A jerk

"My kid is a jerk but harmless."
With a sullen face, he looked at the man on the other side of the desk as he uttered the words that did not surprise the headmaster of the school. Like father like son, he thought, not averting his gaze from the paunchy, grey face of the unwilling parent.
"This is not the first time I have asked you to restrain your son." After a short silence, he added that the boy was a negative influence on the other pupils and suspension was inevitable.
The father of the deranged boy did not react but continued to stare ahead with a surly face.
"You can go and take him with you you will hear from us, please..."
The headmaster stood up and opened the door of his office as a sign that the father could go.
Slowly the man stood up and trudged out of the office. The smell of hard liquor had not escaped the director's notice.

She turned off the heater to spare herself the blast of cold air until the engine had a chance to heat up.
She was still not sure if she would go. She had not seen the boy since his father had thrown her out of the house. She had spent the first few days driving around in her car, upset, and spending the night there. Gradually she had been able to build up life again thanks to her job. She now lived permanently in a hotel and she liked it. The fact that the boy had called her and even managed to find her had surprised her at first. Three streets away from the hotel she stopped the car. This was madness. There was no reason why she should have to rehash the past she had left behind.
Slowly she got out of the car and closed the door.
At the quay, she took the SIM card out of her phone and threw it into the water.

The van wasn't big but it was home, became his new home. It was better than sticking with a drunk father or being homeless. He knew he would never make a chance if they would find him now. CPS, the school's director, his father had made him clear his only way out was being a slave of the system. While he used one of the old fashioned porta-potties he stole from a vintage shop he lifted the bottle with liquor. Just one sip to make and keep life easier, he said to himself. Once he finished this bottle he would stop and build his life just like his mom did as she left him behind. A life alone without responsibilities was so much easier. He was free and could do as he liked. How many boys of thirteen like him could say that? He grinned and fell off the pot unconscious while he dropped the bottle.

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Prompt: @mariannewest

Prompts used:
Link: https://steemit.com/hive-161155/@mariannewest/3-part-weekend-freewrite-2-12-2022

Link: https://steemit.com/hive-161155/@mariannewest/day-1584-5-minute-freewrite-monday-prompt-hard-liquor

Photo: pixabay.com