One Shots

She walks down the hall of the court house, the sound of her heels echoing off the almost empty walls. She arrives to the door she needs to be at and sits on a bench outside it waiting, she’s twenty minutes early. She hears his laugh before she sees him and can feel the anger rise in her.


This was not where she wanted to be by a long shot, her son Luke had a field trip today, he was only 5 and it was his first field trip Marissa wanted to be there and yet here she was again in court. The first time she’d petitioned the court for child support was a joke, John never made it to the court date and then came up with some convoluted excuse saying he was sure a paternity test could be faked.


She remembered the day she called him in New York, she’d been crying, she was 20 and her and John were in a constant state of on again off again. When she told him she was pregnant and that it was his she couldn’t help but hope that it would trigger something inside of him to grow up and accept responsibility for his child and his girlfriend. Instead he’d gone off in a fit of rage talking about how the baby could be anyone’s and how was he to know what or who she did while he was away. That was the first time she actually noticed his disdain for her, while also trying to make sure he could keep a handle on her. Looking back; there were clear signs that she should have ended this part of her life long ago. Every compliment he’d ever paid her was met with a backwards warped reality, like “she was pretty, for a stocky girl” or his favorite to say to her was “I love you, but I could never marry someone like you”


It was mental abuse that she never realized was happening because when their relationship was good, at least in Marissa’s mind it was very good; looking back though she could now see what her friends meant when they said it was like he blew a kiss while firing a gun. It was always about her being there for him but never him being there for her and as he rounded the corner now her anger bubbled. He walked hand in hand with a pretty blonde, she had to be at least 5’7” and she was supermodel thin, it wasn’t that though that had pissed Marissa off so badly however; no it was instead the barely visible baby bump and the way John seemed to coddle her like she was about to deliver any day.


Marissa wanted to scream, throw a fit make the biggest scene possible, she wished now she kept Luke out of school, brought him here faced John with having to look at brown eyes that mimicked his own, the same Tavares smile he showed the world mirrored in a 5 year olds frame. She wanted to show him his son and force him to accept his past in front of the woman he was calling his future. She wondered for a moment if he was giving this woman the same false security he’d shown Marissa for years, and if so then she felt bad for the poor girl because she had no idea what she was getting herself into.


A guard stepped out of the room and ushered the 3 of them in, the judge merely nodded in Marissa’s direction giving her permission to speak first “Your honor” she said and cleared her throat looking towards her lawyer who only nodded “I’m here today to petition for child support of my 5 year old son Luke, from his father Mr. Tavares” she heard John snort and felt her anger flare up again. “Mr. Tavares, do you have something to say?” the judge asks and John nods “Yes your honor, I would like to say that there is no proof that this child is mine, only this woman’s allegations. Now we did have a relationship in high school but your honor, I’ve been in New York for many years now, and her child is only 5” with a huff she handed over a packet the judge opening it slowly to read the pages inside. “Sir I have here a paternity test with results that you are in fact the father, along with the picture of the boy and the resemblance is uncanny”
As the arguments ensue, the blonde making a show of fake crying at how these allegations were hurting her fiancés reputation and how were they supposed to start a family, with this fallacy hanging over them. The day went way Marissa had expected it to, horribly; somehow John’s lawyer had been able to convince the judge that the paternity test in his hands was a fake and that photographs could be easily manipulated. The judgment left John and his Blonde with smug grins on their faces.


As they stepped out into the hall the lawyers dismissing themselves Marissa faced him for the first time “I hope you’re happy” she says her tone flat and her eyes in a hard stare “Of course I am, the truth won” John says his smile lighting up on his entire face “Not you, you piss poor excuse for a human, her. I hope you’re happy with decision you made, I hope you’re happy knowing this face” she says turning her phone around to show the girl a picture of Luke “Will never know his father, I hope you can live with that especially when he” she says with a nod towards John “decides to pull this same trick with you. You see he always wins, he always needs someone to lean on, someone to get him through this hard time and ‘I’m sorry baby, please forgive me, I won’t do it again’ happens over and over, I hope you bask in the first time he tells you ‘you’d be so beautiful if only you lost a few pounds’ or that ‘the kid really ruined you’, he always needs you but heaven forbid you actually need him. Good luck sweetheart, you’re gonna need it”


Marissa turns from the blonde facing John now “And you; all those times I let you make me feel like I was the problem. Every backhanded compliment I took in stride, every single time I let you continue to take advantage of me and slowly but surely put my self esteem further into the gutter. It’s over now, you’re right it’s been a long time since we were in a relationship, and I’m glad you can live with lying about your son. This was never about the child support I could care less I don’t need your money, I’m married, he wants to adopt Luke and I’m going to let him. I found someone that I could actually lean on, and not just be a leaning post. I grew up and I’m leaving you in the past where you belong” with that she turns and makes her way down the hall a proud smile on her face.

Notes

Song Lean On, By Major Lazer and DJ Snake ft. Mo, requested by @A Shuringer.

Two posts in as many days, I've clearly conqured writers block for the moment. Hopefully I can keep the momentum going and get some more written during the week and have a surplus of stories to post while writing others.