Insufferable

Part 18

Alex spent the rest of his morning in the gym after spending the whole night back in the frat house. Those kids might be partying a lot but to Alex he'd never mind it since they would just crash at their own place and slept till the afternoon. When Alex woke up that morning, he forgot to bring his stuffs from his dorm so he decides to go to gym after swimming instead.

He spend the rest of his morning working out and spacing out and by the time he realized it, it was almost one in the afternoon and his stomach is grumbling in hunger.

As he walked out from the building walking towards his lunch destination, he was caught by surprise on the unexpected visitors waiting for him by the entrance leaning against her car. "MUM!" Alex screamed and ran towards her hug as she happily let him collides into her. "I miss you!" Alex yells and she had to pull back for his high pitch voice and Alex's eyes lurked around for his sister.

"I miss you too. June's not here. She's still mad at you for leaving." She says crossing her arm over her chest and Alex pressed his lips into a thin line knowing well what he did. "Yeah I'm mad at her too. She should have told me but she didn't." Alex huffed crossing his arm over his chest. Ellen stood there in silent awkwardly before she speaks again. "Lunch?" She asks and Alex nodded smiling sheepishly over her visits.

Ellen brought Alex to one of her favorite spots when she used to spend his summer here during her study days and showed Alex her favorite meal she likes to gobble when she had numerous visits here. "Nothing can goes wrong over a nice stack of good ol' American pancake darling. We all need the sugar to stay late and partying." She winks at her son as she pours the syrup over the plate and Alex eyes widen at her gesture. "God mum. Don't remind me how you used to party. Makes me want to crawl into a hole." He says and Ellen smacked his hand over the table and he laughs at her.

"Now continue. Tell me about this Henry kid." She says as she sucked the syrup on her thumb and continued on eating. Alex on the other hand sighed staring into his plate of waffles barely untouched. It's always the idea of them to eat breakfast at inappropriate time of the day even at night and that's why Ellen loves this diner. It sells breakfast 24/7 and they are happily ordering breakfast menu in the middle of lunch hours.

He stares into his plate thinking about Henry's notes about him that still lingers in his mind and Ellen noticed how her son had turned into this silent creature in front of her. "Earth to Alex. Are you still there buddy?" She asks and he finally looks up to meet his mother's eyes. Ellen face dropped when she saw the redness over Alex's eyes and wished she didn't see it.

"Am I a loveless, soulless person mum?" He asks and Ellen dropped her fork over her plate. "Darling no! Why would you say that?" She asks her son and Alex lowered his gaze back on his plate. "Then why am I so afraid of falling in love? Henry said that I was afraid that what happened between you and dad would happened to me and my future relationship. Is it true? Am I that afraid?"

Ellen sighed staring at her son right in front of her and hated how devastated he is right now due to her broken marriage. "I believe so." She finally says and earned Alex a sharp look. "What?" He couldn't believe what his mum just told him and his eyes demanded her to elaborate further.

"Your whole life, the first example of love is from your parents. How we love each other impacts you on your understanding of what love is. Some are born into a loving family finding love as easy as finding a mountain. But some aren't gifted to be in a loving family so they looked at love like an act of trust. They'd believe that if you give something, then you earn something."

Alex straightened his back listening to his mother, "For Henry, his parents love ended tragically and there is nothing more devastating than losing someone you love. His family broke apart, left him alone dealing with his pain of losing his father and also his mother in the process."