Page 56 of Pretty Baby

“Caleb! Baby!” His mom slurred.

Great, his mom was drunk and cherry. This wasn’t going to go well. He wanted to hang up. He wished Grant was there to take the phone from him. “Hey, mom.”

“It’s been so long since I’ve seen you. When are you coming, home baby?”

Caleb didn’t like when she called him baby. Caleb was only the baby for one person and that was his Daddy. He was Grant’s pretty baby. “I’m not coming home, mom. I don’t live there anymore.”

“I know that,” his mom snapped. “I’m not stupid. I went to school. I got my education.”

“It’s not my fault I didn’t go to school mom. You never enrolled me,” Caleb pointed out. They’d had this argument many times.

“Oh, I forgot. It’s my fault that you are so stupid. It’s my fault your life sucks. It’s always all my fault. I’m a terrible mother.” She sniffed but Caleb knew she wasn’t really crying.

She was a terrible mother but Caleb had never said those words to her. “I never said any of those things. You say them.”

“That’s how you make me feel!” she accused.

“I don’t mean to make you feel like that.” He really didn’t. This was why he hated talking to his mom. She hated him, he didn’t know why, and she never said anything nice.

“Well, you do. And you don’t even take care of me anymore. I haven’t gotten any money in forever. How do you expect me to live!”

And there it was. The reason for the call. Caleb sighed. “I told you when I moved out of state that I wouldn’t be sending you any more money. I gave you almost two hundred thousand dollars. My entire last check. That should have been enough to get you by until you figured out what to do.”

“Figured out what to do?” His mom screeched. Caleb had to pull the phone away from his ear. “After all I sacrificed for you? This is how you treat your mother that gave up everything for you!”

She was on a roll now and there was no stopping her. Caleb shuffled down the hall to the living room. Gus and Lucy were already laid out. Lily sprawled in her cat tree. Daisy was racing down the opposite hallway chasing a ball with Gunny. Just a normal day in his house. Except for the fact that he was being called every name in the book by the woman that was supposed to love him above any other.

He got to listen to how she’d had her own dreams but they hadn’t matter because she always put Caleb first.

It was a fucking joke. His mom had slept around. She went from man to man with no real place for Caleb until he had been spotted and discovered by an agent. From that point on his mother cared about nothing other than the money. If Caleb had to work twenty hours a day she didn’t care. Hell, at one point his own mother had suggested he sleep with a producer to get a movie role.

She didn’t care about him. That wasn’t a new development but it still hurt. Caleb knew that no matter what he did he would never gain his mom’s love. Either she wasn’t built like that or was too selfish to even consider his feelings.

Instead of interrupting Caleb let his mom wind down on her own. It was obvious she was still drinking, he could hear the liquid in the bottle sloshing, as she got louder and meaner.

Caleb didn’t understand how he could be such a failure in her eyes. He’d paid for a good life for her. Had given her over fifteen years of having whatever she wanted. As much as he hated her he also loved her. She was his mom. There was a connection there even if she didn’t feel it.

“And I’ll tell you another thing you faggot!” she screamed. “No one will ever want you! You will be alone for the rest of your life. You are nothing! A loser! If you could even land a man he wouldn’t last long.”

Tears began to fall but Caleb didn’t even bother to wipe them away. He knew his mom was just trying to hurt him and make him doubt himself but he couldn’t help but take her words to heart.

He peered around the room at his new toys. His kitchen playset was still sitting next to his entertainment center. He hadn’t played since his full princess day. He’d almost given in the previous night but he’d been missing Grant.

The last three nights Grant had been working and they hadn’t even gotten to talk on the phone. He’d received several sweet text messages but it wasn’t the same. Didn’t Grant miss him as much as Caleb missed Grant? Obviously not or his Daddy would be making an effort to at least call him.

Caleb shook his head. He was being selfish. Grant had an important job. It wasn’t his fault that Caleb had nothing to do all day. Caleb was so bored. He wanted to do something. Anything! But he also didn’t know what. He didn’t have the passion he’d seen in other people.

Caleb wasn’t creative, didn’t have a need to help others, wasn’t smart. He didn’t even know what kind of job he could do if he even looked.

“Are you even listening to me?” his mom shouted.

“Yes mother,” Caleb responded. He refused to sniffle and let her know he was crying.

“Well, what are you going to do about it?”

“Nothing mother,” Caleb whispered. “I don’t have any more money to give you. I’m sorry.”

“You’ll be sorry! I’ll go to the press! I’ll let them know how you treat your only family. By the time I’m done no one will even look at you. You’re pathetic!”

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