Though she was back under the roof, she tried to avoid being here as much as she could. Whether she was outside all day and walking the streets at night, or just coming up with any reason to leave the house. Just last night Angel strolled into the house at almost two in the morning without a care in the world. It's not like her mother was too worried though, she let's her nineteen year old do whatever she wants until it starts to effect her.
Smelling the aroma of breakfast coming from downstairs, that woke her up even more as her stomach started to growl. Raising her arms to stretch and yawn, she removed the comforters before climbing out of bed. Washing her face and brushing her teeth made her feel a little refreshed, before gearing up to actually walk into the kitchen.
Since she's been back home, it's been awkward with just the two of them being here. It'd be days when they'll go a couple of hours without even holding a conversation with one another, but in Angel head that was alright. It wasn't normal at all, but in this household it is what it is. Angel feels it's better than them being at each other's throats over the smallest things, and that causing her anxiety to get the best of her.
Slowly stepping down the stairs, she observed the empty living room and noticed the window was cracked, letting some of the smoke out. The front door was open wide too, letting the brightness of the sun shine through the clear screen door. Glaring at the TV, she saw a rerun of The Nanny playing, hearing Fran Drescher's nasal voice coming through the speakers.
Chuckling at the harsh joke Niles just through out, she continued to the warm kitchen and seen her mother flipping a pancake over the stove.
Clearing her throat a little bit, Angel dragged her feet over to the fridge "It smells good in here." She said aloud, taking out the carton of orange juice.
Her mother, Sharon quickly glanced over her shoulder "Child, I almost forgot you were even here." She mumbled and shook her head.
Angel raised a brow, trying to see if she was serious though both knew she was "Really? Does this mean I don't have a plate for breakfast." She asked as her eyes danced around the kitchen to only see one plate on the countertop.
Sharon sighed to herself before saying "You can have this plate, I'll just make some more." She sounded as if that kind of got on her nerves.
Angel pursed her lips and slowly shook her head "No, it's fine." She lied "You can keep your food, it's what you slaved over the stove for anyway. I'll find me something else to eat." She said though it would've been nice to enjoy a big breakfast. Those pancakes looked good enough to devour.
"Angel, I said you can have my plate. I don't have a problem with making extra."
Extra? She should've made enough in the first place for her child like a normal parent, but sure, she forgot that Angel was even in the house. She felt that it was such a bullshit lie, but she wasn't going to sweat it. She didn't have the energy for games this morning. Sometimes her mother could act like a fake naive five year old, and Angel could always see right through her.
"I'm fine." Angel told her before leaving out of the kitchen anyway with a glass of orange juice, which wasn't going to taste that well since she just brushed her teeth. Some food would've helped her out, but she guess this wasn't the morning for it.
Best believe Angel, was gonna get her a meal though.
"It was an honest mistake, Angel." She heard Sharon say, but didn't even bother to respond.
Stopping in the living room, she sat on the arm of the couch and tried to enjoy the bitter taste of the orange juice, wondering what she was going to do for the day. Though it wasn't even 12 in the after noon yet, she was ready to get out of here.
Seeing a figure coming onto the porch from her peripheral vision, she turned her head to the side and saw her oldest brother Micah, coming into the house. With him, was his two young kids whom Angel never really sees that often. Half the time she wasn't even around or vice versa, so it was kind of normal. Every once in a while she'll distance herself from the family without any explanation, it's not like they would look for one either. Nieces and nephews included though they didn't do shit to her. Sometimes it was just like that.
"Angel? When you get back home?" Micah questioned with a look of surprise and confusion.
"I've been here for three days now. I'm surprised your mother haven't mentioned it to you, but it also seems to slip her mind that I'm back." She shrugged her shoulder with a nonchalant expression. Her nephew and nieces greeted her quickly before plopping down on the couch and tuning into the TV.
"Aight, so how the lil camp go?" Micah asked as he took a seat in the chair on the side.
"Like you care..."
"I do, otherwise I wouldn't have asked...smarty pants."
Angel playfully rolled her eyes and answered anyway "It was actually fun. It took a minute for me to warm up to the place and the people there, but overall I enjoyed it. I met a couple of people while there that I now consider friends." She told him with a small smirk.
"Ok, that's wassup. Did the experience make you change your mind though? About drugs and shit?"
"No." She answered truthfully "The counselors couldn't get through to most of us there, but I'll give them props for trying. I guess it'll take a little while longer until I change my mind about drugs. Maybe when things start to get better around here." She said straight up and finished her cup of juice.
Micah sighed to himself and shook his head, a little disappointed in the fact that drugs still had a hold on his youngest sibling "Damn, I wonder where it all went wrong..." He trailed off, remembering how she use to be completely different from now.
Angel narrowed her eyes across at him with a straight face, thinking he couldn't be serious. He knew exactly where it went wrong. Micah was one of the villains in her story too, and played a part in treating her like shit with the rest of the family. Talking to and about her in such a degrading way, making things worst for her when she was already down. Though he's trying to sit there like a noble man and act like he's a decent human who genuinely cares about her wellbeing, Angel already seen his true colors.
