That evening, a text from Janet popped up on my phone.
“Your parents are in the lobby again. Do you want me to send them away?”
I looked at that message for a long time. Then I typed back.
“No. I’ll come down.”
I found them sitting side by side on the marble bench by the elevators. They looked smaller than I remembered. My father looked older, his shoulders curled in. My mother looked cracked. Her posture wasn’t sharp anymore. Her hands were trembling in her lap.
She stood up fast when she saw me. “Blaze. Please. We just need a minute.”
I stayed where I was, a few feet away.
“We’re in trouble,” she said. “The rent on the apartment is too much. The car broke down on the highway last week. And Griffin…” She stopped and pressed her lips together. “Griffin’s going through some things right now. With Harper. He isn’t helping us.”
I waited. Not cruel. Not cold. Just there.
She softened her voice. It was the voice she always used when she wanted something.
“You were always the good one, sweetheart. The responsible one. Please. Just help us get back on our feet. Just this once.”
My father stared down at the marble floor.
“I’m sorry, son,” he said, so quietly I almost didn’t hear him. “Truly. I know I wasn’t there for you. I know that.”
The words were new. But underneath them, the ask was exactly the same as it had always been.
Save us. Carry us. Disappear again so we don’t have to look at who we are.
I shook my head gently.
“I can’t help you.”
My mother’s face twisted. “You’re abandoning your own parents.”
“No, Mom,” I said quietly. “I’m finally not abandoning myself.”
My father looked up at me with wet eyes. “Just one night, Blaze. Please. We don’t have anywhere to go tonight.”
It broke something inside me to say it. But I said it anyway.
“No.”
I stepped back into the elevator. I pressed the button for my floor.
My mother reached out with both hands like she could catch the doors and hold them open.
They slid closed.
And that was that.
Sophia Rivers is an experienced News Content Editor with a sharp eye for detail and a passion for delivering accurate and engaging news stories. At TheArchivists, she specializes in curating, editing, and presenting news content that informs and resonates with a global audience.
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