Sham

4 :) Alex

It's been a week since I've successfully avoided my mom's call, but she pulled the last straw when she called Dylan- my brother. I had an hunch she was the reason he called but there's no way I wouldn't pick his call and she knows that. He's basically the closest to me in my family ever since my dad's demise.

After placing a call through to my mum, just like I predicted, I'm totally regretting my actions. Apparently, she has an art exhibition she's hosting on Saturday, and wants me there since my brother isn't gonna be available on that day.

My mom owns an art museum, and has been holding an annual exhibition for the last twelve years to celebrate her gallery. But since three years now, she's been on my neck about bringing a girl home.

Dylan is excluded from the intense pressure though, because he already has a girl, and is doing great at handling my dad's businesses.

Dylan has been in charge of my dad's business ever since my dad passed on, and he's done a great job so far. He's expanded it to great lengths, to lengths where none of us thought it possible.

He's also the one running Highlight, yeah the same bar Minah works at, but there's no way I'm telling her that, at least not now. I just got in her good book and I don't wanna fuck it up.

This time, just like always, my mom's asked for me to bring my girlfriend to the exhibition. Frankly, I feel like that's all she ever ask about now. Unfortunately, I may or may not not added extra pressure on myself.

When her whining became too much, I told her I already had a girlfriend, and my mom being who she is, asked for a picture of the lucky girl. Her words not mine.

The irrational part of me went ahead to show her Minah's picture, so now, she expecting to see her alongside me on Saturday. This should have just been a simple thing, I could just cook up a lie, or tell her we broke up, but I can't say that to my mom. My mom and I don't really have the best relationship. Believe me when I say our mother-son bond is more strained than anyone else's I know of, and we're finally on the track of fixing that so I can't afford to disappoint her again.

My brother and I have always been closer to my dad than my mom, and that really affected us a lot when he died. Relating to my mom became the weirdest thing ever considering she was always hooked up in her art studio, becoming too absorbed with her paintings.

I remember her in the first few years of my childhood, but ever since I became old enough to make myself a cereal, her existence in my life became vague. My dad was always the one around whenever Dylan and I needed anything, or everything.

The first few months after he died were the worst. The more we tried to work it out, the more weird it got, so we let it be. Dylan and I continued with our lives like she didn't exist, leaning on just each other. About two years later, Dylan suggested we give it another go because there's no denying that she's our mom, and that's what we've been doing, trying to put up with her manipulative attitude.

My mom is a bad person though, she's just always been like that, right from when we were kids but back then, we always had our dad behind us. However, now it's just both of us with her, and that shit is annoying as fuck, but we're both learning to tolerate her, it's not like we have a choice.

"Dude, are you gonna ask her?" Nate asked. We were still at the ring when my mum called, so I pretty much told him what the call was about since he's like a brother.

Nate and I have been together since kindergarten. He lived just few blocks away from my house, and we also attended the same high school. We might have also kinda planned about going to the same college. After I lost my dad just before I finished high school, it felt like my whole world was crumbling. Back then, I only had Dylan and Nate to rely on. I think that's one of the reasons Nate decided we attended the same college, because of my mental stability.

My dad's also the one who taught Nate everything he knows about boxing, always making sure we practice together since Dylan didn't pick any interest in boxing.

"I don't know." I ran my hands through my hair. "Fuck, I'm confused. If I should go alone, my mum is gonna set me up with one of her friend's daughters and I'm fucking tired of that." That's initially the reason I lied, so she could get off my back. I just didn't know it would backfire. Karma's a bitch.

"Just do whatever you wanna do fast. You know it's this Saturday." he said as he removed his boxing gloves and went to the washroom.

One thing is certain though, there's no way I'm going alone. Nate was supposed to go with me, but the asshole is going to go help his parents set up their new place. They just moved to a new place and haven't settled in properly, which means his parents also wouldn't make it to the exhibition.

I'm confused as fuck. In as much as I don't wanna ruin whatever it is I have going on with Minah right now, I have to find a way to take her with me. Fuck, I've been trying to get in her good books for so long and now this happens when I'm finally in it. She's had my attention ever since I saw her with her low cut hair. I know girls like to keep their hair long, but hers is so short and yet she still looks breathtaking.

Originally, I was intrigued about her origin, because even though she has a clear skin, her skin tone looks kinda different. But then, all sprouts of doubts were confirmed the moment I heard her name-Aminah Bello, I knew she was African.

The other day, when I splashed water on her accidentally, it was my dad's anniversary and yet I lost my shit again. I was so pissed at myself because I thought I had it under control after all the therapy, but that day proved everything otherwise.

My anger issue is another one of the reasons my mom is super conscious about me.

The other day, I didn't mean to drench her, and I didn't notice in time. I slowed down a bit to check her when I realized and found that it wasn't that bad, I drove off because l didn't trust what was going to come out of my mouth at that moment. Days later, I was ecstatic when I found out we were paired together for a project. I had thought to apologize to her, then but it turns out she was madder than I imagined.

All efforts to try to please her proved futile, and somehow we kept crossing paths whenever we had a combined class. Most times, I intentionally sat beside her just to get a reaction out of her, and that continued for a while. I always want to get even the tiniest reaction from her whenever we cross paths, and I found our banter interesting. It wasn't until she was absent for a few days did I finally realize that somehow, I've grown quite fond of her.

With a final hit at the punching bag, I took off my gloves and drank my water, running my hands through my hair. Why the fuck does this have to happen now. I've got no other choice, I'm gonna have to convince her to go with me if I don't want my mom breathing down my neck, but Minah is one hell of a stubborn ass. It's safe to say she's the most obdurate person I've ever seen, and I don't need anyone to tell me it's gonna take a whole lot of profitable deal for her to go with me.

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