Time Frame: Three years before the outbreak, Ellis is 20, Keith is 21, Dave and Paul are 24, Scott is 18
POV: Keith
Main Event: Ellis is protective over his mom

This one time, me and Dave and Paul (I think it was Paul) and Scott were over at Ellis' house, jammin in his garage because I recently made mine uninhabitable…but that's another story.

Ellis went into the house to get some orange drink and I heard him scream like a girl. That was outta character, so we all dropped what we were doin and ran into the house after him. Well, he isn't hurt but his face is beet red and he's lookin down at the floor. It's summer time and his mom is in the kitchen in a swimsuit. She was still in good shape for her age, but this was way outta the ordinary for her to not be at least semi-modest.

He yells, "MOM PUT SOME FREAKIN CLOTHES ON! I GOT LIKE FIVE OTHER GUYS OVER!"

She's startled and a little angry at her son for yellin at her, because really there wasn't nothin actually wrong with her swimsuit. It was a bikini but it covered her lady parts up.

She's like, "Son, do not talk to me that way. It's hot! And I'm miserable. I been havin the hot flashes all day and I need a damn man." Charlotte must have been tappin into her box of wine a little too hard that day because she would never talk like that otherwise.

So he says back, "You're a 40 year old woman and it aint right for you to be paradin around in front of your son's friends in a couple of damn triangles of cloth to keep ya from being ass naked, mom!"

She shoots back, "This aint Iraq, son. I'll dress how I want. Do you kids mind?"

Ellis was so embarrassed he could barely talk. He yelled at all of us to look at the floor, said he would knock the shit outta the first guy to eyeball his mom. We all did what he said and Dave took off his flannel cause he was bigger and taller than all of us and was like, "Here, Char. Put this on so El doesn't have a heart attack."

She did what he asked and then walked away complainin about how she couldn't do anything in her own damn house cause her son ran her life. I knew she was drunk then cause normally she thought Ellis walked on water. Everything we did that ended up being stupid was always my fault.

I didn't know what was wrong with him or why he was so heated at the time. I mean he was always protective of his ma, but never yelled at her. Later it turned out that he'd just broke up with his girlfriend the day before for cheatin on him and givin him the clap. He was mad because the guy she cheated with (my brother) was in the same room and had just told him hours before he dumped her what happened between them.

After I beat the living shit outta my brother, and the other guys went home, I got Ellis good and drunk and was there to witness his entire emotional breakdown. For a dude that was usually so damn happy you wanted to pop him one, he got so weird over girls. He'd take a breakup real hard and that was one of the worst things about him. Pickin him back up after somethin like that was always taxing.

Wow, sorry. This was supposed to be a happy story.