Tolerating The Player

The school finally came to an end and I rushed to find Zach, he was standing by his locker and I was grateful I didn’t have to look for him all around the school premises.

“Hey!” I said to him once I got closer.

“You can wait for me by the car, I’ll be back shortly” he said and turned his back to leave.

“I have something to tell you!” I yelled and he stood still waiting for me to say what I had to tell him.

“It’s about my brother, Joe, I really want to see him today and I’m hoping you could give me the night off” I asked hoping to get a positive response.

“Yeah sure, see you tomorrow then” he said and turned to leave. I screamed a “thank you”at him and happily phoned Maya.

“I’m following you home today but might stay at my dad’s house, I miss Joe too so don’t leave me behind!” I said immediately she picked up the phone.

“Okay babe, I have just left the school though but I’ll take a turn now” she said and hung up.

I went outside the school and patiently waited for her to arrive, it took her about eight minutes to get to the school and I realized that she was half way home before taking a turn to pick me up.

I kissed her cheeks immediately I entered the car and she threw me a punch, she hated being kissed on her cheeks. A very weird beautiful lady.

We arrived at Joe’s school and I had come down from the car to pick him up myself but on getting there a teacher told me that Grace had picked him up already. That was really fast.

“Mum loves Joe being around so much that my Dad gets jealous with the attention she pays to Joe,” Maya said and chuckled before we started the ride back to her place.

On getting to their house, I couldn’t help but rush in because I’ve missed my little baby boy, I never meant to leave him alone but because of the stupid dare I had to.

I entered the house and saw him sitting with Grace on the floor, they seemed to be doing his homework together with the serious look on his face. It was easy to guess the subject he was working on with the frown on his face. He hated maths.

“Joe!” I said and he raised his head to look at me. The frown on his face disappeared but was quickly replaced with sadness. A drop of tear fell from his eyes but he was quick to clean them off before running away to his room. I must have really hurt him.

“I’ll be right back” I said to Maya and Grace before running off to catch up with him.

“Joe!” I called out his name but he was fast on his small feet as he entered his room and slammed the door.

“Joe come on, open up the door” I knocked on his door but he didn’t open it, I heard some silent sobs coming from the room and I felt really bad.

“Joe please open the door, I’m sorry” I said but he still didn’t open the door, the sobs from the room became louder and I totally broke down.

He wasn’t going to open the door, he was sad and I caused it. I never wanted to be a reason for him to cry.

I stopped knocking on the door knowing it won’t fix anything and the only thing I could do was to talk to him.

“I know you’re upset but I’m really sorry Joe, please talk to me” I said and my voice cracked at the end.

“Go away just like mum don’t come back” he screamed at the top of his lungs and it was obvious that he was crying.

I slumped and sat down beside the door. I didn’t know what else to say to him but sorry. He thought I had left, he thought I would leave just like our mother did but I’m nothing like that woman.

“Joe I’m sorry love” I said after some minutes of sitting beside his door. I was going to stay in this position until he decides to talk to me.

I hadn’t expected him to open the door when I suddenly heard a click and stood up. He looked at my face with his already soaked face and swollen eyes.

“I missed you Isabella” he said and hugged my legs tightly. I bent to reach his face and placed a kiss on his head while hugging him really tight. I really missed the little boy and the fact that he thought that I had left him made me sad.

“Please don’t leave me like mum did” he said and I felt some tears building up in my eyes.

“I’m never going to leave you Joe” I said and brought his face to mine. I took his pinky finger in mine and knotted it.

“Always and forever” I said and he smiled. He gave me a tight hug before he finally pulled away and his face was now bright and gloomy.

“I love you” I said and took his hand in mine.

We went back to the living room and Grace was seated with a worried look on her face. She really did care for Joe’s well being.

“Uhm we’ll be sleeping in our house tonight, thank you for everything Grace”

“You’re not leaving without taking some food along” she said and immediately rushed to the kitchen, she came back with some food stuffs in a shopping bag and handed it over to me.

“Thank you” I said to her and went outside the house, Maya had offered to drop us off so we got into her car and she drove us to our father’s house.

As I stepped down from the car, I felt a slight feeling of uneasiness. I hated this house with so much passion and everything that happens there.

The lights on the front porch were on and I assumed he must be at home. Joe didn’t seem too happy that we were here, perhaps he hated it the same way I hate it.

I opened the door and saw my Dad seated on the couch watching the news on the small television that was hung on the wall.

“Hey Dad” I greeted and he turned to look at us, he hadn’t realized we walked in until I greeted him. What if it was some assassin or burglar that walked in.

“Hey my little babies!” He returned the greetings with a smile but his eyes were bloodshot. The house wasn’t smelling of alcohol. Perhaps he went out to drink.

I awkwardly nodded my head and led Joe to our room. The house was only a two bedroom flat and he used one while Joe and I shared the other room.

I brought out Joe’s backpack to finish his assignments and saw some dollar notes in it. Grace must have put it there without us knowing. After finishing his assignments I also felt tired so I slept after I was sure he was asleep.

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The alarm rang and it was time for us to prepare for school, I also gave just two more days to be with Zach then afterwards I’ll spend some quality time with Joe.

I woke Joe up after I had prepared our breakfast, he quickly bathed and dressed himself up then came to join me in the kitchen to eat.

My Father wasn’t at home, he must’ve left at night or probably early this morning. We finished eating and Joe went to the living room to watch some cartoons while we waited for Maya to pick us up.

While washing the dishes my eyes spotted a white plastic bag at the top of the cabinets in the kitchen. It was strange and something about me wanted to find out what it was.

I opened the plastic bag and found some white substance in it. I sniffed the bag and realized it was something toxic, probably a hard drug.

Shock and fear engulfed me, my father wasn’t only an alcoholic but a drug addict. My heart kept racing and tears started to build up in my eyes again. I wanted to cry but didn’t want Joe to realize something was up.

The front door opened and my father walked in, I watched how he ran his hands through Joe’s hair and made it rough. Joe chuckled but my mind wasn’t still clear of what I saw.

He noticed me staring at him from the kitchen and walked towards me.

“What’s wrong princess?” He asked but immediately saw the plastic bag in my hands and his eyes widened.

I shook my head as tears dropped from my eyes, I immediately cleaned the tears and threw the plastic bag at his chest. He didn’t say any word mainly because he had no excuses.

“Isabella!” He called out my name but it was too late as I had already left the house with Joe. Even though Maya wasn’t here yet I didn’t mind walking a little bit forward to meet her on the road.

Joe looked confused but I tried to give him a fake smile to assure him that I’m fine and everything was fine but he wasn’t buying it even though he was young he had the brain of an older person.

I spotted Maya’s car coming towards us and I waved my hand to notify her I was standing there, she stopped and picked us up. She noticed the look on my face but didn’t ask what was up because Joe was in the car while Joe was patiently waiting for someone to say something with the juice box in his mouth.