Micah was the one who discovered Angel even dabbling in drugs like ecstasy, and instead of lending a listening ear to understand why, he exposed her to their other two siblings. Angel was shocked he didn't run off and tell their mother first, but she found out on her own anyway sooner than later. As in finding pills under her pillows and on top of her dressers. Everyone was shocked, but didn't care enough to intervene. They figured she was just doing it for attention.
Once the big secret was out, everyone would just throw it back in her face whenever they had the chance to. Calling her a pill popper and all, including her two big sisters, Larissa and Jeanie. They all started to treat her different, even worst than they did before, and till this day no one wants to admit they're apart of the reason why she turned out this way. In their eyes, their not the ones to blame. They should feel shameful, but they don't which makes all of this even scarier. These are the people that had to be a part of her life, mostly.
After the family was aware of her drug use, Angel was looked at as some cursed child. The Mccoy's doesn't have any history with a family member struggling with drugs. They weren't brought up around that nor taught it, so seeing Angel going down that route was enough to get her shunned. In a way she did. No one cares about what she does now and collectively decided to just let her fall down that slippery slope on her own.
Sadly.
"Where it all went wrong?" Angel asked him with an annoyed chuckled "You must have memory loss or still don't wanna admit your one of the people that drove me to this point. You weren't the best big brother to have if I can be honest."
Micah twisted his face up, and Angel already knew that bullshit was about to leave his mouth "Angel I never put a gun to your head and forced you to take drugs, that's something you fell into on your own. You can't go around blaming everybody else.." He said with so much ignorance, you wouldn't believe this was a twenty nine year old man.
Angel scoffed and rolled her eyes "I'll gladly own up to the fact that it was my decision to pick up a couple of pills and thanks to that I have some sort of addiction. Sadly, doing drugs is the only thing helping me cope with being a part this miserable, dysfunctional ass family. You and everyone else didn't care back then, so don't pretend that you give a damn now." She didn't hesitate to admit.
"Whatever you seem to be growing through, i'm just saying it's other ways to deal with things." He said, as if her words were going in one ear and out the other. That's everyone's problem, they listen to respond instead of listening to understand.
"How?"
"Like going to therapy...." He shrugged.
"Maybe, but what would also help is the folks in this so called family learning how to take accountability and admit how much torment they put a certain someone through. A therapy session is just scratching the surface. Can't really get better until I get an explanation from the sources of my suffering." Angel finished the conversation, not even being in the mood anymore to speak with her sibling.
Standing from the couch, her mother tread right past her to greet her son with a cheerful smile "Good morning baby boy!" She greeted and hugged her eldest child, before checking in on her sweet grand babies next.
"Morning mama, it smell good in here. What you cooking?" He asked.
"A nice big breakfast as usual, y'all want something to eat?" She quickly asked, wanting to make sure they eat good while over here "I don't mind making a little bit more for you and the kids." She offered and Angel rolled her eyes as she finally felt the need to disappear from the living area.
Seeing her other siblings being favored over her wasn't nothing new to Angel. It's something she grew to be use to even though it still makes her blood boil.
After showering and putting on a nice outfit for the warm weather outside, Angel was more than ready to get out there. Being under this roof with these type of people was unbearable most of the time. Being that her stomach was still growling from running on empty since this morning, a devious smirked flashed across her lips. Still hearing the irrelevant small talk coming from downstairs, she crept inside of her mother room like a mouse.
Not even bothering to shut the room door, she quietly searched around the room for any money lurking around, knowing her mother had something in here. Looking out towards the hallway every other second, she searched through her jackets that were hanging up, looking through shoeboxes and behind the TV before boldly opening up her dressers. When she sqautted down towards the last one, she finally found a small wad of bills hidden under some jeans.
"Jackpot." Angel said under her breath and didn't think twice about stealing away the $50 bill.
Folding the money up, she immediately placed it in her shorts pockets before prancing out of the room with a satisfying grin. She had no idea what that money was for or the fact that she stole it from her mother, and neither did she give a damn. It was hers now and she was going to make sure to get more than just breakfast.
Practically skipping down the stairs she passed those who occupied the living room, now munching down on a big breakfast and conversing amongst themselves. Walking right for the front door, she didn't even bother to tell them where she was going or for how long. Surely, they didn't care anyway which is why they didn't even ask.
Two minutes after she left about her business, Sharon excused herself from the living room and went straight for the stairs. Though Angel was her own daughter, she wouldn't trust her as far as she could throw her. Things haven't been all that good between the two for years now, so Sharon was always a little suspicious of the troubled young girl while under this roof. Going inside her room, it's like she traced Angel steps and landed right in front of her dresser.
When she checked to see if everything was just how she left it, she noticed off bat that some money was missing. Her only fifty dollar bill she had stashed under her clothes.
"That little shit!" Sharon cussed and shook her head in frustration at Angel's sneaky antics. Not even a week of being home and she was already stealing.
Standing from the floor and placing her hand on her hip, the house phone then went off. Not caring who could've been calling, she answered with an attitude anyway thanks to her daughter.
