Janice looked herself over in the mirror. 2 months of exercise and healthy eating brought her back down to her original weight, her hips and breasts slightly bigger than before.

                She walked into the restroom, placing makeup apon her face, red lips matching her thigh-high red dress. The fragrance of vanilla danced apon her skin. She tried to look nice for her husband tonight. Change up her look and cause her husband to look at her in awe. Men tended to get bored of the same old thing. Who wouldn’t?

                Janice wanted to make this marriage work. Not only for herself, but for her children as well. She didn’t want them growing up without the love of a father, their father. She wanted the best for them. Her husband had told her that he’d pick her up at 7:00 tonight to take her out to dinner. Her and the children, so she wanted to look extra special.

                She went into the living room and sat down on the sofa. She began to flip through the channels in wait for her husband. The t.v. was loud, but no sound reached her ears. She was too busy thinking about yesterdays events. She’d taken Darius to the mall to get him more clothes for school, with Hazel in her stroller. When Janice asked what Darius wanted, he kept pointing things out for her and insisting she tried them on.

                Darius was an exceptionally smart child and she knew this. Janice knew what Darius was trying to do by picking out things for her. It meant that he’d noticed the way his father failed to look at his mother.

                So, trying to give her son hope, she bought the red dress, earrings and perfume Darius picked out and put it on for dinner tonight. She kept wondering if this would really work out. She had her doubts and this was because she knew her husband. It was already passed 8:30 pm, even though he specifically told her 7:00 pm. She decided to call him. Apon pulling out her cellphone, she dialed her husband’s number. After just 3 rings, a voice resounded from the other end of the phone, out of breath.

“He-hello?”

“..Charles?”, she could hear him clearing his throat and a faint jingling of metal in the background. “Yeah?”

“Me and the children have been waiting for you.. It’s past 7:00”

“Oh.. I lost track of time. Be there shortly.”

“Okay…” She hesitated in asking because she didn’t know whether or not she wanted to know… Curiosity got the best of her. “…What are you doing?”

She’d asked the question she already knew the answer to.

..and his response came too quickly for her.

“Running.”

                Such a pitiful excuse. He said he was running, but she knew what he was really doing. She felt a pain in her chest. “Okay.” She could just picture him, laying beside another.. kissing another. Her heart was breaking at the sound of his voice.

“I’ll see you when I get home, alright, Janice?”

“Okay.”

                He hung up. Without a ‘goodbye’ or a ‘talk to you later’. He didn’t even say he loved her anymore. Even if he didn’t, she still wanted to hear those words from him so that she could think of how he actually cared about her feelings. She got up and threw her cellphone at the wall, breaking it in the process. She heard Hazel crying as she grabbed her hair, pacing back and forth. The stress was truly weighing on her.

                Darius approached his mother, worry evident in his voice. “Is everything alright, mommy?” She just looked at him. She loved her kids more than anything in the world, she just hated that they were his. Janice couldn’t fully pull herself together. She tried her best. “Do you want to see Grandma and Grandpa?”, she asked, hands still entangled in her hair.

                Darius didn’t necessarily like his grandparents. They treated him more like a baby than his parents did, applying sloppy kisses to his child-like face and baby-talking him. However, he’d never seen his mother like this before, so he figured maybe she needed to see her parents. Just to get away. So, he’d give her that much. “Yes, ma’am.”

“Alright. Go and get your shoes and jacket on while I get your sister.”

                Darius was contempt with the concept of going to see his grandparents, but he did what he was told, nonetheless. His mother went up to her room and picked up her baby girl from the lavender crib. She grabbed her purse and made her way to Darius’s room, with sleeping Hazel in her arms.

“Are you ready?”

Darius nodded.