Walking through that door was like walking into a battle field. All Harley could hear was his mom screaming at the top of her lungs, so loud that the rage echoed and radiated against the plaster walls. Her words were incomprehensible through the weeping tones in her voice, all he could make out were ‘I hate yous’ and ‘how could yous’. Harley just stood idly in the living room, goosebumps formed on his arms as he continued to listen in, as the screams rang in his ears. His parents never fought, at least not like this.
It didn’t take long for them to barge into the living room. His fathers face was bright red, wet from tears and full of grief. His mother’s was covered in wet down mascara, the black stains over powering the paleness of her skin yet intensifying the rage that sat in her eyes. It was like Harley wasn’t even there, they didn’t even see him. He was an outsider looking in through an open window, watching as someones world fell apart. “Dad..what happened?” Harley asked, his voice resembling that of a scared child as his dad stormed around the living room, shoving his records into a duffle bag that hung lazily from his arm. Harley gained no response, just a quick glance that spoke more than words could.
His mother continued to yell as she threw his dads clothes out into the hallway from their bedroom door. Button up shirts and khakis were spread across their apartment as Harley’s dad scrambled to pick them up. “Harley, go outside.” His mother ordered as she peaked out from the hall, pointing to the front door that lead him to the outside.
Harley made his way out onto his front porch, taking a seat on the cement stairs. The yelling escalated once again the second the door shut behind him. There was no doubt in Harley’s mind that just about everyone in a one block radius could hear the wailing that exploded from his mothers mouth, the begs and pleads that weeped from his father. Harley felt like they knew more than he did in this moment. The five minutes Harley was sitting on that porch felt like a life time, as his knee anxiously bounced up and down, his hands sweating in the grasp of the other, all Harley could do was try and put the pieces together in his mind that couldn’t sit still.
It only took five minutes for his father to come flying out from the front door. Harley instantly jumped up from where he sat, hoping it was him telling him that things would be fine, the he could come back inside and everything would be how it was when he left for school that morning, but that wasn’t what he got. Harley got nothing, his father simply strode past him, duffle bag held tightly in one hand as his keys to his truck dangled in the other. “Dad!” Harley called out as his father continued pacing towards his truck. “Dad!” Harley called out again, but as his father revved up the engine to his old Ford, Harley once again received no response, just another glance, only this one he would remember for the rest of his life.
After the old Ford faded down the street Harley rushed back inside, entering the living room only to find his mother sprawled out on the living room floor, crying harder than Harley thought was humanly possible. It hit him like a semi truck, coming down the road at full force. Harley had rarely ever seen his mom cry, but seeing her like this was almost as if he was looking down at a completely different person. “Mom” Harley said softly, though his voice still trembled with worry and fear. “Mom, please stop crying.” Harley stated as he crouched down next to her, pulling his mom into his arms as she continued to sob. “I’m so sorry.” She wept over and over as Harley continued to try and calm her tears, “Sorry for what? What happened?” Harley asked as his mother began to calm down and her tears began to fall slower. “He’s not coming back Harley, I’m sorry.”
Those words rang in Harley’s head for months. When the family pizza shop closed down and disappeared exploiting the situation to the entire town of Chester, it rang. When he thought he spotted his dads Ford parked outside of the local grocery store one afternoon, it rang. During the custody battle, it rang. When he saw his father for the last time with her, it went off like an alarm in his head. An alarm he didn’t set, an alarm Harley didn’t know how to turn off. It rang with rage, disappointment, abandonment, and betrayal. As the months after the divorce went on Harley couldn’t figure out how to make it stop, so he acted like it was never there, and the more he told himself those feelings didn’t exist, that none of it mattered, the ringing stopped.
prguitarman
theartofmadeline
andulkaphoto
romaincrisis
tangentwithtanner
kianamaiart