"Hello!" Her tone was somewhat loud and aggressive, shocking the caller on the other end.
"Umm hi, can i speak to Angel?" She heard a deep voice come into the phone.
Now who the hell could this be calling for her?
"She ain't here right now, who is this I'm speaking with?"
"Dominique, a friend of hers. Can you tell her I called when she gets in?"
"Mmmh.." Sharon mumbled into phone before Dominique just awkwardly hung up, thinking this was a bad time he decided to call. Placing the phone back on the hook, Sharon uttered to herself "Bullshit.. I won't be letting a thief know a damn thing." She waved everything off before leaving out of her room.
"O...k" Dominique said to himself and wiped the sweat beads from his forehead, standing from the couch after the short phone call. He started to wonder where Angel could've been and what she was doing, and why her mother seemed to be in such a bad mood. If the woman acted like that every other day, no wonder Angel was rarely home, she didn't wanna put up with it.
Leaving out the front door and out into the heat, he picked up his bottle of water and gulped down most of it before he could get back to work. Today he did his aunt Rita a favor and agreed to cut the grass for her, instead of getting someone else out here to do it and charge almost a hundred dollars. Stepping off the porch, he placed his gloves back on before walking back over to the lawnmower, feeling the warmth of the sun hitting his bare back.
While mowing the lawn, he took in the scent of the freshly cut grass and swatted his hand every now and then trying to dodge the bugs. For some reason that made him chuckle to himself, and remembered how much the bugs at camp would work Angel's nerves. It amused him and he didn't make it any better by trying to shove butterflies and shit in her space every so often.
He seemed to be missing her a little bit more today...
Though he was in his own world with a loud lawnmower going, he still felt a presence getting closer to him. Peaking over his shoulder he got a sudden surprise sneaking up the sidewalk, causing him to turn off the equipment.
"Well look what we have here, Dominique actually doing work." Kendra joked and smirked at the man, noticing the sweat beads forming against his exposed chest and stomach. The pair of khaki shorts he had on was sagging just a little bit, showing off his grey briefs.
He snickered at her words and shook his head "What you doing creeping up on me?"
"I'm not creeping at all, but I did come around here to see what you were up to."
Dominique sighed and waved his hand over the yard "Working evidently." He told her and chuckled "Where's everyone else?" He suddenly asked, referring to Nick and Isaac.
"The guys are up there kicking it at the park, the usual." She shrugged "We've been wondering why you haven't been outside yet, when did you get back from the camp?"
"I got back three days ago, but my aunt been making sure to keep me busy or whatever. Like taking care of the yard or taking me out to eat and shit, probably trying to keep me away from the hoodlums around here....Including you." He playfully grinned at her.
She raised her brows, as they both started to take a seat on the small porch "Oh, so I'm a hoodlum now?"
"I'm just fucking with you." Dominique assured her with a low snicker "For real though, I know she don't like me hanging around you and the guys because she see's y'all as a bad influence. All the alcohol and stuff."
Kendra shook her head because it was the same story all the time. Aunt Rita was never fond of the three befriending her nephew, thinking they were the ones who introduced him to liquor which wasn't true at all. The group of friends go way back and all had different reasons for picking up a bottle. No one ever encouraged the other to drink, it was just something they got hooked on by themselves thus why their such a relatable bunch.
"Bad influence huh? Is she in some kind of denial or fairyland where she believes you were this perfect, alcohol free guy until you met us? Your a grown man Dominique, you do what you do because you wanna do it, not because other grown adults are influencing or persuading you to. I'm sorry but Rita is just gonna have to accept that."
"Shit I hear where you coming from, and I agree. I guess she likes the idea more about me getting better when I decide to change the crowd of people I hang with, when in all actuality, that's not really the problem. I drink alone by myself plenty of times, so there isn't any real bad influences around anyway. I think she just refuses to believe that I act this way on my own, with or without friends..."
Kendra only nodded her head, knowing how critical and judgemental his aunt could be, which was slightly annoying.
"Well anyways, speaking of friends, what else are you doing today? I know you don't wanna be mowing lawns all day or stuck under your aunt watching black and white films." She joked.
Dominique chuckled "I love her but hell nah! What you got in mind?"
"Some folks are throwing a party a few blocks away, you trying to come out tonight or what? You know the summer is almost over so you need to enjoy the rest of it as much as you can." She smirked over at him, knowing he's been away for most of the season.
"Some folks? How well you know these folks?" Dominique questioned her.
Kendra smacked her lips and playfully rolled her eyes "Does it matter how well I know them? We crashed parties before and that never bothered you. Stop being such a newbie." She nudged him.
She had a point. Dominique and his small clique of friends didn't care who was throwing a party or where it was, they would show up unannounced and fit right in. As he said before, these were the people he would always kick it with, whether it was just for fun or if he needed to rant while having a bottle in his hand on the back the porch. They were there for him and vice versa. Going out tonight shouldn't be a problem with him, it's what he wanted to do anyway after getting back from camp.
Have a little bit more fun, and freedom...
Hopefully he'll be able to control himself when he
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