The class divide
My Mum's family are pretty well off - professionals with big houses, 4x4s, that sort of thing - but my Dad was.. shall we say, differently moneyed. If you cunts met him in the pub you'd think he was a total dropout; never doing the same job more than a few months, always on the scrounge for change for a pint, would bend your ear on any subject but never really managed to actually be accomplished enough to settle into, you know, a career.

That didn't stop my Mum from falling completely in love with him, of course, which went down like burnt caviar with her parents. They took against my old man immediately and would make life as difficult as possible for them both.
I wasn't born yet but I've been told the stories of ambushing him with formal occasions just to watch him be refused entry to a posh restaurant because he didn't fit the dress code, or putting him on the spot at those godawful pretend "charity auctions" where people just waggle their expense account dicks at each other. Anyway, when they realised my Mum simply refused to break up with him they basically closed ranks and shut both of them out. They moved across the country to start out on their own, and although they couldn't afford it I was born about a year later.

Well wouldn't you know it, the cunt in-laws were right and my Dad fucked off when I was about 2; I've only seen him occasionally since then and I'm in my forties now. My Mum didn't forget the way the family had turned her out though and supported me alone, in a shit and decaying part of the country. I don't want to be too specific but when there's a cheese named after where you live, you know it's a shithole.

Anyway, every now and again the "family" would get in touch, or try to, asking after me, trying to make my Mum feel bad that instead of doing extra classes after school I was fucking around with a ball and my mates. They'd tell her we were welcome to come back any time... as long as my Dad wasn't involved. Looking back now, they didn't even know he'd left, but my Mum was way too proud to take up the offer, preferring them to think she was happy with Dad.

Meanwhile the area we lived just got rougher, you know what it's like when a whole town just gets passed over for any kind of positive investment.
Half the high street was shuttered; an unvandalised phone box was rarer than rocking horse shit. Generally you get on with it, and as a teenage boy I just sort of kept my head down and didn't let it bother me. But deep down I knew Mum was freaked out just a little bit more every time something happened. I wasn't going to be a shut in for her benefit so I made a point of being home when I said I would and managed to keep off the old Bill's radar by staying out of trouble.

I could always tell when Mum had had a letter from back home because she'd get really antsy, telling me I didn't appreciate what I had and accusing me of wanting to leave her. Looking back, it was a coping mechanism she was using to get her head around what she knew had to happen.

By the time I was 16 there were local gangs actively recruiting runners and vandals, kids who are only too keen to have an excuse to go smashing stuff up, literally at the school gates. Even some of my mates got involved. Eventually, of course, they didn't want to take no for an answer and on the way home I got jumped by four guys.

I managed to get away without being seriously hurt but when I got home my Mum freaked the fuck out and immediately sent me to live with my Auntie and Uncle in Bel Air.
( pineapplecharm D d M Y, H:i, Thu 13 Jul 2017, 14:19, 17 replies)

FRESH

( 2 Can Chunder Word to your mums, I came to prod bums, Thu 13 Jul 2017, 14:38, closed)

I approve mightily of this return to classic QOTW form.

( .Yeti. El amor en los tiempos del cólera, Thu 13 Jul 2017, 14:40, closed)

It was a long, long time ago
in a qotw far, far away when I first pissed in my own mouth.
( pineapplecharm D d M Y, H:i, Fri 14 Jul 2017, 12:57, closed)

my Auntie and Uncle in Bel Air. Mike Lindup
( $$ ✅, Thu 13 Jul 2017, 14:56, closed)

Well played sir, well played.

( @><|= w0nu!) or cunt to my friends, Fri 14 Jul 2017, 5:54, closed)

top hole
and a surprisingly good read, to boot
( Smash Monkey lowering the tone of the whole internet, Fri 14 Jul 2017, 11:10, closed)

Die in a fire, Skagra.

( monster munch person, man, woman... camera... TV?, Fri 14 Jul 2017, 12:28, closed)

Huh!
At least my shit is original.

Gweptogmous, auspherlene kimmoxterrands.
(Dr Skagra glorious glargzhem, Sat 15 Jul 2017, 19:53, closed)

A female dr
Fucking skagra's going to cream his virginal pants
( rachelswipe with a fork, Sun 16 Jul 2017, 18:22, closed)

Huh!
The time travelling cunt is just copying me.

I'm mortified.

XXXXXXXXX
(Dr Skagra glorious glargzhem, Mon 17 Jul 2017, 20:15, closed)

Excellent, would be fooled again.

(localboy purveyor of pisspoor puns, Fri 14 Jul 2017, 14:41, closed)

:D Subtle.

( stuj (^(^;;^)^) GO TEAM SPIDERS!(^(^;;^)^), Sun 16 Jul 2017, 6:47, closed)

Damn you
Damn you and all your kind
( rachelswipe with a fork, Sun 16 Jul 2017, 7:56, closed)

MOTHERFUCKER...
made it to the last sentence before the penny dropped.
( willenium Fist bump for verification, Sun 16 Jul 2017, 15:01, closed)

This is good,
a solid return to QOTW.
( social hand grenade I was a lurker before you were a lurker, Tue 18 Jul 2017, 18:00, closed)