Chapter 9: New Job
"How can I when they are saying horrible not true things about you?" he asked me angrily.
It touched me to see how much Tony cared for me.
Keith even if you hate me, Tony is completely blameless so, for you to completely discard him is disgusting. I thought to myself. I told Tony the truth the of the situation, but it was wrong that he had to accept the situation. He had done no wrong. He didn’t ask to be born. No child should be told to accept that their parent doesn’t want them.
What’s funny is Keith took Diana and her son in because he felt guilty for abandoning them. Now in turn he was abandoning his other family to make space for them. Just ridiculous.
"Do you still want to go to school tomorrow?" I asked him. After getting into a fight I thought perhaps he needed a break since he wasn’t doing well.
"No, I’m fine mum. I can go," he told me. I looked at his face for a moment studying his eyes.
"Alright then," I accepted his answer.
After putting Anthony to bed I left his room, did one final check or house doors before going to my room.
I went to bed that night conflicted. I didn’t know what to do about Anthony. My heart was telling me to get him out of that school. He was being bullied ruthlessly and his he was feeling down. I was so worried for his mental health. Considering my past life it seemed like he was able to get through the bullying, but he suffered a lot. I imagine he was in so much pain for so long and I wasn’t there for him. At a new school he wouldn’t have to worry about all that.
At the same time my heart was telling me that my mind was telling me he should stay. That school was the best in the country. It had state of the art resources and graduates would receive tonnes of offers to excellent universities. In my past life I would have loved to see which university he went to since he only had one year of high school before graduating at 17. However, that wasn’t worth his mental health deteriorating.
Nonetheless, it was Tony’s call to make. As much as I so worried for him I didn’t want to only do what I thought was best for him given how that panned out in my past life. I wanted to hear him out as well.
As I approached my bed I opened one of the drawers to get something out and noticed an interesting book. I picked it up and found out it was my diary. I In my past life I used to write in it a lot.
Upon opening it, I found entry after entry of me devising plans to speak with Keith. It seemed so obsessive as I read through it. And in my past, it would only get worse as the years passed. I physically cringed as I looked at the book. I should have been more worried about Tony than Keith. i threw in the bin once I was done. Didn’t that anymore.
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The following morning Anthony and I wake up early to prepare him for school. I was hoping he would give me his answer as he ate breakfast, but he didn’t. He probably wasn’t ready yet and was still contemplating. I wouldn’t rush him.
After we were done preparing, I then rushed to take him to school. Even though I wasn’t doing anything that day I had dress up to take Tony to school. I couldn’t dress casually at such a classy prestigious school where all parents dressed well. Once he was dropped off I returned home and cleaned up a little. With no job yet I could only lounge around. Had it been the me in my past life after dropping off Tony at school I would have went straight to Keiths and then left when it was time to pick him up. That is if Keith’s security hadn’t kicked me out before then. So, I sat by the couch and turned on the tv.
It was around noon when I received a call from one of the restaurants I’d applied to work. They told me they had an opening right away and I could start the next day. The pay was reasonable around two thousand a month. Which was better than Diana’s 0ne thousand. My working hours would be from 9:30am to pm so I could take and pick up Tony from school. I agreed and said I would come the following day. As soon as the call ended, I began to jump up and with joy. I couldn’t believe I’d found a job so quickly! I received two more calls from two other restaurants later on that also gave me an offer but the wasn’t as high as the first restaurant so I declined their offers.
Later that day I went to pick Tony up from school. I had been worried about Tony all day after I’d seen his bruise yesterday. When he came to me as I waited for him outside the school building, His mood seemed normal. He didn’t seem as upset as he was the day before. So I’m hoping the day went better.
We got home and did our usual nighttime routine. He did his homework and prepared his things for the next school day meanwhile I prepared dinner. Thankfully he was talking to me It’s when I took him to bed that he finally gave me an answer about what I’d asked him the day before.
"Mum, I don’t want to change schools right now," he told me in a calm tone. "I’ll be fine"
As I made eye contact with him, my eyes welled up with emotion. That wasn’t the answer I was expecting.
"Are you sure?" I asked him. If the physical and verbal bullying was too much for him I didn’t want to suffer for no reason.
"I’m a big boy now, i can handle myself," he told me.