IDIOT AND THE BEAST

CHAPTER 4 — TIME TO GO HOME

[ZACH]

I decide to go home after all. I mean initially, after getting to know about... my mom and her new 'relationship', the entirety of it, I didn't think I could go back home. I didn't think I could even face her. But apparently all I needed was some time to cool off. Plus, I can't put off the inevitable, one way or other I would have to face her at some point.

I thought Dan would be finally relieved to be rid of me when I tell him that I am gonna take off, but he doesn't seem to be all that lightened. Instead, he seems almost concerned about me, but that can be because I'd told him what happened, even though it is nice to see him like that.

"Are you sure?" he asks me. "You don't have to go back, if you don't want to,"

I can't help but smile, is he actually willingly inviting me to stay a little bit longer.

"I mean I'm sure Val would be back by now, we can go to my house, and you can talk to her," he quickly adds, as if to cover up his concerns.

Too late, I think, smiling to myself.

I shake my head, "Nah, it's alright. I have to talk to my mom anyways," I smile reassuringly, and he nods, and then we part ways.

I sigh as I reach my house. Dan let me borrow Valerie's bike, so it didn't take all that long to reach my home even though I took the longer route back. My mother's car is parked on the outside, so I guess she is home. I don't go inside immediately though; I just stand outside staring at the place I call home. I wonder if I can still call it a home even.

It's certainly doesn't feel like one — it hasn't for some years now, I realise bitterly.

I hear the door open, and see that it is my mother. She must have noticed me standing outside.

"I was so worried," she calls out, her voice wavering a little towards the end, "Where were you?"

I just shrug, and walk past her inside the house. I can feel the anger, and more importantly the disappointment and hurt from the previous night returning.

"Zach,"

"I'm just gonna go take a bath first, okay," I tell her as calmly as I can and go up the stairs to my room.

To be honest, I don't know what it is I am supposed to do, or say. I am mad at her, yes, and very much upset. She has been seeing my best friend's father, her friend's husband behind everyone's back.

How can she do that to me? How can she do that to herself?

Suddenly it seems like I have no idea who this woman I call my mother is.

I know that my mom has been seeing someone else, she admitted that herself not long ago. But whenever I asked more about it, she'd always shied away from the topic, making all sorts of excuses. I should have beware then itself, but how can I have possibly known this?

The hot water from the shower does almost next to nothing in dissolving my qualms. Instead, I can only feel myself growing more agitated by the second.

I should've just stayed with Dan instead. Just thinking about him involuntarily brings a smile to my face. I sigh, there's another issue I have to possibly deal with soon.

When did my life become so filled with issues? I inwardly groan as I put on a t-shirt and a pair of shorts, and brace myself to face my mother once more.

She is sitting on the edge of the arm chair in the living room, I notice as I came downstairs. She doesn't notice me however as I step into the living room or even when I sit down across her.