Growing Pains

Chapter 6 - There was nothing tempting about a bad boy

Z O E Y

The door of my bedroom swung open at 3 a.m on a school night. This wasn't good.

"What is this?" My mom's voice was still asleep, but she was not. She was very much awake. She turned the lights on. I wished she hadn't. I could see the crow feet in the corner of her eyes.

She looked at me. She wasn't happy. I was. I had started reading a new book yesterday, a garage-sale-find like no other, and here I was, deep into the night, about to finish it, with tears in my eyes.  Mom was still not happy. I decided I would explain.

"Mom, you don't understand." Not the best start. "My brain was like, go to bed. You told me to go to bed. Even Daisy told me to go to bed. But then the book was like, read me. And my mind just went, yes, daddy."

"What have I done to deserve this?" she groaned.

Not just a bad start then. Mom rubbed sleep off her eyes and walked closer to my bed.

I said, "You did drop me on my head a lot as a kid."

She said, "Give me the book."

Before I could even think about it, she snatched the book off my hands.

"Mom, please! Just one more chapter." I begged, reaching for her as she walked away, half of my body out of my bed. There was only one chapter left.

"Go to sleep, Zoey," she said in a yawn as she turned the lights off and left.

I fell off my bed.

"Fuck!"

I woke up. I didn't want to. It felt like I had fallen asleep just minutes before. There was a big plot hole somewhere in there and I wasn't the one who was going to figure it out. I was too tired to.

"Zoey!" Mom was already up. I could hear downstairs, doing the dishes we had been too lazy to wash the night before. I didn't answer. Mom wasn't too convinced on my alarm's ability to wake me up, so she screamed every morning.

I slid into a pair of old jeans and a black turtleneck I had stolen from my mom's closet weeks ago. She was yet to have the chance to wear something other than her work uniform or her pajama to notice it. I walked into the kitchen. Mom was packing her lunch. Daisy was calling me. I picked up.

"Good morning –"

"I never went to sleep last night," she confessed.

"Excuse me?"

"I'm so tired, you have no idea."

I got myself a bowl of cereal and waited for more. Mom was already glaring at me.

"I found this new tv show and I just couldn't stop watching it. I finished the first season and then I had to stop because my alarm was ringing, and, oh my god! Is it morning already? I can feel the comedown coming for me. It's gonna be bad, Zoey."

"Can I know what tv show did this to you?" I had a mouth full of cocoa puffs. Mom was still glaring. "I wanna watch it too. Why did you even watch it without me if it was that good?"

"Cause it was that good! I couldn't stop! Like, I held my pee for so long, I thought I was gonna explode –"

My mom's glare intensified.

"Wait," I had to stop her. "My mom's looking at me. I'll talk to you at school."

"Okay, I'm so excited for you though! You're gonna love it!" She hung up.

"Why does she call at 7.30 a.m?" mom asked, sipping from her bitter black coffee.

"She has no concept of time." I shrugged.