Wasted potential ★ holes [zigzag x oc]

Thirty - eight

Trigger warning: mentions of drinking and neglectful parents

Shark finished her night time shower rather slowly. Even after being home for so long she still couldn't believe that she had access to hot water. So she took in every second she could have it.

Once she was finally done she wrapped her freshly washed hair into a towel and started to head downstairs for dinner, it was usually done by now or just about to be done.

But when she entered the living room she was not hit with the smell of her mothers cooking, instead she saw her mother seated on the couch with squid, who had tissues in his hand and was sniffling.

"Mom? What's going on?" She asked with concern in her voice.

Her mother looked at her, her eyes slightly glossy. "Hi Josie, could you give me an Alan a minute?" She told her, her voice gentle.

Shark looked at her then squid. "Yeah, okay." She nodded, going into the kitchen to give them some privacy. She saw Dave standing there. "What's going on?" She asked him, looking for some answers.

He took a deep sigh."Well you were in the shower, your mom started asking Alan about his home life, asking him where his mom was. He just kinda broke down. Never seen a kid so upset talking about a parent." He said, taking a sip of water.

Shark was almost relieved that squid had opened up to her mother, but her heart also broke from him, knowing he had to relive it as he told her mom about what he had gone through. "So, what's gonna happen now?" She asked.

"Not sure, but he's definitely not going back to her." He said, matter of factly.

"So he can stay here longer?" She asked, hopefully.

"We'll see, you know my Friend Tom from work?" He said. Shark nodded. "His wife's a social worker. I'm gonna call tomorrow to see if  we could maybe get emergency custody." He told her.

Just then Lottie came into the kitchen, squid following behind her. Shark looked at the two, unsure what to say. But her mother just did the speaking. "So, how about Chinese take out for dinner tonight? Huh?" Her mother said, trying to lighten the mood and reaching for a take out menu on the fridge.

"Yeah, sounds good." She nodded. She then looked over at squid, his eyes still red from crying. She went over and gave him the biggest hug she could give him.

"It's okay squid, you're safe now." She told him, in a low voice so he could hear her.

-

The 4 were seated around the table eating there Chinese take out straight from the box. It was mostly quiet until Lottie spoke up.

"So Alan, since you're going to be staying here for a little, I figured you might be more comfortable on a real bed and not the pull out couch, so tonight I'll set up Micheal's old room for you." She told them.

Shark didn't know how to feel about someone who wasn't Micheal sleeping in his room. Sometimes when she went in there at night when she had bad dreams. When Micheal was still alive and she had a bad dream, he'd come into her room and sleep on her floor till she fell back asleep. So when the bad dreams started up again and Micheal wasn't there, his room was the closest thing she could get.

Squid looked up from his sweet and sour chicken. He looked at Lottie, then at shark. "Is that okay?" He asked her.

Shark gave a tight smile and nodded. "Yeah, it's okay squid. I promise." She told him, placing a hand over his for reassurance.

-

Lottie had put new sheets and bedding on the bed for squid, and cleaned up the room a bit for him. She had also given squid a pair of Micheal's old clothes for him to sleep in. He had only arrived with a couple of pairs of clothes with him and sharks mother insisted on washing them.

Once the room was ready, shark walked in with squid following behind her. "Of course she gave you the nice towels." She joked, seeing the fancy guest towels in the bed that her mother almost never brought out.

Squid didn't answer, instead he just looked around the room. He was staring at all of the posters on the wall. Lottie had thought about taking them down, but she didn't have the heart to.

Shark stood next to squid as he was staring. "He was a big the smashing pumpkins fan." She told him. "He's the whole reason I got into em."

"Never really heard of them." Squid admitted.

"For real? Here, there amazing." She went over to  the cd player and put in Mellon collie and the infinite sadness, and pressed play.

She then hopped onto the bed and laid back, squid following in her actions.
The two laid there in silence listening to the album, staring up at the wall.

"You know whats funny?" She said, breaking the silence.

"What?" He asked, turning his head to face shark.

"There's a song on here called zero." She pointed out.

He let out a slight chuckle. "Is it before or after the song armpit?"

Hey guys, feeling a bit iffy about this chapter but here you go! Also sorry for all the shark and squid content, I promise zigzag will be coming back soon!