Total pages in book: 70
Estimated words: 69534 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 348(@200wpm)___ 278(@250wpm)___ 232(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 69534 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 348(@200wpm)___ 278(@250wpm)___ 232(@300wpm)
“What are you doing here, honey?” my mom asked, looking for an escape route.
She should.
I was going to chew her ass out.
“I’m shopping for food for your children with money that I earned running your place of business. All the while keeping it afloat on my own, with zero compensation for it,” I snapped. “Where have you been?”
My mother’s face went scrunchy, letting me know that she was angry that I was pointing out her inadequacies.
“I’m busy,” she said as she stepped back to her cart.
Her fully filled cart.
I narrowed my eyes. “Where are you getting the money to buy that?”
My mother’s face went guilty.
“You better not be pulling it out of the diner account, because I have to pay bills tomorrow, and if that money isn’t there, I don’t have enough money to keep the lights on!” I snapped.
Not with her constantly taking money out all willy-nilly, spending it on things we couldn’t even deduct on our taxes.
My mother’s face flushed, and I was thankful that at least she didn’t have access to the money that I used to pay our house payment.
I’d learned that lesson the hard way.
Plus, the kids had had to take showers at the Y for a couple of weeks because we had no water at our own place.
I’d had to take spit baths at the diner.
It was utterly embarrassing, and she didn’t fucking care.
I didn’t know why I bothered with her.
If it wasn’t for the kids, I’d have taken off years ago.
As it was, I couldn’t figure out how to crawl my way out of this fucked-up life while keeping my siblings clothed and fed.
My mom sighed. “I’m not buying much.”
“You’re buying more than you need,” I pointed to her cart. “What are you going to do with all that face cream? That’s way too expensive!”
A man came up then, dropping a few more things in the cart.
That’s when I might’ve lost it.
I marched up to her and yanked my purse off her shoulder.
I sifted into my purse and pulled out her wallet, and the shit ton of crisp bills that she likely pulled out of the bank before coming here.
I took the cash and her cards before handing her wallet back to her, keeping my purse.
“Fuck you,” I said as I went back to my cart and turned it around.
All the while, the silent man at my side didn’t say a word.
I was zooming past the Cheez-Its when I caught sight of the crackers that were on sale that I had a coupon for.
From there, I made sure to get everything that I could get this month using my WIC card, then started in on the food that wasn’t on sale.
It was on the candy aisle that I decided that I could possibly afford a few small things for them.
Maybe a five for a dollar candy bar…
Posy snatched up a package of Reese’s footballs, which were my all-time favorite.
I ignored him and his stupid Reese’s and carefully picked out five candy bars.
I could give everyone one and have an extra for a rainy day when Calliope went on her period and decided the whole world would be better if it was lit on fire.
“What do you think would be best?” Posy asked as we came to a stop at tin foil. “The store brand or the real one?”
I turned the pages of my binder and got to the tin foil page, pulling out a few options for him.
He rolled his eyes at my coupons and said, “I’m not stealing your coupons.”
“I don’t buy tin foil,” I said. “It’s a waste of money. However, if you’re going to buy it, I have coupons you could use.”
He took one of the coupons and grabbed for the most expensive one.
I had a fleeting thought of ‘I wish I could do that’ and went back to shopping.
By the end of it, the whole bottom of my cart was filled, and my mother was nowhere to be seen.
Thankfully.
It’d take her a few days to get her a new card, and by then, I could start up a new account and move the money over.
My mom could contest it, of course, but she was the one who added me as a signer on the account because she up and left so often.
“What are you going to do about your mom?” Posy asked as we got into line at the checkout.
The constant beep-beep was making me jittery.
Mostly because I hated spending money, and it gave me anxiety.
As I checked out, I explained to him my plans.
“You can just take the money for the diner if she owns it?” he asked.
“She made me a part owner,” I said. “And she could fight it, sure. But then she’d have to get a lawyer to do so, and she’s not that invested. She’ll probably come back when the money dries up. Work for a while, then we’ll do this all over again in about six months.”