Shall I attempt to fill this nodeshell? Ah, what the hell.
The alarm began to ring, but was cut short by a swift slap. "Jeff, time to wake up!" he hears from downstairs. "Breakfast is ready," the next statement from his mother, standing at the bottom of the stairwell. Jeff groans, and slithers out from under the covers.
"It's eight-thirty in the morning; why exactly do I have to get up on my day off again?" he asks.
"Jeff, you promised your father you'd go help him paint his new office this morning, remember?" his mother says as she pours him a glass of orange juice. "I've already taken him to the office, so the car's out front, just be careful." Normally, it's sort of odd for a twenty-four year old man to be living with his parents, but in San Francisco, it's hard to find a nice place to live on only a pizza delivery driver's salary.
"Oh yea. I almost forgot," he said, sipping on the OJ. Just a week ago, Jeff's father had gotten out of the hospital, victim of a car wreck which broke his left arm. His father was an accountant, who had finally landed a deal with a startup dot com in San Mateo. Jeff quickly finished his breakfast, and hopped into the car, and read over the directions to his fathers new office again. He waved to his mother, as he pulled out of the driveway.
Upon arriving at his father's new office building, he was greeted by a beautiful woman, apparently in her mid to late 20's, with blue hair and wire frame glasses. "Good morning," she said with a smile, "how are you today?"
"Good," Jeff replied, "And you?"
"Fine, thanks for asking. Just on my way in to work."
"You work here? Cool!" he said.
"Yep! My name is Sharon. Nice to meet you..."
"Jeff," he responded quickly, "nice to meet you too." They walked in, and Sharon suddenly disappeared into a mass confusion of people moving boxes and desks around. "Excuse me, do you know where Mr. Addison's office is?" he asked someone carrying a brushed aluminum looking lamp.
"Sure, go straight past the bar, and hang a right, go down that hallway, and it's the third door on the left," he said. "Thanks!"
"Knock, Knock!" Jeff peered around the chrome door of his father's office.
"Jeff! Thought I was going to have to take the bus home," his father said jokingly as he looked up. "I've decided I want this office to be bright green," he continued.
"Why bright green?" Jeff asked his father.
"I don't know, it's a nice color, don't you think?"
"Sure dad, whatever you say," he giggled.
Seven hours had passed, and Jeff and his father were on the way out of the building, when they heard her voice. "Bye Jeff, come back and see me sometime. Maybe we can have lunch!" It was Sharon.
"Sure, I'd love to! Well, bye for now!" he exclaimed to the beautiful young woman.
"Wow, son, I didn't realize you were such the babe magnet."
Jeff grinned sheepishly. "Neither did I."
"Wanna grab a bite to eat before we head home?" Jeff was already hungry, and growing more so by the minute.
"Sounds good, but what about Mom?" he asked.
"Jeff, we need to talk about that. Here! Let's stop at the Mainline Grille." The pair walk in, get a table, and order something to drink.
"What do you mean you need to talk to me about Mom?" Jeff asks.
"Well son, you see, there comes a point in some marriages where things don't work out as we hoped they would. You see, your mother and I aren't getting along like we used to. We've been fighting about the smallest things, and honestly, I don't think it's working out anymore." His father frowned. "I -- We wanted to keep you in the dark on this, and see if we could work things out, but it's just not working."
Jeff sits silently staring at his father with a blank look on his face.
"I'm sorry to tell you this son, but we filed for divorce last week while you were out looking for a job. I'm moving out in a week or so."
"I'm not hungry anymore," Jeff says as he gets up from the table. "I'm gonna walk home."
A lot of things were already on Jeff's mind. His grandfather had passed away only 2 weeks ago, his girlfriend of 2 years dumped him for his best friend only three days ago, the same day his father was in an automobile accident, and he lost his job as a web designer two weeks ago because he "wasn't producing marketable content". His life was already in shambles. Now this. He continued to walk, headed for home.
As he reached the front porch, he heard shouting, so he sat down on the porch to wait it out.
"No, I ONLY told him what he needed to hear, thank you very much!" It was his fathers voice. Apparently now they were fighting because he decided to walk home. Jeff felt it necessary to try to intervene in this one. He opened the door and walked in. His mother was crying, sitting at the kitchen table. His father turned around as the door shut and saw the disgusted look on his son's face.
"What are you guys fighting about?" Jeff asked.
"Your mother seems to think that I shouldn't have told you anything."
"Mom, it's better that I know now, than find out when he moves out." Jeff stated.
"Shut up." His mother sobbed. "Just shut up...I didn't want things to turn out like this." she said.
Jeff frowned. "I'm going to bed." he said, and started to walk to his room.
He stopped, turned around, and looked at both his parents with disgust. "You know, this world of mine used to be a much better place. Now everything's falling apart. I'm going to bed."
"Goodnight, son," his father said.
"I don't wanna hear it. It's not a good night, and probally never will be again." he remarked.
"I'm sorry, Jeff," his mother said.
"No, don't be." he continued, "I have just one thing to say to the entire world before I go to bed though..." he said looking at both of them. "May the world be a better place when I wake up, and if it's not, well, FUCK YOU ALL!"
His parents gasped as he stormed up the stairs and slammed the door.
"No son of mine is going to talk like that in this house!" Jeff's father barked.
"Oh, Just let him be." replied Jeff's mother, "He's got a lot going on. It'll all be okay tomorrow."
"I hope so," he said, now holding her hand.
"I hope so."
This nodeshell was rescued out of boredom. I am in no way affiliated with the nodeshell rescue team.
Many thanks to NightShadow for helping me locate a few errors I made during my fun little writeup here.