I'm working on the second installment of the Ruination series. I thought I'd give one more excerpt from the first one! Enjoy!
She gave me a tight smile, "You can't be here, Harper. I'm entertaining."
"Really, mom? Tell him to go. I'm in the middle of something with Loralie and I can't stand to look at her right now. I don't have anywhere else to go."
"Harper! I'm serious. Come by later." Her voice took on a whine. I curled my lip and cut my eyes back to the fireplace. It had never been an issue before. Mom usually like to parade her conquests when I had the displeasure of showing up while she was "entertaining".
Sure, there were times that it would be someone I admired, but other times it was just some good looking stagehand that she'd snagged up. Regardless, she pranced them around like a peacock showing its colors.
It hit me like a ton of bricks and I looked back to her. She cut her eyes toward her bedroom when someone coughed from the other side of the closed door. I glared back toward her room. She didn't want me to see whoever was in there and, as far as I knew, there was only one name on that list.
"How long is he here this time?"
"I don't know what you're referring to, Harper." Her cheeks reddened. She knew exactly what I was talking about.
"Might as well come out and say hello, Jim." The little brick house was old and the walls were thin. My mother glared at me and the door opened.
"Hey Harper." He stood in the doorway with his faded jeans pulled up but still unbuttoned. He didn't have a shirt covering his lean body. He rubbed at his six-pack while he leaned against the door jamb, taking my mother in with lewd eyes. His hair hung past his shoulder, almost as long as mine and just as dark. "It's good to see ya."
I knew it wasn't sincere. Nothing he ever said was. The old disappointment came over me. Mom always swore him off when he'd leave and the next time he would come breeze through town, she'd let him breeze through her too. Whatever she did with her life was hers to deal with. I had come to that conclusion a long time ago, but this shit affected me. When he left, because he always did, no matter how touch and hardened she was for anyone else, he broke her. When she fell apart, I was the only one there to comfort her.
I'm an adult, too old to blame any unhappiness in my life on her, or him for that matter. Too much of my life had been spent trying to compartmentalize their screwed up relationship, developing the Joey persona to seek some retribution for the loss of my normal childhood and the destruction of my mom. It was a release for the hatred that had burned at me when Jim would head out on the road each time, leaving me with a shell of a mom. He took advantage of her, of us, and I hated him for it.
Opting for the mess with Loralie instead of this train wreck, I shot off the couch toward the door. "Call me when he's gone and I'll pick up the pieces like usual." I stared daggers at Jim, walking around my mother.
"Bye, Princess." Jim said before I was out of earshot.
"Fuck you, Jim." I slammed the door behind me, flipping him off.
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