6-Broken

Dad’s bad mood doesn’t go away. He stays that way for about a week. He doesn’t talk to him, snaps at his mother and always gets home about an hour later than normal. In some ways the silence is worse than his punishments. His mom becomes sadder and angrier the more dad ignores her. She yells at him for every little thing, curses at him, and silently mutters that she regrets him under her breath. She thinks he can’t hear her but he can, he hears everything. Smells everything too. That’s how he knows his dad is having an affair with another woman. He knows his dad has cheated before, when he was very young but he hasn’t done it since mom threatened to leave. While he hasn’t always had his werewolf nose, he knows his father has been true to his mother because his dad is terrible at keeping his affairs a secret. It’s only a matter of time before mom finds out about this one and like always when their fighting escalates to the point where his mom throws things at his dad his father simply walks out of the house. This time he doesn’t come back.

He knows it’s his fault this time. He spends all night crying in his bed, his mother shouting at him from the living room. Blaming him for how miserable her life is and how terrible her marriage is. He feels bad about angering his father to the point where it drove him away from his family, he feels bad about wishing it was a full moon so he could show his mother what he really was. He doesn’t want to hurt his mom, just scare her. Just make her stop talking like she’s better than him for a little while. Most of all he just wants his family to be the happy, loving, caring family everyone thinks they are and how they sometimes go entire weeks pretending they are even behind closed doors. He wants to live the lie his parents sometimes trick each other into believing full time, not just until they start fighting again and the truth become painfully obvious.

He wonders what Shane is doing right now. He hopes she’s doing better, even if she does smell funny.