"Get in here now. You've stalled long enough." My mother knew all my tricks. She knew that I would do practically anything to avoid her. Much like my father, I tried to avoid conflict .
My mother exercised religiously so her body was toned to perfection. And every muscle was tense . Her jaw twitched and her arms were crossed over her chest.
My lungs stopped working and I think my rib cage shrunk. It was painful to breathe. My head might as well floated off my body, it felt so light. I was dizzy too.
My heart pumped blood to my body but my blood must have thickened considering, how heavy my body felt. The tap, tap of my mother's shoe didn't help me any.
"Where were you?" Her eyes were cold as ice and her voice matched.
"I went out for dinner,"I said. I heard someone moving in the living room , off to my left. My father probably. Trying his best to stay out of the line of fire. Heaven forbid he ever come and help me.
My mother's nails left little crescent moons in my arm as she pulled me toward her.
"What is wrong with you?" she said ," You know we eat as a family."
A family? When were we ever a family? Sure, we had the same DNA, but we were never a family. We were five people who lived in the same house . The only time we hung out together was when my mom forced us to. My mother was delusional about us being a family.
My breathing became easier as the sleeping snake ,that was my temper was starting to stir ,and moved the anxiety out of the way. She needed to let go of me , now.
"Let go of me." My voice came out raspy and low. I knew how menacing I sounded. It wasn't intentional but my anger was taking over. My mother got as close to me as she could. Our noses were almost touching. Her breath was warm and smelled of stale coffee. I wants to pull away but she still had an iron grip on my arm. I also was determined to stand my ground. I refused to appear weak in front of this woman. He pupils of her eyes were fully dilated and all the hatred was focused on me.