School Girls' Stories - New Generation

A/N: Sorry it's been a while, and I'm still not fully with it. This chapter is not my favorite or one of my bests, I apologize, but at least I'm trying!! I'm going to try over the weekend to get a little bit more up. I have to start getting into the swing of things again, it'll take some time.

Chapter 48 – Shai Breaking Down

CRACK! Shu was slapped back from his doorway by the whip-like reflexes of his mother’s palm cracking across his cheek the moment he even opened the door. Shai, in her short stature and frail frame, barged through the doorway, sans husband, and slammed into Shu’s apartment like a cold fury. Shu physically shivered watching her like a small isolated typhoon, her angry eyes turning to him. His drowsiness was quickly washing away as he watched her stand there looking nothing like she was supposed to. Shai’s careful put together elegance was gone and was replaced by a ravaged woman finally showing the effects of age.

“I can not believe I have raised the lot of you to be such monsters!” she was screaming before the door on the apartment was fully closed behind her. “You are not the children I raised you to be. How come, out of all of you, the one I didn’t give birth to is the only one who is not breaking my heart?”

“Mom…” Shu did not know what to say, or for that matter, have any idea what she was going on about, but he knew that he was in for it. He may be out of her house and living in his own apartment, but he was still relying on his parents heavily for many things, especially financially, and he had never seen his mother lose her temper the way she was now.

“How could you let Harmony drive a car when she was fourteen?” she continued in on him, and it took little for Shu to guess what his mom was blathering on about. She finally found out the truth about what had happened to Ashe that night. “How could you have been so drunk? How could you not have been more responsible and been willing to lie like that? You ruined Ashe’s life! You’ve ruined my life! I’ve lost face in front of my half-sister. The kid we all thought was a shit and worthless, he turns out to be the one who had real problems because of some selfish stint by MY worthless brats.

“You and Harmony allowed him to die without telling me the truth,” Shai scoffed. “You would rather have lied then admit your error. Darrke is ruining people’s lives because… why? What did I do that was wrong by you children?”

“Mom… nothing,” Shu tried to explain. “We were doing what teenagers do. We did what any prepubescent teen does, we acted dumb and did foolish things.”

Shai’s fists bunched at her sides and she stomped over to her son, who had slowly been backing across the room trying to escape her. He could not escape the crack of her hand once more. How was he to fight her off? He had never seen her so broken.

“You lied to me, Shu,” she cried, and it was not a small cry. Tears were streaming down her face as she crumpled in on herself and fell to her knees. “When I had you, you were my hopes and dreams all wrapped up into one small, perfect package. I wanted nothing more than my son. I wanted you to have a life that I was not given, and somehow I ruined that life for you.”

“Mom, you didn’t,” Shu tried to deny. “Mom, I’m not completely ruined.”

“You’re a liar!” she screamed, pounding the floor like a child. “You lied to me, you lied to your friends, you’ve lied about everything. You do drugs. You are barely passing community college! You won’t do anything with your life! I sacrificed mine so you could have one and you’ve done nothing but throw it in my face since you were old enough to walk and talk. I’m through!”

Shai stood so quickly that Shu had to take a few more steps back. He thought he was going to be peeling her off of the floor, instead she suddenly looked strong again, her backbone firmly in place.

“Mom, you shouldn’t go when you are like this,” Shu tried reaching out to his mom, but she whipped around on him again. He pushed back so quickly he tripped over the box still in the middle of his living room, he had barely bothered unpacking. He had held onto a hope that this was temporary, he could see in his mother’s eyes this was more permanent than he wanted.

“I’m cutting you, Harmony, and Darrke off,” she snapped. “Harmony is going abroad, Darrke is going to military school, and you… no more. You earn the upkeep of this apartment, you pay for school, and you ask me for nothing. Not a dime. I will not be helping you. You better find a roommate, because you are not going to be able to afford this without our help. I want you to realize how much I’ve given you.”

“Mom, I realize,” he stuttered.

“No,” she shook her head. “You don’t. You buy drugs with my money. You buy alcohol with my money. You buy porn and filth and internet connections with my money. You want luxuries, you pay for them. Pay for pot on your salary, trust me, you will either starve or need rehab soon enough. The whole lot of you.”

“You can’t mean what you are saying, Mom,” Shu began. He was already trembling. His mother was kicking his habit for him, whether she meant to or not. It was her money that bought him the essentials, he used his own for his recreation. But without her money for essentials he had nothing for… recreation. He… he felt like he was suddenly losing a difficult battle, and it was only pot.

“Good night,” she said calmly. “I came by just to tell you that. You can’t come over for dinner. You must feed yourself. But if you want to come over to just visit, my house is open to you.”

Shai opened the apartment door and walked out of his apartment, for all intents and purposes, out of his life as best a mother could. She had needed to blow up at him, to let loose her steam, because it was all that would barrel into him how devastating what she was doing really was.

And yet, he was still going to try anyway. He was proud, and he had a job. He could do this, no problem. He’d show her. Harmony and Darrke would too.

Perhaps not the way he wanted.