What Lies Beneath

One

She was about to lose it. I knew when my mother was at her wits end. She'd ball her fist and grit her teeth until the Devil tempted her, to argue with the very man who played her like a fool. Not once, but several times. My mother's sneer could have cut through the thick mist closing them in. Her eyes were narrowed at him, almost as if she didn't recognize him.

"Dammit Jen! What that boy needs is a therapist!" my father shouted.

"No, James. What he needs is a father asshole!" she shouted back.

"Asshole? Oh, and you're any better?" He laughed. "Give me a fucking break, Jennifer."

She scoffed out a laugh of her own. "Are you serious? When's the last time you spent a day with any of your boys? This is the first time Tyler's seen your face in over a month!"

I flinched.

My eyes had been trained on them for almost twenty minutes now. They'd been arguing outside just below my bedroom window. Things were always this tense when my dad came to visit. She wasn't lying either. Everything changed for the worst when my father remarried. I just hated that she fed into it all the damn time.

I'd learned that there was no end to their bickering a long time ago, having dealt with it for all of my sixteen-years of living. They were too cooped up in their own world to acknowledge the trouble that spread everywhere they went. Like a wildfire burning everything, it touched. Bad enough, the walls of these houses were thin. And connected.

This entire neighborhood was filled with houses that were split down the middle and turned into two separate living spaces. It hadn't mattered whether they were arguing inside or outside. People could hear us next door, through the windows, anywhere they pleased if they were listening. Even if the neighbors weren't listening, it was hard not to hear a thing.

I sighed and closed my eyes. When I reopened them, I could see them walking down the driveway. I tilted my head back and focused on the dark sky above them. What little birds were hanging around, took flight to escape from the noise. I wanted those birds to take me with them—take me away from the constant madness parading through my life.

There would have been no more listening to them argue, or fight, or throw insults at one another. No more watching her follow him around, like a lost puppy trying to keep up with its owner, whenever the argument wasn't leaning in his favor. There she was, doing that now even.

"Your house—this town—it's all an unfit place for him! My lawyer will be notified of this," he spat. There was a cold, harsh tone to his voice that would make any living creature flinch in fear. I imagined his dark skin glistening with sweat like all the other times he yelled.

"You will not take my son!" My mother chased him down the driveway as he entered his car, ignoring her. "James? James!?" He switched on the engine and floored out of the driveway. A line of smoke followed in his trail.

I bit my bottom lip and slowly pulled back from the window. "I hate it here. . ." I mumbled under my breath. I walked to my bed, plopping down onto it. The mattress creaked beneath my body as I laid on my back, staring up at my hands—studying them closely.

Dead skin rimmed along the edge of my fingertips. Just above the nail. I was going to run out of nail soon if I didn't stop biting them. I couldn't resist though. I was so sick of listening to them argue. I felt like I was going to vomit, for real, this time.

No matter how tightly I shut my eyes; the negative thoughts couldn't be driven away. They'd been getting worse lately. As if I needed any more negativity sweeping through my head. It wasn't always that something was wrong with me. I'd come to realize I wasn't normal during our very first month in Lake Bellinor. No, I was cursed—in more ways than one.