Growing boy- 2

Eric wrinkled his nose as he entered his mother’s bedroom. It smelled of stale perfume, sweat and alcohol. He quickly selected a pen from the bureau drawer and was on his way back to the computer when he met his mother at the door to her bedroom. “What were you doing in here?” she asked.

“I needed a pen,” he said, holding it up to show her.

She simply frowned and brushed past him into her room. Eric heard the door shut as he walked away. He went back to his game, but it wasn’t long before he heard his mother call his name. She was using a tone that usually spelled doom for Eric. He couldn’t imagine what had gotten her so upset, but he snapped into motion and was in her room seconds later.

Rachel was holding her wallet and she shook it at him accusingly as he entered the room. “I had almost two hundred dollars in here last night and now it’s gone,” she snapped.

Eric shrugged, why was she asking him? He knew better than to touch her purse. “I didn’t take it,” he said.

Her face contorted and she said with a sneer, “Well, you were just in here.”