Tormented Soul Ch. 02

This story picks up where chapter 1 left off, neat how that chapter thing works .

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Charley's bedroom was in a different part of the house. It was part of the add-on/renovation that they had to do when his parents were surprised by the arrival of his twin sisters. Half of the attached two car garage was turned into a bedroom with an in house doorway for Charley. Being the only boy meant that Charley had his own room while his sisters were bunked two to a room. He also never had to worry about hand me down clothes. That was not a problem for any of the kids now. As his parent's income increased none of their kids would ever be caught in hand-me downs again.

Things were tight back then and dad only sprung for one extra bathroom that Charley had to share with his younger sisters. He had asked his father about building another but it was a money issue besides when his two older sisters went off to college their bathroom would open up and they certainly would not need a four bathroom house.

Charley learned how to deal with the problems of sharing a bathroom with two teenage girls. During the week he set his alarm to get up early and kept his personal toiletries in a shaving kit he kept under the sink. He had not started shaving yet, he only had light peach fuzz. One thing he learned was all those who talked about how dirty teenage boys are never shared a bathroom with teenage girls.

He had also learned to like the early mornings, being up a ready for school before his sisters had even woke. It was one of his favorite things to sit at the table in the morning as his mom put together breakfast and his dad read the paper. His mom still believed in the traditional breakfast. Nothing from a microwave, no toaster pastries for the family unless it was one of the weekends were mom and dad "slept in". He enjoyed the smell of the coffee even though he could not stand the taste. Until it quit working his mom insisted on the using the old stove top coffee pot her parent had used. There was something reassuring about the steamy gurgle of the old percolator mixed with the quite voices of his parents as they waited to have their first cup. This was Charley's alone time with his parents which was hard to come by in a family with five kids. They didn't talk much about him but he liked listening to their discussions.

He could no longer enjoy those mornings.

Charley walked slowly back to his bedroom. It had been a year since he last cried and he had promised himself no more but he was close to tears now. It was one thing to have your self-doubts and insecurities reinforced by the teasing and bullying of other kids, even on occasion your own sisters. It is a whole other level to hear your parents voice them also.

Charley had thought he had made some progress. Seventh and eighth grade had been hell. The natural cruelty of kids was compounded by his parents attempts to involve him in athletic and group activities where is physical and social shortcomings were only more highlighted. Finally, either from listening to his pleading or just tired of being disappointed in him they allowed him to quit those activities. His freshman year in high school was looking pretty good, relatively speaking. So far he had managed to navigate the social minefield that is high school without calling any attention to him-self. He was almost a non-entity. He belonged to no clubs, had no extracurricular activities and really had no friends. Thus far his classes had no group assignments. During lunch he managed to find himself a place out of the way; where none of the social castes held sway or roamed the halls.

Charley's school work had improved. He was still not honor society material but for the last grading period he had even managed one A. Sure it was in health but it was an A none the less when he had not seen many of those. Charley was not a stupid individual. He had figured out what part of his problem was all on his own and that was his self confidence. His regular assignments were Ok but it was taking exams he had big problems. He would rush through them always second guessing his answers and changing them even though he knew the material. He started forcing himself to slow down and quit second guessing himself. He was not always successful but he had made progress.

It was somewhat hurtful that his parents had not seemed to notice the improvement in his grades but to be honest compared to his sister's Charley's grades still looked dismal. Added to that was the day the grades came out one sister had a game and another had a concert performance so it was a busy evening at the Robert's household and there was no reason for barely average achievement to get much notice.

Charley enter his room closed and locked the door. His room was not a typical teenager's room, it was clean. Charley was a bit of a neatness freak in that regard. There were no clothes left on the floor, everything was put away and neat. He had a few posters on the walls of cars; the local pro football teams and much to his mom's chagrin their cheerleaders. His dad managed to persuade her to let him keep it up arguing that at least he showed some interest in girls. Charley was interested in girls but getting the courage to talk to one was another story.

He turned out the light and lay fully clothed on the bed staring up into the darkness. He fought hard against it but the tear drops fell from the corners of his eyes. His own father questioned his parentage while his mom thought he was brain damaged not to mention they thought he was ugly, uncoordinated, dork. His older sisters barely acknowledged his presence in school though to be fair they rarely saw each other. It was the same with his younger sisters when he was in middle school. At home they were only together at meal time were discussion centered on them and their activities. He had no activities so there was not much to discuss. He spent most of his time in his room on his computer. He just played single person games. No chat rooms or social networking for him. He did not even have a Facebook page, what would he do with it, network with whom? In a family of seven people he was alone, now more than ever.

To be continued...