"Mom, have you been abducted by aliens?" I lift my eyes from a red-and-black checkered shirt I'm ironing, as her alarm blares across the whole house.
No reply.
I poke my head into the living room. She's still sprawled on the sofa. "Moom? I said, have you been abducted by aliens?" I approach and pat her messy hair with care.
From under the pillow, I hear a sleepy groan.
"Good, you're still with us. No invasion of the body snatchers." I josh. "Dinnertime."
"It's seven p.m. already!?" She leaps off the couch and shimmies into a pair of relatively clean jeans lying on the floor. The alarm blares across the whole house again.
"Ugh, where is that damn thing?" She is now crawling around the house on all fours, seeking for the source of noise.
I chuckle. "Well, last time this happened, you'd forgotten it in the laundry basket."
Mom stands up, lifting a finger in the air.
"Right. Laundry basket."
"Come on! What is wrong with you? You know I can't sleep with all this racket!" Gus barges out of our bedroom, his teeth bared.
"I got it! I got it. It's off." Mom swoops back in from the kitchen and brandishes the rickety phone like a hardly-won trophy.
"What's for dinner, Rosie?" Gus grabs my head under his arm and ruffles my hair.
I so hate it when he calls me that.
"PB and J sandwiches," I whisper.
"Again?" He scoffs. "We had that yesterday."
"It's all I could manage. Didn't go shopping today. We're a bit tight on the budget these days. So I had to make do." I lower my head.
Mom hugs us both, biting her lip. She's barely holding it together not to burst into tears.
"I'm sorry, boys. It's just till Christmas. The boss promised me an advance. And guess what? Today I even sold one of my hand-made clocks, on Etsy!"
"That's nice, mom." I hug her firmly back as we sit at the table.
Gus harrumphs.
"Maureen, you gotta find another job. Night shift telemarketing is just... It's humiliating, and it doesn't pay well. I'd never mortify myself like that, calling people around, waiting for them to hang up on me." Gus calls Mom by her full name when he is a bit miffed.
"It's all there is for now, Gus. And look on the bright side, honey. At least it's better than the thing I did before?"
Mom's right. This thing sure beats door-to door canvassing she used to do like some kind of... traveling merchant.
"And I for one think those clocks are a waste of time, mom. But no worries. You enjoy your silly hobby. When I get a good sports college scholarship, we all gonna live like kings." Gus burps. "I'm gonna take care of us all."
My phone pings, thankfully dampening the burpy noise.
"Z-MAN (7:10 PM)
ugh
LU (7:10 PM)
evening losers!
* LOVELIES
OHMIGOSH SO SORRY 😳
** I MEANT LOVELIES
Z-MAN (7:11 PM)
YOU ARE READING
Once Upon a You | A Beauty and the Beast Retelling ✔️
Paranormal| 8𝘅 𝗙𝗘𝗔𝗧𝗨𝗥𝗘𝗗 · A YA Beauty and the Beast gender-swapped retelling. Bit of a Stranger Things vibe going on, too! Life was going mega well for Beatrice-Bea Laurent, a soon-to-be 18-year-old certified Insta star slash posh gal. She was spen...
