He took the bus home, as he normally would take public transport to get home, and walked the last few blocks to his home. A lot had happened, and everything was changing, but he had kept it to himself. While he wanted to be excited and share the news with his family, he couldn't bring himself to do it. Despite his confidence he couldn't fight back the fear that it wouldn't work, and his doubt had kept him silent. He didn't want to get anyone's hopes up only to ruin them and disappoint his family. He couldn't break his mother's heart like that.
But now he was doing his best to contain his grin, ignoring the confused looks from people he passed who no doubt wondered why he was smiling so brightly. All his hard work had paid off, all the time and work spent getting to this point. The struggles, the frustration, it had been worth it. All the people who told him he could never do it, who taunted him for writing down his emotions and called him weak for turning words to rhymes, who told him to settle for a life scraping by and living paycheck to paycheck. He had proved them wrong, and he had the evidence of that on a little slip of paper that he could shove in the face of anyone who asked. But he had other plans for that small page shoved tight in his pocket.
The place he called home greeted him with a heavy smell of smoke and lingering atmosphere of arguments, ready to break out at any time. He opened the door and heard no yelling at the moment. The television was playing, no doubt his father was ready to pass out on the couch. His mother he found in the kitchen, the table covered in papers. The way her back was tensed and based on the occasional sniffle she was once more caught in a difficult struggle between deciding which bills they could afford to pay and which ones they could get away with not paying for another month. Normally whenever he saw this scene his heart would hurt and he hate that his family was in this position to begin with and that his part time job wasn't enough to fix their financial situation.
Now the sad scene made him smile even wider.
"Hey mom," he announced his presence, giving her a hug from behind. She hastily wiped her face and returned the hug by embracing the arms wrapped around her front.
"Oh you're home already! I was just looking at some paperwork-" she tried to shuffle the papers together and out of sight. She never wanted her children to worry about the family's money and did her best to conceal the issues, although it was difficult to cover it up when they fought over money on a regular basis.
"Mom, remember what I said when I got into Star Academy?" his arms were still around his mother, his head resting on her head as he stood over her.
"Of course sweetie, you said you were going to be rich and famous. And you will be some day, I believe in you!" she replied as any good mother would be supportive of her child's passion.
"I didn't just say that though, I promised you I'd make enough money to pay off everyone and get you a nice house. One with a yard, so you can have that garden you've always wanted, by the shore," his mother laughed at that, patting his arms.
"You don't have to worry about me, dear, I'll take care of myself when you're living in your penthouse in a big city," she assured him, wondering what the rustling was and what he was getting out of his pocket.
"You've taken care of all of us, it's time I start to return the favor," he replied, presenting the paper from his pocket. He let go of her, ending the hug so she could take the piece of paper and read it. His mother was dead silent, reading and rereading the sheet in her hands. After what seemed like minutes she turned and looked at him in shock.
"I got the contract, that was the advance from my agent for my song. I have a meeting with them tomorrow to start going over more songs for my album deal," he explained, delighted when her shocked and confused expression turned to glee, and maybe relief.
"Album? Agent? Oh that's wonderful!" she cried, standing up and hugging him, her eyes filling with tears of joy.
"But what kind of mother would I be if I took your money?"
"A mom who deserves every bit of it. I promised that you'd get my first check, and you've always told me to keep my promises," he replied, grinning at his mother. For the first time in years, the weight of debts and desperate money situations was lifted from her shoulders, and he had never seen her smile to brightly. And that was a reason to be happy.