TASK ONE : mother dearest
Lila stayed after school at the insistence of her math teacher who’s concern grew as she failed yet another test. She hated math most of all. Numbers spun around in her head, as if they were a foreign language. The brunette thought about skipping out of the tutoring session, but it almost seemed like less trouble just to show up an appease the adult. Lila tip toed a line - careful not to bring too much attention to herself, so no one looked too far into her home life.
The teenage girl unlocked the front door, pushing the screeching screen in. She tossed her backpack on the table. The square house was small, only containing 1 floor and 3 rooms, not including the bathroom. The kitchen and the living room shared one space. Lila’s room, that she use to share with her sister, was to the right. Her mother’s room sat on the left. A stack of mail, mostly bills, piled up on the kitchen table along with some dirty dishes. Lila thought her mother would have been at work, but the TV hummed lowly in the corner of the room. Her dark eyes traced to the other side of the room. All she could see from this angle was her mother’s hand hanging off the side of the couch next to a half empty bottle of Whiskey.
“Hey, mom.” Lila croaked out almost positive her mother was passed out. Silence echoed back to her. She untied her toes, kicking them to the side before making her way towards the couch. The light from the TV highlighted her moms face. Lila often wondered what the woman looked like prior to all of the drinking. Now her mother often looked ill, like she had the flu. Lila sat on the ground next to the couch, picking up the bottle of alcohol. She checked over her shoulder one more time to make sure her mother was sleeping before taking a swig for herself. Lila hated Whiskey. It tasted like a dead old man, in her opinion. She was starting to realize the more she drank it, the less it tasted like garbage.
Lila placed it back down on the ground. In some ways, times like these were when she felt closest to her mom. When she was younger, after her sister passed, she found she had no one to speak to anymore. The young girl would talk to her mother, asleep on the couch, because it seemed when she was awake she wanted nothing to do with Lila.
She hadn’t done it in a while, finding comfort in others now. “Some guy at school said he wanted to have sex with me. He said it like it was a compliment, but I’m not sure. I might do it. Have sex with him, I mean. He’s cute. I think he’s popular. Maybe he’d invite me to parties if I did.” Her stream of conscience started flowing from her lips. Her eyes traced the characters fighting on TV, even though she had no idea what was happening. “I think I want to have sex with someone else and maybe it will be helpful to know what I’m doing beforehand.”
Lila turned back to look at her mother, noticing now for the first time she looked different than normal. She fought the instinct to call an ambulance, recalling the other time she did that her mother was furious. The teen didn’t know they costed money. The lanky brunette stood from her spot quickly, running over to rummage through the cabinets for a metal bowl. She’d done this before. She placed the metal bowl right next to the couch as she rolled her mother over, so her head was hanging just slightly. Lila pried the woman’s mouth open, delicately sticking her fingers down her throat. She hoped she hadn’t gotten home too late. Her fingers poked at the back of the fleshy tube until her mother’s limp body started to retract. She couldn’t move her hand in time, catching some of the bile on her skin. With her other hand, she held the older woman’s hair as she began to vomit into the metal bowl.
Lila sat there petting her mother’s hair for around a half an hour, before the woman peeled herself from the surface of the couch. Not a word was exchanged between the two. She tried to tell herself her mother was simply embarrassed, but it was hard not to let darker thoughts seep into her mind. Did her mother not love her? Did her mother wish she’d been the one that drowned in the pond instead of her sister? Lila felt the cycle of thoughts begin as she watched her mom walk to the bathroom and shut the door.
She carried the dirtied bowl to the kitchen, rinsing it out over and over until the stench seemed almost gone. Maybe she should call Mari and see if she could sleep over, or see if Josh was still awake. Lila shuffled down the carpeted hall to her room, closing the door slowly behind her. She peeled off her clothes tossing them in the pile by her dresser. Tears began to stream down her face as she climbed into bed.
In the silence of the house, she heard the shower turn off. Her mother closed the bedroom door behind herself, only to leave the house entirely a few minutes later. Lila wondered where she went. She wondered what made her mother so sad. All she wanted to do was fix it.
Lila climbed out of bed, now with the house to herself. She grabbed the Whiskey bottle from beside the couch, bringing it back to her room. It felt like the only thing she knew about her mother. She wanted to understand, and she was beginning to. The teenage girl laid back in bed, taking swigs of the amber liquid as the rush of intoxication began to consume her. It felt better than the pain of wondering. It certainly did.
@vancityroleplay
