Moments In Between ( Book 2)

Chapter 3: Mystery Toast

A high pitched sound known to most as a smoke detector alarm infiltrates my ear ways. I roll over and look up at the smoke detector. I am so tired I swear if the house is on fire the firemen will have to rescue me because I am not moving. The blue light for smoke only is blinking. Red means fire meaning I can go back to sleep. I cover my head with a pillow.I start dozing off but I swear the sound just intensifies. Have all the people who lived here gone deaf overnight? I am the second heaviest sleeper in the house Mark takes the cake, he can sleep through an earthquake.

Mom and Jordan are the early birds so why have none of the two took it upon themselves to shut that bloody thing off and let their kids sleep?I roll out of bed after five more minutes. Were my parents not in the house. No worries everyone, Jared to the rescue.

I swear if Jayda is the cause of this I am going to strangle her. That girl is addicted to the kitchen like an addict to crack.In the living room, I see my mother sitting with her nose in a book. Wait. What? Am I seeing things? I have to be. I know my mother is the type of reader to travel to some far away reading place but does she not hear the alarm?

"Ma!"

She looks at me. "Don't you hear the smoke alarm?

"She looks around and shock registers on her face. Clouds of smoke start coming in from the kitchen. I leave her running into the kitchen like the fire chief I am but the blinding smoke bests me. It also smells like Burnt toast. It is burnt toast. I make my way to the counter and unplug the toaster. Mom coughs and sputters behind me.

"What is it?"

I open the window.

"Toast."

Jordan steps into the kitchen. The smoke wastes no time in attacking him. "What the hell...what happened in here?"

He reopens the door and helps me open the rest of the Windows.Mom starts fanning the toaster. "Someone left their toast to burn."He looks at mom confused.

"Jas did you forget you were making toast?"

She shakes her head holding up the book she had. "I Wasn't. I Was Reading."

"No Honey, you were making Toast For Me, While I changed the car tire."

"I think I would remember that."

Jordan sighs and rubs his face. Something is not right here. Mom does not just forget stuff like this.He nods and goes to her. I open the last window and follow them to the living room.

Jordan is my stepfather. He has legally adopted me since he and mom are married but I hate to call him dad. It never feels right. I have a dad and he is a dead beat nothing like Jordan though.

"Is everyone alright?" Mark appears with Jayda and Jason at his side.

"Just some burnt toast."

I sit down in the armchair. I know I have been avoiding mom and Jordan for the past three weeks but something is going on here.She is forgetting things more often and it is getting worse. The laundry and the dishes can easily be forgotten we all do that thanks to laziness. Last week she forgot to pack lunch for Jason and Jayda.That raised a flag along with all the other stuff she had been forgetting. I hope nothing serious is happening to her. I am tired of seeing her suffer now. Shut it, I know our fighting makes her suffer as well.

****

"Jared!"

"What!"

I know, that is not the way I should be answering my mother blah, blah, blah, but she is getting on my nerves. It seems like all she does is scream at me. The mystery toast saved me from this morning's dose of angry mom but now she is home from work and there is no way for me to escape.