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“That bitch,” Esther growled. “Get over to my place before she comes back. Someone’ll let you in. Do you wanna look at ads for rooms? I bet you could find one for, like, a few hundred bucks a month. Better to put up with some random stranger in your house than your mom.”
“Yeah. I don’t want to live here anymore.”
“Oh, honey. I don’t want you to live there anymore, either.”
* * * *
The dirty dishes that my mom wanted me to throw in the sink were all over the fucking counter. For a person who hardly ate anything, she sure messed up a lot of tableware. She wasn’t good at cleaning, or cooking—or anything, really—which was why she’d always had shit jobs while I was growing up. I think this was the longest time she’d stayed at one place, and the job gave her a reasonable amount of money, except that she spent so much of it on sketchy stuff. I’d paid my own way through university, except for a few bursaries that a teacher had advised me to apply for. I was determined to graduate and at least have a post-secondary education, something my mom had never valued.
Maybe I could do one last thing for my mom because she had somehow refrained from murdering me for twenty years and kept a roof over my head. I loaded what dishes would fit into the dishwasher and ran it, then washed what was left in the sink. I cleaned the shitty Formica countertops and linoleum floors and the stove, working out my anger and frustration with physical labor and spiteful housework. It was as if I were giving her a big “fuck you” with a dishrag and dish soap.
See how good I am at respectable living? Better than you, you fucking bitch.
I packed my backpack and a duffle bag with the things I’d need for a few days at Esther’s and went to catch the bus. While I was waiting at the stop, a text came through from Alastair.
Toby! Are you working tonight?
nope
this is my night off
Really.
yeah
going to hang out with a friend
Oh.
Three dots came and went. I wondered if he’d been planning to ask me out fortonight.
Maybe I’ll see you at Molly’s sometime soon?
not working til sat
see you then?
See you then. Have a good time with your friend.
ttyl
I was a little disappointed that Alastair hadn’t asked me out for later in the week, instead of a vague suggestion that we’d see each other during my next shift. But looking forward to a relaxing evening of pizza and soda and Esther was enough to get past it.
* * * *
“Toby, baby! Come in!” Esther said when her roommate opened the door to me at four-thirty.
“Hi, Deshawn,” I said.
Deshawn grinned, and we slapped hands. “Nice to see you, Toby.” He turned to Esther. “See ya later.”
“Will you be back in time for pizza?”
“Nah, I’ll be late,” he told her. He turned back to me. “I’ll try to come in quietly.”
I blinked back emotion. Deshawn was such a nice guy. “Thanks, man.”
He smiled with his whole face. “No worries. I know how it can be.”
