It’s a nice Saturday afternoon with clears skies and not enough heat, were you feel like your skin will melt off your bones. Ruki comes home after a half day of school. There hasn't’t really been any progress with the project that Ms. S has given to Ruki and Vera. They haven’t really talked after that day either. But they could fail the project for all he cared.

He takes off his shoes and goes to the kitchen to look for something to make for himself and his mother.

After scavenging for a while he came up with a few pieces of bread that had gone stale and some deli meat that was about to go bad.

He made two half-assed sandwiches for the both of them and gobbled up his within seconds. Ignoring how the dried up bread painfully slides down his throat and how the meat had a weird taste to it.

 Then he puts his mother’s sandwich on a plate and sets it on the coffee table in front of her, in hopes that she would eat it when she wakes up.

Then he picks up all the empty bottles around her and places a blanket on her. When she was comfortable, he goes up to his room for some alone time.

Upon seeing his unmade bed, he feels his body getting heavy. Dragging his feet, he collapses onto the bed, not even bothering to change out of his stiff clothes into something more comfortable.

He didn't’t even fight the sleep when his eyelids started getting heavy.

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Ruki’s eyes snap open to a banging sound coming from down stairs. He jumps out of bed and looks out the window to see that the sun has already gone down. ‘How long have I been asleep?’ he asks himself.

He paces around the room before going to the door, deciding to go check what made that noise. Turning the door knob slowly, not wanting to make a noise and quietly makes his way down the stairs.

He hears another banging noise causing him to jump. ‘I should have brought a blunt object with me.’ He thought nervously looking around the room and found the next best thing: an umbrella.

He passes the entrance of the living room. But there is something missing. Not only was the plate of food that he had left there earlier gone, but also the woman that he had left sound asleep was nowhere to be found.

His mind starts to race thinking of crazy scenarios of random robbers coming into the house and taking their food and his mother along with them, to do god knows what to her.

Even though she wasn't’t the most loving mother in the world, he still loved her because she was the one that had given him life and before all this she had been there for him when he was vulnerable and couldn't’t fend for himself.

So now he has to help her with her own inner demons and her first problem was the alcohol. But he wasn't’t sure how he was going to take the problem on since she will most likely not listen to him and won’t want to part with her best friend.

He makes his way to the kitchen to where the noises are coming from. ‘Be as quiet as a ninja.’ He told himself while clenching the umbrella close to his chest.

Taking a deep breath, he pokes his head into the kitchen and sees the person that he expected less to be there. What he expected was big muscly men dressed in all black, wearing ski masks and holding sacks, stuffing them with the little food they had.

But no, what he saw was his mother with her head in the refrigerator.

Ruki walks into the room, “Mom?”

She straightens up, closing the frig door behind her with something in her hands. She turns her to look at Ruki and smiles at him. “Hey sweetie.”

He’s taken aback. She hasn't’t called him that since he was a kid. “Mom, you haven’t called me that since I was little.” He said out a loud.

She tilts her head in confusion. “What are you talking about Akihiro?” she asks. “Now sit down and I’ll cook you some dinner.” She smiles and pats the chair in front of her.

His eyebrows go into a deep frown and he takes a step closer to her. “What are you talking about? That’s not my name, that’s dad’s name. And we don’t even have that much food in the house.”

She giggles, his mother NEVER giggles. “Stop playing around Akihiro!” she playfully pushes him.

The boy looks at his mother in disbelief. “What’s wrong with you?! It’s Ruki, your son! Dad’s not here or did you use that” he points to the bottle in her hand, “to forget about him?”

She steps closer to him and wraps her arms around his neck. “What are you talking about? We don’t have a son.” She slurred, “But I’m willing to make one.” She giggled again.

She reeked of alcohol.

“Ugh, what are you doing mom?! Get off me!” he manages to untangle her arms from around his neck and keeps her at arm’s length. “You already have a son and that’s me. Dad left years ago! He left you and me behind without looking back!”

His harsh words had made something snap inside her. Like a slap in the face or ice water beginning dumped on you.

After those works left his lips he instantly regretted them. He knew how his farther leaving them behind had affected her, but his stupid mouth had to bring it back up.

She blinks a couple of times as if clearing her vision. She looks up at him for a second then her face changes from confusion to disgust.

She yanks her arms out of his hold and stagers back. Ruki steps closer to her with arms in front of him ready to catch her. His mother takes another unsteady step back and hisses “don’t touch me, you unlovable piece of crap!”

He felt his heart squeeze as if invisible fingers were closing around it. “You don’t mean that.” He argued back in a shaky voice.

She smiles in an evil way like she knew that had hurt him. “Yes I do.” The woman laughed and takes a big gulp of her liquor.

He grits his teeth and balls up his trembling hands. “No you’re wrong, you’re the unlovable one here!” he yells, suddenly snapping with anger. How could she say that to her own blood? “If you were the slightest bit lovable, dad would still be here and not god knows where!”

“Get out.” She mumbles so low that Ruki isn’t sure he heard it.

“What?!” he asks, breathless from his little outburst.

“Get the hell out of my house!” she shrieked. “I don’t want to see that face that looks too much like that useless father of yours!” she spat back at him.

“Well I rather look like him instead of YOU!” he huffed, feeling his face boiling red.

Then he sees a bottle come flying his way. He curses and jumps out the way just in time before it hit the wall and shatters behind him. Ruki looks back at his mother in disbelief. “What the !” he fumed.

She points to the front door. “Out!” she dictated with an uneven voice.

He presses his lips into a hard line, “fine.” Then he turns, going to put on his shoes. When he opens the door he hears behind him crashing noises coming from the kitchen.

She yells out, “don’t you ever talk to me like that do you he  ” he didn’t hear the rest because her voice was cut off by the door slamming behind him.

Ruki walks out the yard and into the dark inviting streets, not even knowing where to go from this point.

Pulling out his phone from his pocket, he starts to go down his list of contacts, seeing if one of the names pops out to him. Then he stops on the last one on the list. His eyes observing the name: Vera ‘the American ’,

He laughs at the name that he picked for her. He needed an outlet and just looking at her name already made him laugh. So he presses the call button and brings the phone to his ear.

The phone rings till the voice mail comes on. He didn’t even let it play out when he hangs up and tries to call her again, thinking that she must have not been around the phone at the time.

But there was nothing different then the last time. So stuffing the phone back into his back pocket, he starts to walk once more, thinking how pissed he was (again). He told her to always pick up when he was calling her. ‘She better have a good reason for not answering me!’ he thought angrily, pulling out his pack of fags and lighting one up.

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A/N: Thank you everybody who has been subscribing and commenting (or even reading my story). It means a lot to me and makes me so happy to hear that you are enjoying my story :')