Forget It.

Home Sweet Home

Carlos's POV:

4:30, finally the end of the day. As we did every year, we got on the city bus and walked the rest of the way home. I opened the door and there in the kitchen was my step mother, Maylène . She was a short chubby woman with dark skin and shiny black hair. She was kind and soft spoken, but when you got her excited or brought up a topic she enjoyed she wouldn't stop talking. Her demeanor was almost the polar opposite of my fathers. My father was 6'4, lanky and buff with hair down to his back.He had a cold and dismissive demeanor, he barely spoke except in spanish. He wasn't always like this but, One can assume his life experiences changed him. Maylène had gone deaf when she was young, but got cochlear implants. We still learned how to sign because sometimes she simply didn't feel like speaking.

"Hi! Welcome home" She said and put down the dishes in her hand so she could sign.
"How was your day?"
"It was normal I guess." Magaly spoke and signed
"It's the beginning of the end! Oh I'm so proud of you!" Maylène said excitedly, placing her hand on her heart. "Yeah, for them." I slumped down on the couch after dropping my things in the middle of the floor.

"You're getting there Carlos, don't be discouraged." She was right about me getting close, but that wasn't enough for me. My brother and I were born the same year, months apart. He was older by only a few months but we were still the same age. We were placed a year ahead than we should've been and while my brother stayed ahead of the 8 ball, I stayed back. My sister is a year older than us.

Our family is very complicated. My sister is our half sibling. We didn't even know each other until my brother and I were 4 and she was 5, when my father got out of prison. You could assume he really did not have his ducks in a row during this time. He was a young adult with 3 kids, in and out of prison. We barely knew him for a portion of our lives. Our mother wasn't much help either. She kept us completely separated from our fathers family. Our grandmother tried hard to get to know us but to almost no evail. If it wasn't for my fathers hell of a lawyer, I would've lived my life like a different person.

"Is dad here?" JD asked to change the subject.
"Not yet, He should be home soon. Speaking of which, write down what you want from Janey's so he can pick it up for us." Maylène sat a pen and paper on the kitchen table.
"Janey's again? We've eaten there 4 times the past week!" Magaly said and signed to her mother, rolling her eyes.

"You know we are going through a rough patch right now, Magaly. It's cheap and we like it."
"Not for long if we keep scarfing it down every day!"

"Don't catch an attitude Magaly, if you don't want Janey's you are free to get something with your own money ma'am." She pointed at her daughter and tightened her face, her lip drew back in a sort of snarl.

"Whatever man. I'm going to Adelaide's" Magaly scoffed and scooped up her purse and keys and stormed out of the house.

Her mother rolled her eyes and continued cleaning the kitchen. This wasn't an abnormal interaction between them. They often argued and debated over things you'd never think were debatable, and Maylène almost always won. Me and JD often stayed out of it, but I did agree with Magaly this time. Yes, we were struggling, the exhausting legal fees and my dad's barely above minimum wage Job didn't help. But that didn't mean we had to eat the same thing everyday.

"If things are really getting tough, we can get jobs. Or temporarily move back in with my mom." JD said, breaking the silence after our sister's departure.

"Hell no we won't. You're not gonna catch my black ass over there unless I'm picking up a check." I inserted. Our mother was an annoying, pushy, naggy woman, who could nitpick a person's molecules. She's ironically named Karen.

"You know Carlos, it wouldn't hurt to speak to Karen again. You shouldn't feel obligated to of course." Maylène said, glancing over at me.
"I know, but why would I want to speak to her? So I can get bribed into moving back in? No. Never."

Maylène didn't argue there was no point. No one, not even Jesus himself could ever convince me to speak to my mother.

Micheal's POV:
4:30, thank god. I stood on the sidewalk in front of the school parking lot, waiting for one of my mothers to pick me up. After about 15 minutes, my mother, Marina, pulled up in her hot pink hummer. I quickly jumped in the back seat and buckled up.
"Hi mom." I said leaning my head against the window as she pulled off, my vision of the school getting smaller as the car exited the parking lot.

"Hey mijo, how was your first day at my school?" Marina always made a point to call it her school, like that was a good thing. It was a bad school when she was growing up and it still is.

"It wasn't spectacular. Not at all." I confessed while looking out the window. I had a cold blank expression. I could tell my mother noticed as she looked into the rearview mirror at me.
"Well of course! First day at a new school isn't going to be perfect. What's wrong? Did somethin' happen? "
"I didn't want it to be perfect. I didn't even want it to be in general. Why do I have to go there? My old school was just fine! Why did we even move? All these changes for what?" I let all my emotions spill out. I was angry and confused. Why did we uproot our lives to move to a town that seemed to only roll out criminals and minimum wage workers?
"We moved because it's affordable here."
" Ok, and?"
" And, If it's just you, your mother and I, why would we break the bank on a 5 bedroom home with only 3 of us?"
" Well you're the one who makes 6 figures. Why don't you tell me." I sat up and crossed my arms and shook my head questioningly.
" I don't make 6 figures anymore, Micheal. There was a local recession. We're losing money. People would rather buy cheap packaged food than luxury baked goods."

Marina opened a franchise for her mothers baked goods company. My grandmother is a CEO. It was supposed to be passed to her but she opted out and decided to become a franchisee. They sold expensive baked goods and cooking kits. Boxed cake mix and cookie decoration kits. We lived extremely comfortably. I got anything I asked for, and I didn't ask for much. I knew something was wrong when we moved. Our new home was nice, but it was a considerable downgrade.
"Even if that's the case, I don't know why I needed to switch schools."
She sighed and turned to look at me, then shook her head to continue looking at the road.
"You're a kid. It's not your job to know."
The rest of the drive was silent, except for the music on the radio. We pulled up to our home and my mom, Ariana, greeted us on the porch. She sat with a "Mothering" magazine in her hand and our dog in her lap. 'Hi Micheal, how was your day?" She stood and greeted me with a kiss and a hug. I shrugged and walked in the house without a word and ran upstairs. My mothers didn't bother to badger me about it. They both liked to be left alone when they felt annoyed or angry.

As I sought refuge of my new room i burrowed my face into my pillow. I didn't cry or scream, I just layed there. My whole life was being uprooted. My whole life was changing in so many ways I didn't even know yet. Maybe living a life of sameness had kept me from realising how good change truly was.