Series note: This is Episode 1 of the series, "What Just Happened?" It can be read as a standalone story as well. The plan is for this to be a four-episode series.
Author's note: I've tried by best to make the spelling and sentence structure American. If something appears out of place, please forgive me. I'm British ;) Anyway, remember to leave a comment after you're done reading. Cheers!
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I'll try to be as honest as possible.
What I saw yesterday is something I will never forget. Something that will remain etched on my memory for all eternity. And the fact that I don't quite understand it makes writing about it all the more difficult ... Excruciating, to say the least.
Frankly, it's not that I don't understand it -- I mean, I do. I know what I saw. I just don't know how react to it, properly. You get me?
Anyway. Enough of my ramblings. Let's get right to it.
I'm eighteen years old and at the final stages of high school. Graduation is but a few months away. Last week I was with my best friend, Jay, sitting on the delineated curb in our school's parking lot, waiting for my mom to come pick us up. Jay's a white kid. I'm black. We're like brothers.
I think the major reason for our strong fraternal relationship is we've lived in close proximity our whole life. That and Jay's mom and my mom have been best friends since their high school days. Or maybe it's because Jay's an only child, like me, and somehow that pushed us to make up for our lack of siblings. So far it's worked well.
Until yesterday.
My mom was late, hence why Jay and I were seated in the empty parking lot discussing girls. Jay has a crush on Livy Price, a blonde bimbo in our class. Livy's a bitch. I don't like her. I was trying to reason with Jay that going out with Livy was a bad idea. Mom arrived. She apologized for being late. She shouldn't have. It wasn't like we were going to yell at her or something.
Anyway, we got into the car and Mom drove off. She and Jay got to talking. They do that a lot. They have this way of pinging sentences and phrases at each other. It's like watching two high school kids together. But that's just my mom: a teenager trapped in the body of a thirty-something-year-old woman.
Jay's mom works late more often than not, so he and I spend a lot of time together, either at his place, which is next door to mine, or at my place. We prefer his house, because of the privacy it offers. (We're less likely to get caught smoking pot there).
The reason I began my recollection from last week is because it was around that time Jay adopted the curious habit of leaving me alone in his bedroom to run across the street for "stuff". He never told me what "stuff" was, and I never asked. I did notice the exhaustion on his face when he returned, but I always brushed it aside as the effect of long distance sprinting. Wherever he disappeared to had to be pretty far, no doubt. He'd open up to me when he was ready, I thought.
Well, yesterday, I figured out his dirty, little secret by accident.
I was in his bedroom smoking pot. As expected, Jay decided it was time to run off. I didn't question him. I reclined on his bed and got high. Minutes expired. I glanced out the window. From here I could see inside my kitchen. The lights were on. My mom was right in front of the sink. I remember laughing and thinking, man, if she knew I was getting high she would totally freak.
Then I spotted something weird about her comportment. Her face was screwed up, crumbled to bits like she was weeping. I had never seen my mom this melancholic, not since my dad bailed on us, so I was curious. What was she so upset about? I wasn't shocked, not outright. Blame it on the weed.
Her hands gripped the edge of the sink and her body trembled. She looked so worn and tense and ... elated? Yeah. Somewhere beneath her distorted expression simmered delight of some sort. I couldn't quite understand it. Her torso was the only part of her body exposed to my line of vision.
