Hey! I am pretty excited about this story. You have to R&R and tell me what you think.
XOXO HaLeY
Mediocre Bad Guys
Prologue: "Well don't give me no comic book sad looks no more"
Summer Roberts sat at her vanity helplessly trying to cover up the bruises around her eyes. He usually hit her where it wouldn't hurt, but lately he had been particularly careless about it. Something about that made her uneasy… Why did she stay? Why not? What was there to go home to?
She was a 23 year old woman that in her life time had experienced much more than many 80 year olds. Sure she and Marissa would still talk on the phone occasionally, but it wasn't the same… they aren't in high school anymore… Marissa was with Ryan, and she was with Todd… And Seth… Seth Cohen. Her first love, … her only love. He was the only thing that could bring a smile to her face now a day… Well besides Seth… other Seth that is. Little Seth, she and Todd's two year old son.
She and Todd met at Berkley right after college… Marissa and Ryan ended up attending college on the east coast and then both doing a year over seas.
Summer looked around the dive of an apartment that she had with Todd… It was a one roomer in a tenement building down in LA. Of course it wasn't the house of her dreams but it had to do… the sink even occasionally worked… well if she was lucky… On many occasions she would go to the laundry room in the downstairs of the building and fill up a bucket or two, and carry it up, with Little Seth following close behind. She would then dump the water in the tub and then toss Little Seth in the tub. If times were really bad that week she found herself doing the wash in the same water.
What happened to the days where the only care Summer Roberts had was what was happening on the next episode of "The Valley?" Sometimes if she closed her eyes long and hard she could almost go back to the days that she Ryan, Marissa and Seth spent upon the Newport boardwalk. She often got lost in her memories. It was then when Todd got the most angry… When dinner was not on the table by the time he got home. If Little Seth wasn't doing what he wanted…
Summer had learned how to block punches well, especially for a considerably small woman... If you didn't know any better one may now think she is from Chino. And yet she was still no match for Todd… The father of her child…
Todd had taken to calling "Little Seth", "Little Todd." Whenever she heard him call her son a miniature version of him it made her physically sick…
She wondered where Seth was… Was he married? Was he still the big goof ball that read comics and played video games from the time he woke up until he went to bed? Was he still the same little boy that had remembered a stupid poem she wrote back at grade school…? Would he be the one who she would run to when she was upset and wrap her up in a protective blanket of… Coheness? She didn't know, and it was all her fault. HER fault that she left. HER fault he would never talk to her again. HER fault that she was with an abuser-
Right then Todd came into the room…
"Hey." He said.
He was still dressed in his uniform from the auto park. He was wearing an orange jumpsuit and was caked in grease. He plopped down on the couch and grabbed the clicker to the TV and switched it on.
Had they had a nicer couch Summer would have told him to get his greasy ass off of it, but it was no use. That couch was gone from the beginning.
She remembered the days when they first met. She had worn make-up still back in those days, and done her hair up nicely… her nails were manicured… Now that she had no money, the little that she had went to Little Seth. She actually didn't mind. She loved her son more than life herself. Now her hair hung in a dull pony tail, and she wore baggy jeans with holes in the knees, and solid colored t-shirts.
"Um… Todd?" Summer said as she wiped down the kitchen counter with Little Seth on her hip…
"What?" Todd responded.
That tone… it was the same one that her father had used with her when she was a young girl and he had not wanted to be bothered by her…
Five year old Summer skipped into her fathers office.
"Look Daddy." She said holding up the badge that she had just received from her Dasiy troop.
He gave her a blank stare.
"I sold the most cookies." Summer explained.
"Nice honey." Her father said turning back to his computer.
"Daddy?" Summer asked on her way.
"What?" The same careless what came out of his mouth that did Todds today.
"Nothing." Summer said cowering out of her dads office.
Those were the days when she would go cry in her mothers lap… the days before her mother abandoned her…
Summer being caught in her day dream didn't respond to Todd.
"WHAT!" He said more irritated this time.
"It's just that… well, Seth needs more shoes…" Summer said continuing to clean the counter.
"No." Was all that he said not turning back to the TV.
Summer knew better than to mention she needed more shoes as well. She could almost feel the floor through the soles…
"I can't even squeeze him foot into them…" Summer said a little firmer
"Are you talking back to me." Todd said getting up from the couch, tossing the remote across the room.
"No…" She said turning to face him, backing up against the counter, still holding Little Seth… Summer suddenly got a burst of courage… but it turns out that that same courage is what usually got her into trouble… "Well I didn't make him on my own!" Summer said through gritted teeth.
It was then that a hand was raised above her head… she couldn't remember anymore after that…