Avery's (terrible) Guide To Have Fun

06 : open doors

VALERIE HAVE TO TIE ME UP TO THE FRIDGE IF SHE WANTS ME TO STAY IN THE HOUSE WHEN MOM COMES. Or at the very least, bribe me. The blunt disrespect is the fact that she does neither of those, but threaten me if I disappear into the night this time.

Whenever mom comes home, I try my best to stay out of the house and make her mad. She is a lot of things, but most importantly, she gets angry too easily. Dropping a spoon will get her shouting how much work she does for us yet we could not do the simplest things to help her in her daily routine. That is one of the most brightest memories of her with me in eighth grade. Tears kept streaming down her face which turned into an hour-long breakdown in front of the child that cannot even handle their own breakdowns. Valerie stepped in and took mom to her room, giving me ten bucks and asking me to have my lunch on my own. With the neighbourhood's songs playing in my ears, I felt loneliness the first time when the barista gave me a free mango smoothie when he saw tears forming in my eyes. Before that incident, I never felt that wrong and I never cried in the middle of a busy fast food corner. Not even after all the bullying, I had to go through.

A few weeks after, mom said that she got a job six towns away and would have to stay there. I was more than happy to hear that we had to move from the shitty ass school and even shittier people. I was beaming in happiness, sunlight danced on my fingertips. But Valerie started crying at the end of the moment, as an angsty teen she protested to move when her entire life was in this city. She worked so hard to make it to the lacrosse team and science club. She had both a game and a science fair in a few weeks following everything a senior does. Mom asked her if she can take care of herself, and even though Valerie was always independent. I asked mom to take me with her, but she refused and asked a seventh-grader to be with my older sister. Mom was living in a one-room kitchen apartment, to begin with, and she assured me that I would not like it.

Mom would visit us every week weekend, but it reduced to fortnights and they cut off to rarely seeing her. Even do often she would call, but I felt the line blurring between her and dad.

Valerie sighs, "I called your school and informed them that you will be absent today due to personal issues." I almost drop the cereal box from my hand.

"Excuse me? You cannot do that. I have to get my education."

"Oh shut up, Avery. You go to school for the drama that obviously lacks in your life. Help me clean this entire place and cook something nice for mom."

"I am not having dinner with mom. You can do nothing to hold me here."

She gets the message and raises her eyebrow, "You want me to bribe you?"

"No, a bribe can hold me at the place." Please let me throw a party. Please let me throw a party. Please let me throw a party.

Valerie rests her elbows on the chair, and I know I am fucked, "You know what, I am done with bribes. If you don't help me and have dinner with mom, I will take your fake id which you use to buy alcohol and tell mom about the guy you are hooking up with."

"I am not hooking up with Kamil, god. We just made out once."

"The fake id?"

"I don't have a fake id."

"Study desk, a third drawer from the bottom between call me by your name and a bisexual erotica book. And boy, I did not believe you would read erotica."

This time I do drop the cereal box. My blood travelling up my neck and cheeks, "What the fuck? You went through my stuff?"

"I would not have to if you would have just told me where you hide my mascara—"

"Why do you even want it? To make impress Sia—"

"Shut up, Avery. The point is that I know everything you don't think I do, and it will be better for you if just sat and ate your dinner with mom. I will handle the rest." She gains her perfect position again while removing her hand from the chair. I can see the effort she puts in. Her curly hair was tied with a black band, a pastel purple cardigan on her body with white spotless pants. After so long she is wearing light makeup and has combed her hair as good as could. I forgot what even Valerie looks like in a party dress, without those eye bags and tired smile. She looks like a mother, and to me, she is one.