Chapter 8

For the first week and a half of his suspension, Reese managed to avoid trouble. It was purely luck because he set himself up to get caught plenty of times. He would get high as soon as his family left in the mornings, attempt to complete his mother's chores, then spend the afternoons drinking and getting high again with Jade before his brothers got home from school. He liked Jade, but in his mind he knew that the relationship was only based on drugs and sex. Not that he really had a problem with that though.

His family was so wrapped up in their own affairs that no one seemed to notice his odd behavior and sudden withdrawal from their lives as he quickly spiraled downward into addiction. When they were home, he spent most of his time detached from them in his room. Malcolm noticed that he was acting strangely most afternoons and questioned him about it a few times. Reese managed to convince his brother that he wasn't feeling well—when in reality he was still feeling the effects of the drugs and alcohol. Malcolm decided that he was probably just depressed from being without privileges and confined to the house for so long. He figured that Reese would bounce back to normal as soon as their parents slacked up on him a little.

In addition to becoming increasingly dependant on pot, he was smoking cigarettes on a regular basis even though he told Malcolm that he'd kept his promise of not smoking again after that first night. When he craved a hit or a smoke, he would wait until his family was preoccupied with their own activities, then climb out his bedroom window so they couldn't smell it. The drugs and cigarettes were starting to have less of an effect on him than at first so he constantly had to increase the amount to get results that he wanted. Although it had only been a short time, he felt that he couldn't make it through the day without them.

As the days passed, Lois gradually reduced her number of calls to check up on Reese. He had begun to earn her trust back by doing everything that she'd asked the previous week. Nearly halfway through the second week, Reese decided that he needed to get out of the house for awhile. He knew he shouldn't push his luck, but something was on his mind that he wanted to do even though he knew it would only make the situation worse for him.

XXXXX

That evening, Reese came in through the front door rather than the kitchen. He knew that he was in serious trouble. He was so glad just to be free of his house that he hadn't kept track of the time. It was already past six and his family was having dinner. With any luck, he would buy himself a few more minutes and sneak off to his room.

"REESE! Get in here!" Lois bellowed the familiar phrase from the dinner table as soon as he closed the door behind him. He slowly trudged to the entrance of the kitchen, preparing himself to face his parents.

"Where have you been? How dare you leave this house when you're grounded! It hasn't even been two weeks yet!" She lectured without bothering to look up from her meal.

"It's the first time I've been out of this house in ten days! I was going crazy!" He tried to justify his actions and casually avoid the question of where he'd been.

Lois didn't notice that everyone else seated around the table had dropped their forks and were now staring at Reese in shock.

"That's the point of being grounded, Reese. It's not supposed to be fun. You don't just leave when you get tired of it. Oh and you're going to be sorry, believe me!" Lois finally turned to face him. "You just got yourself an extra--WHAT in the hell is THAT on your face?"

"It's a nose ring, mom." Reese replied with a hint of sarcasm in his voice.

"I know what it is! Why is it on your face?" She screeched.

"I wanted one. A lot of people have them. It's not a big deal." He shrugged casually.

"A lot of people have them? It's not a big deal? Well let me tell you something—you're not having it." She pointed her finger at him. "You will take that thing out this instant!"

"Sorry to disappoint you, but I'm not taking it out." Reese said calmly. The joint he'd smoked before coming home was helping him stay mellow about the situation.

"Excuse me?" Lois snapped, rising from her seat. She couldn't believe that he had the nerve to blatantly defy her right to her face.

"I think he meant he's not taking it out now…because the hole would get dirt and stuff in it and get infected. It has to heal a few days first." Malcolm intervened. He knew it was a load of crap, but he felt like he should do something to save his brother from her fury. "You just meant you should wait a few days, right Reese?"

"No. I meant I'm not taking it out. Period." Reese replied slowly, stubbornly ignoring Malcolm's gesture to help him.

"Now you listen to me!" Hal began as he rose from his seat and moved toward his son, waving his finger in his face. It was a rare occasion when he got seriously angry at his boys, but this was definitely one of those times. "I'm fed up with your disrespectful attitude. I don't know what's gotten into you lately, but I don't like it and it's about to change right now. We're not asking you to take it out, we're telling you! Do you understand me?"

"You can't make me." Reese said smugly.

"Uh Oh" Dewey muttered from his seat at the table where he was quietly watching the scene unfold.

"You wanna bet?" Lois spat furiously. She reached out and grabbed the silver ball in Reese's nose between her fingertips, sending him to his knees in pain because it was still sore from the piercing. Lois thought it would pull straight out—not realizing that the post was curved inside to keep it place.

Reese cried out in agony, but refused to give in. Tendrils of pain radiated from his throbbing nostril. He tried to pull away from her, but the metal post began to tear through his flesh, causing a stream of warm blood to run over his lip.

"Mom stop! You're really hurting him!" Malcolm pleaded to no avail.

"All you have to do is give in and I'll stop. You're only prolonging this for yourself." Lois said, trying very hard not to fold and let him win. She didn't like doing this at all, but she knew it was the only way she was going to get through to him. She looked down and suddenly noticed the pack of cigarettes working its way out of Reese's coat pocket as he struggled. She immediately let go of the nose ring and snatched them up. "You're smoking? My God, Reese! Have you completely lost your mind?"

"You promised me you'd quit!" Malcolm shouted at his brother.

"You knew about this?" Lois asked.

"I…uh…well…" Malcolm stuttered, realizing that he'd just got himself in trouble.

"Nevermind, I'll deal with you later" Lois said. "I can't believe you, Reese! Smoking? What else have you been doing? You've been acting really strange lately—are you on drugs?"

"I'm not on drugs, mom!" Reese lied as he stood up, cupping his hand over his nose.

"Then what is wrong with you? Why are you doing these things?" She demanded.

"Nothing's wrong with me. What's wrong with you? What kind of mother are you? You made me bleed, you crazy bitch!" Reese yelled, holding up his hand that was red with blood from his injured nose.

Fire burned in Lois's eyes. She was so consumed with rage that she didn't realize what she was doing when she raised her hand and slapped his face with such force that he lost his balance and slammed against the wall behind him. Aside from a few mild spankings when they were younger, she had never struck any of her children before. As she watched him stagger back from the blow, she was immediately sorry. The sight of his reddened cheek along with his bleeding nose made her feel completely ashamed of herself. "Reese, I'm sorry…I didn't mean…" she said softly.

Reese slowly lifted his hand to his throbbing cheek and briefly stared at her with a mixture of shock and hatred. Without a word, he turned and walked off toward his room.

Lois sat down at the table, placed her head in her hands, and started to sob. "He's right! I'm a horrible mother! What kind of monster makes her own son bleed?"

"Go to your room boys." Hal said to Malcolm and Dewey, who stood frozen in astonishment because they'd never seen their mother snap like this before. He rushed to Lois's side and took her in his arms. "You're a wonderful mother. It wasn't your fault, honey. Reese was asking for it."

"I just don't know what to do with him! Why is he acting this way?" She wailed.

"I don't know…but I know who might be able to find out." Hal said.