Can You Be Any Sadder?

{ARMANDO}

The knocking on my bedroom door reminds me of why I need to start sleeping at my place. But I can't, I won't hear the end of it from my mother. She will be calling now and then asking, Armando this Armando that.

My mother will want to know if I have taken supper or breakfast. Hell, she will even ask if I have taken a shower. And no matter how much I have tried to tell her I am a big man now I can handle everything; she always tells me to shush, I am his boy.

"Armando dear."

I groan and turn around and face the wall, what is wrong with that woman?

"Don't you dare call me woman! Armando?" My mother shouts and before I roll my eyes she says, "don't you dare roll your eyes."

I cover my head ready to go back to sleep. This is one of those mornings where I sleep for the whole day hoping that my mother forgets that I exist so I can stay in bed all morning.

"Let him be Esme." I hear my dad saying in a low tone.

Esme?

Seriously those two still act as if they are newly wedded when they already have a son who is supposed to have someone calling him something like Ar? Arm? Armie?

I smile at my stupid attempt to find myself a cute nickname, what in the world is Arm? Sounds like a body part, I guess some names are not supposed to be cute. Let me just stick with my name, "Armando!"

"Oh, no we can't let him be, he has to wake up." I hear my mother tell my father.

I try to listen to my mother whispering and I can't hear a word, she calls again and says, "Armando you have to wake up or else I will knock this door down."

If it was not for the headache and my aching eyes I would have shouted at my mother as I use to when I was young. Whenever she used to wake me up for school and say she was going to knock the door down, I would shout at her saying, "mother that doesn't scare me at all."

And then after a few minutes, I will wake up from bed, feeling like crying, and go get ready for school. But now I am sure if I don't open up, she will surely knock down the door.

"Boy, you need to wake up." My father knocks and no, not using his hands but his leg, my father is something else. The door opens and I hold on to the blanket over my head tight. I did not lock my damn door!

"Come on. Wake up." My dad says.

"Armando darling." My mother calls and pulls onto the blanket I am holding so tightly. She sits on the bed and calls again, "Armando you have to wake up."

"Mother, I will wake up later. It is still early."

"Early? Armando, it is almost 1 PM." My father says with a disapproving face and all I want to tell him is I don't care if he looks at me like sleeping is a sin.

Is he lying? How is it almost 1 PM, I haven't gotten any sleep at all. My mother pulls the blanket and I look at her. "Mother, can I sleep for ten more minutes, please?"

My father and mother stares at me and shook their head. Both of them have their reasons for not allowing me to continue my peaceful sleep.

"Peaceful? Do you call that peaceful? Man, you should see how other people sleep so you can compare your 'peaceful' sleep to theirs." A voice inside my head says. Truthfully, I didn't get any sleep, I have been trying everything possible to make me sleep, and nothing.

My level of insomnia has gone up like crazy, and when I hear anyone saying they get only five hours of sleep, I wish to tell them to lend me an hour of sleep…

"Armando, Armando. It's way better when you are asleep and not staring at me like that." My mother tells me.

"Get ready son, it is late already."

I look up at my father with a questioning look, late for what? I didn't make any plan for the day, hell I have no plan for the week, nor any plan for my life. "Your session?" My father says and leaves the room while murmuring, "can you be any sadder son."

"Noah," my mother calls in a warning tone and my father stops in his track, he looks back and tells me, "Sorry son." He had to, or else he wasn't going to hear the end of it from my mother.

I shrug and tell him, "Sure dad."

"Can you be any sadder?" The voice asks.

Instead of answering it, I look at my mother who is staring at me as if I am the most precious thing she has in the world and if she can hear my thoughts, she touches my face and says, "you are my gem son, don't forget that."

I lean into her hand, and I could hear my mind fighting itself screaming, "ask her to hold you with both her hands." If she did, I am sure I will sleep in no time, but I am not a ten-year-old kid, and I don't want to add that to the number of problems my mother has on her list regarding her only son.

"You have to wake up and join us for brunch, forgive your father. He is just tired; I am sure he didn't mean anything in the wrong way love."

"It is okay mother, because seriously, can I get any sadder? I think I have reached the peak."

My mother gives me a warm smile and stands up. I wait for her to leave the room and that is when I leave my bed. I walk to my window and look outside. Yap, they were not lying, there is no sunrise.

It is 1 PM.