an hour to get the rest of my crap together only one problem...where to go? I scroll through my contacts. Devon. Gregory. Thomas. Ajay. Walter. Henry...Henry. I know Henry lives not too far away in his own little apartment and unlike Walter, doesn't throw parties every night. I've done a lot for him so he shouldn't mind me crashing on his couch until I get some cash.
I press the call button and listen to the phone ring. On the seventh ring he picks up sounding grumpy and hung-over.
"Mmm 'ter be 'porant" he mumbles.
"Henry, hey man. Can I stay with you for a while? Mom kicked me out." It takes him a while to reply. I can hear him fumbling through his apartment as he wakes up more
"Dunsee why not." He says in the middle of a yawn.
"Thanks H. I owe you."
"Yeah right. If anything I still owe you. I'd be dead without you Ed."
"Let’s just call it even then. I'll be at yours in a few." I spend the next hour cramming everything of importance into the backseat of my car. My loaded guitar cases go up front though. If anything matters, it’s my babies. After kissing my sisters goodbye and reminding them to call me when the babysitter arrives I leave the house and drive to Henry's. Maybe it is time for a change.
♠ ♠ ♠
I suck at chapter names.