Plastic Hearts ✸ Rafe Cameron [ english ]

ii. this place don't feel like home

𝐚𝐜𝐭 𝐨𝐧𝐞 ——— pleasing a storm
this place don't feel like home — 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐰𝐨

✤

          THE NEXT DAY I WOKE UP WITH A TERRIBLE HEADACHE.

I could feel the pain spreading through my body. It was as if I had ended up at a construction site at night, and in the morning, one of the workers had simply run me over with a road roller. Maybe opening the bottle of whiskey Selina had in the kitchen wasn't such a good idea after all? At the time, it seemed to me that only alcohol could ease the pain and anger I was feeling. As if it was the only one that understood me and was the cure for the evil my mother had done to me yesterday. On the other hand, I was only eighteen and I was already abusing alcohol, which filled me with slight anxiety.

I rubbed my tired eyes and started to search for my cell phone, which in theory, should be lying somewhere on the couch in the living room, where I had spent the night. Well... only a few hours, because the rest of the time I spent in the kitchen, accompanied by a bottle of alcohol and my favorite playlist.

To my surprise, the phone was under the coffee table. Without thinking about how it got there, just glad the screen was intact, I unlocked it. On the home screen, right next to the message and call icons, were the tiny numbers — 6 and 8. Convinced that my mother had drunk too much again and was typing something stupid to me, I slowly pressed the message icon.

02:22 am
mom: ginny come home

02:27 am
mom: i'm not mad at you

03:11 am
mom: i'm worried about you

03:59 am
mom: i'll be waiting with breakfast in the morning

04:01 am
mom: remember that I love you

I could barely contain my laughter when I saw the last message. My mother kept repeating in every argument that she was the only one who loved me and what a bad person my father was for leaving us, or "if you don't like it, you can live with your father," and maybe I would rather live with him than with my mother who had a disorder. At least he always tried to be a good parent, but in the end, he disappeared and I didn't really know why he left a void in my heart without a word of explanation.

I involuntarily rolled my eyes at the last message, which was from my boss.

08:30am
chuck the boss: hey, gin! i know you have today off, but maybe you want to make something extra? by the way emily would like to leave work a little early :)