The Ways of Patching Up | ✓

Eleventh

"Eli! Time to rise and shine honey!"

Elliot instinctively squinted his eyes as the lights in his room flooded into his sight. The child groaned and quickly rolled to the side, facing the wall. He then pulled his blanket over him, shielding both his body and face. He strongly disliked being woken up like this, especially when he was in the middle of dreaming about something awesome. Ugh... stupid school... I wanna sleep longer!

"Ugh... just 5 more minutes, Mom... I'm still sleepy..." Elliot whined under his breath, as he didn't want to leave the comfort that he had found underneath his warm blanket. After all, his eyes felt so heavy that he just wanted to shut them off, drifting back to sleep once more.

"Come on, you're gonna be late for school," the boy could still hear Mom's muffled voice as a pair of hands rocked him back and forth. She then tried to snatch the blanket away, but her son seemed to be holding it tight, preventing it from being taken away. When Mom knew her efforts didn't budge Elliot in the slightest, she decided to go for the last resort, "if you're not waking up right now, Eli, I'm gonna get Dad."

"No, not Dad!" Elliot screamed, his sleepiness evaporated in a snap of a finger. Noticing that he was distracted, Mom used this opportunity to seize the blanket off her son's grasp. This revealed a small kid underneath all of the mess, whose hair strands were randomly sticking everywhere. He promptly jolted up from his position as his huge brown eyes went round.

At the sight of her mortified child, Mom quickly broke into a mischievous grin, "you really want him to tickle you again, do you?"

"No! That's the worst!" Elliot huffed as he folded his arms, pushing his lips forward to form a pout. He then broke his gaze away, as his eyes narrowed into slits. Dad had always known where his tickle spots were, so he would use this as some sort of a punishment if he didn't comply with Mom. Due to all of the laughter, he would always end up with a hurt stomach in the end.

"That's why you need to wake up as soon as I asked you to," she chuckled as she simply watched Elliot jumping out of the bed, "now go and get ready for school, alright? Mom's gonna be making up your bed."

"Okay Mom..." Elliot grunted as he rubbed his eyes, "but I wanna go see Dad first."

"... Well go ahead, my child."

While Mom was folding the blanket and tidying up the covers, the child skittered out to the hallway, where he noticed Dad going out of his room, buttoning his lab coat and shoving some unfamiliar papers into his bag.

It was still early in the morning, but he was already dressed up in his uniform, fully prepared for work. On the other side, Elliot was still in his wrinkled pajamas and appearance. Dad sure can wake up early...

"Morning Dad," said Elliot, before he opened his mouth and yawned. He made sure to cover it with his hand though, as Dad always reminded him of some proper manners.

"Morning Els," Dad warmly greeted as he threw him a small smile. As the boy scampered towards him with one of the purest grins the man had ever seen, he squatted down and gingerly ruffled the child's hair. All of his head pats never failed to please Elliot, because it clearly showed him how kind and loving Dad was.

"Are you gonna go home late today?" Elliot interrogated as he glanced up at him. Yesterday, Mom had told him that Dad had gotten a lot of duties to do, thus he wasn't able to join them for dinner, "you're gonna join us tonight, right?"

At the harmless questions, Dad silently breathed out as he struggled keeping his faint smile intact. He was silent for a while, causing Elliot to tilt his head to one side. Dad suddenly reached his arms out and embraced them around his son's tiny body.

"I'll be there, I promise."

At his reply, Elliot shrugged off Dad's strange pause and giggled in response. With his father present, he would be able to listen to his bad but hilarious jokes, making dinner time more lively. Mom sometimes rolled her eyes, but at certain occasions, she stifled some laughters.

Ah... I just love Mom and Dad so much!

***

SMASH!

An inevitable gasp quickly escaped from Elliot's mouth as his eyes flung open. His heart skipped a beat, and it felt like it jumped out of his chest. The child shot himself up as chills quickly ran through his backbone. As he could feel something pounding against his ribs, he immediately looked around the area, where he didn't see anything out of ordinary.

The sudden noise had snapped him out of the wonderful memory... the time where his family was still together. All the happiness that surrounded him throughout the dream vanished into thin air, replaced by the instant feeling of dread. He really wanted to stay in that fantasy and just be happy with the... Mom and Dad he used to know... but that noise... what was it?

Was it Dad breaking his things again?

Was Dad... being weird again?

The noise... it was way louder compared to a few days before.

It was 3 am in the morning, based on Elliot's digital clock on the nightstand, but that... that wasn't his concern.

Dad was.

I have to check if he's okay!

Elliot shook his head, trying to get a grip for a moment. Once he got himself together, he jumped out of his bed and quickly stalked out of his room. He then ran down the stairs, producing loud footsteps. There was nothing he could think of but Dad... where he recalled his tiny smile in his dream...

"Dad!" Elliot screamed as he finally noticed Dad in the hallway. He was being all strange again; he was sitting on the floor... with his body leaning against the wall, and he was doing nothing. His back was facing him, so he couldn't see his face.

What... is he doing?

Why is he there?

What... happened?

"Dad!" Elliot called out, dismissing off all the questions that were plastered all over him. The child then ran towards Dad, where he could finally see what was wrong. He recognized the beer bottles from this afternoon, but this time... they were completely shattered into pieces. He could see the gold liquid leaking its way out, making a large pool underneath.

"Hic!" Lawson hiccuped as his bloodshot eyes glanced over to his son, who was completely frozen on his spot. The man struggled to stand, but he ended up falling on his knees once more, "you came... Elliot..."

Dad was at it again just like the night before, but this time, there was one striking difference, and it mercilessly stabbed Elliot deep inside.

He was just... crying.

"... Elliot... no matter what happens..." Dad drawled as he neared his son, "don't ever hate your mommy... okay...? Hic! She never did anything wrong... she just deserves better... that's why she cheated on me..."

Elliot didn't even try to control his emotions. His shoulders started trembling while tears easily made their way to his eyes, causing everything to grow blurry. He gripped his jaw together as he choked on his sobs.

"D... Dad..." Elliot whimpered, feeling something cold trickling down his cheeks, "but Mom... she hurt you... and..."

He couldn't even complete his own sentence, because a mental image of Mom started appearing in his sight, where she was broadly smiling at him. He then started remembering how she had done many good things for him, such as waking him up, picking him up from school, teaching him some wonderful things... as well as taking care of him.

Elliot had recently started to hate Mom, but right now... he couldn't do it anymore. Instead, like Dad, he found himself missing her too.