The Pain Of The Past || A TMF FanFic

Chapter 1: Memories

After getting dressed and myself ready for the day, I casually stepped downstairs to find the house surprisingly quiet. There was no sign of Mom, Michael or Bethany anywhere. The only other person I could manage to find in the house was Hailey, who was preparing a quick breakfast for the two of us in the kitchen before the others' awaited arrival.

"Finally, you're awake!" Hailey greeted me as she spotted me approaching the kitchen doorway. "How was your beauty sleep, Captain Grumps A Lot?" She teased pouring herself some milk into a bowl of what I assumed to be cereal. I noticed that there was an identical bowl sitting a few inches beside her on the table which I also assumed to be mine since no one else seemed to be home, to my dismay...

I glared at her in annoyance as I returned my focus back to her snarky remark towards me. "Very funny, Sargent wakes a lot!" I snapped back as I entered the kitchen . "Can't you go one day without trying to wake up the entire household!?"

"No Sir, I cannot!" She joked with a small smile. She then placed down the milk carton shortly after as her expression became more serious. "But all jokes aside, I kinda had to since practice is in approximately two hours from now and you still hadn't gotten out of bed!"

"Yeah, yeah..." I rolled my eyes as I took my usual seat at the table. "Speaking of which, where's Mom, Michael and Bethany? I thought they were gonna be home today..?"

Hailey listened to my concern as she walked over to the fridge with the milk carton in hand and stored back inside. She then turned to me once again and replied, "They were.." shutting the refrigerator door beside her promptly after.

Making her way back to the table, she continued, "But the three of them got up early this morning, saying they had somewhere to be."

"Somewhere to be?" I questioned in shock. "Where the hell could Mo- I mean they..." I quickly corrected myself. "..possibly have to be at such short notice..?"

Hailey took a seat across from me at the table as she replied, "Well, Dad said he had an extra class he wanted to assist with today and Mom went out with Bethany to run some errands she said she needed to take care of. They said it would be better for us if they weren't home during practice so we could focus more, without any distractions from any of them." She chuckled at the last part. "Isn't that sweet!"

I looked at her stunned, but didn't reply.

"I, of course, told them that they wouldn't be a bother if they'd just stayed home with us, but they insisted so, I decided to just leave them be..." Hailey went on, but I could barely pay attention to what she was saying as I got lost in my own thoughts..

"Just great..." I thought to myself in frustration. "She really decided to leave us home alone..on today of all days... Don't you know I need you right now, Mom..."

Hailey seemed to notice my sudden distraught expression as she trailed off. "...Are you ok, Zander?" She asked in a concerned tone. "You seem a bit zoned out.."

I quickly looked up at her as I broke out of thought. "Oh..yeah, e-everything's fine.." I lied with a slight stammer in my voice.

I avoided eye contact with her as she gave me a doubtful look in regards to my response, but she didn't further question me on it. She instead decided to change the topic by saying, "Well then, how about we start digging in on some breakfast, shall we!"

She then gently pushed the identical bowl across the table towards my direction, a sight that looked all too familiar to me...

"I got us your favorite cereal!" She beamed with a smile. "Grape Lord Bites!"

I looked down at the bowl of cereal before me in horror as my mind immediately began to trace back to a heart-aching memory I wish I could forget...

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