Numa

Just a girl who loves to write

[numaaad]

POV: Thalia Grace in her childhood just trying to do her best.

I throw my stupid bag against the peeling wall of the closet. My room.

My mom lives outside of my room, on the queen bed. Yet most of the time we don’t really get the chance to talk to her since she's busy chasing the euphoria of drowning in her wallows. Or rather my brother and I smartly choose not to. One year old and absolutely precious is my brother. He has big baby blues and a smile that could make all the monsters in the world go away– honestly, if you looked at the two of us you wouldn’t be able to even tell that we were related with how dark my hair is. 

I feed him, bathe him, and try to clothe him (when he doesn't run away) But right now I’m out of some of  the supplies I need to take care of him. We have some leftover cans. I can start feeding him since I recently weaned him off of formula, but I need to get him baby wipes. I would sooner starve than have to deal with even more dirtiness. 

When I open the door to my mom’s deplorable room I notice the big three: beer bottles, cigarettes, and a continuously playing TV. The two things she can afford to care about: her methods of losing herself in the moment, and her fame among Hollywood. And the one thing she gets off of from these methods: attention.

It’s a horrible drug that consumes her every being, her hair that she dyes blond, her eyelids that she paints blue and her smile that is always in a sick smile around male company. Every aspect of herself is designed for the goal of seeking attention from everyone, not even knowing how far she knew she could go.

I sneak out the front door hoping to make it to the food kitchen safe and in time.

The streets of Los Angeles are especially filthy at this time of night. Lurking with drug dealers and unfaithful men. I navigate through the alleys instead of the streets in order to get to the food pantry fast. It’s even worse in the alleys, with the horrible smell of urine and the strong smell of weed mixed together, the combination is unbearable. Thankfully, the path to the food pantry is short. I turn the corner and am greeted with the flickering lights of the food kitchen.

I open the door and make myself immediately search for Boone.

“Hey Boone,” I say, waving at him. Boone is a big man with a warm smile. He has helped me when my mom neglects my brother and I to run off with a man.

“Hello little Thalia, are you here for more food?”

“No… I actually have a little problem. I ran out of baby wipes for my brother, would you be able to lend me some?” I ask, nothing in the world hurts more than begging other people for things. And if it wasn’t for my little brother I wouldn’t have even formed a relationship with this man.

He responds with a knowing smile, “of course Thalia,” he says while taking out something from a box. “That’s why I’m here, to help people out.” He takes out two packages of baby wipes from the box and places them in my hand.

“Thanks Boone it means a lot to me, I’ll pay you back one day.” I repeat the phrase I say every time I ask him for something outside of the Kitchens’ means

It is true after all, without his help I wouldn’t have been able to feed Jason for the past two years.

“Any time kiddo,” Boone responds. And I can tell he really means it.

𝜗

Once I get home I head straight to the bathroom and look at myself in the mirror. The same raggedy black hair and dirty face, my clothes are old and worn from overuse. Every look into the mirror reminds me of how different I am from my brother with his golden blond hair which is a practical halo around him. I use the bathroom and wash my face to refresh myself, and then head to put away the baby wipes.

I carefully head back to my room and wake up my brother from where I left him in the corner bundled with blankets and gently pick him up and guide him to the kitchen. He drowsily opens his eyes and nuzzles into my elbow. I place him on the dining room table and get to the kitchen to prepare his food. I rummage through the cabinet to pick out a can, preferably some soup for the weather lately. I turn on the stove and warm it up.

I put the soup in a bowl and head over to the kitchen table to feed my brother. It’s a hassle to feed him with how fussy he is, just too excited and mischievous to take a break. Lately, every time we eat he makes a point to grab everything and shove it straight into his mouth. But I wouldn’t trade it for the world–

The door creaked open.

And in came Beryl Grace with her comically puffed up hair dressed in a garish two-piece outfit with a cigarette in hand. Surprisingly, with no man on her hand.

“Aw my beautiful babies,” she slurred. “Come, make me some soup.”

I kept a careful eye on her, her lipstick was smudged and her clothes looked like they were half falling off. With her mood so good I could probably say she was with a man.

I gave Jason something to keep him occupied while I dealt with our mother.

“Of course mom, while you wash up I’ll warm up some more food for you.” I say

She went to sit on the dining table while I went to pick up Jason. He somehow got his hands on a stapler so I tried to pry it away from his hands.

“Why are you taking away my baby Jasonn,” she whined. “Come on, give him to me.” She said.

I reluctantly handed him over to her, with stapler in hand. There was nothing I could do against mom because if I somehow angered her she would become violent. And I couldn’t risk that with Jason.

I went back to the kitchen to warm up some more soup, “Ahh you two are actually pretty useful for once. Let's go on a picnic, we’ll see your guys’ father!”

My eyebrows furrowed and I focused on stirring the soup. Normally whenever I brought up the topic of dad mom would start yelling and screaming about how he abandoned us and is evil.

I remember the countless nights where I would come back from school to find shattered bottles on the floor and her old headshots strewn everywhere across the living room floor, while she stared at the tv repeating movie scenes where her minor character was in. Lamenting her unfortunate fate of being an unsuccessful movie star and being abandoned by the father of her children.

She would sob for hours, until noticing me. Then she would snap back to her old behavior, looking back at a mirror and touching up her face with old, stale makeup. “Make sure to clean the living room tonight Thalia. I’m going to leave for work soon.”

But… Maybe meeting our father would be a good thing. Mom won’t be angry anymore and I can finally meet dad–

A sudden breathless shriek came from the dining table.

I dropped the spoon I was using and rushed over. Mom moved to the living room and was chatting someone up on the phone, leaving Jason all alone.

Jason was sitting on the table, stapler gripped in his hand. His blue eyes welled up with tears and on his upper lip was a staple. It was swollen up in a horrible shade of red and a fat drop of blood was spreading all over the lower half of his face.

There was blood. So much blood.

He immediately tried to yank out the staple, even with all the pain he was going through.

I immediately jumped into action, taking a napkin with my shaking hands and pressing it into the wound. “No, no, no Jason. Shh… Tt’ll all be okay alright.” I said, whispering sweet nothings.

We couldn’t go to the hospital because that would be too expensive but if we let the injury fester it would lead to bigger problems. I turned to my mom for help.

She was still chatting away on the phone with a sweet voice. Safe to say there would be no help from her.

The only way I could take the stapler out is by using my bare hands. I try to take it out slowly and carefully, making sure not to cause extra pain where pain is not due. But my head is still dizzy when I see the prongs of the staple free themselves from his lip. I then patch the wound and treat Jason.

His tears have subsided but his face is now pale and his knuckles have a tight grip on my shirt. He’s too scared to be alone anymore.

My mom is still chatting away to someone who is probably scamming her with a role in a movie.

We’re getting out of here one day.

A/N: Hello everyone! Please leave comments down below on what you think of this, this is like the first fan fiction I've ever written.

Originally this was supposed to be a Jason Grace Fanfic with like 30 chapters but writing is HARD. It took me like three days to feel half confident about this and then decide to just make a one shot.

My plan was to write Jason calm and collected on the outside (when he's grownup) but have a deep insecure storm brewing on the inside, idk I feel like that fits him.

Also, feel free to send some requests because I want to start stretching my writing muscles, as long as its not smutty I'll probably be fine writing it.

Adios Gatitos!