Saturday, late morning,

"Nope..."

Swipe.

"Nope..."

Swipe.

"Oh, god, definitely no." Frey shook his head, swiping left once again.

"You're too picky, you'll end up alone." Arun – Frey's best friend – laughed out a little. It caused Frey to smirk while he lounged in bed, swiping girl after girl to the left on Sparkl; a dating-app he used to for a bit of fun every now and then.

Though lately, none of them had been remotely attractive enough to spark a bit of interest in Frey. He didn't even consider chatting with them, let alone meet them.

"Where did all the hot girls go?" Frey whined, throwing his phone aside carelessly, watching it bounce of the bed, hitting the floor with a thump.

"Dude, it could break, you know?"

"If it does, dad will get me a new one anyway." Frey shrugged of Arun's comment, before the boy rolled over to see what Arun was up to.

Arun was still mostly under his covers, typing away on his phone. Frey never considered it impolite or rude to let his friend sleep on the floor while he possessed a king-sized bed with plenty of space to share.

Frey generally didn't share his bed.

With a girl? Maybe.

With a guy? Even a bigger nope than all the girls he just swiped to the left.

Frey knew his dad would more than happily replace his phone if it would break, since he was the kind of parent that didn't want his kid to walk around with a broken phone – or worse, without one. And since Frey had an overly baring, protective and strict mother to deal with on a daily base, his father tended to compensate by spoiling him a bit.

It was all a matter of balance, and to Frey, it worked fine.

Balance had been a key-word in Frey's life for as long as he remembered.

He balanced out his goody-two-shoe life forced upon him by his mother, by acting out during the weekends, when it was mostly his father that supervised him.

If his father payed attention.

He balanced out the periods in which he felt shitty, by being extra active whenever he did have tons of energy to spare.

Frey pulled away the covers, partially, to take a look at Arun's phone.

The boy was chatting on Sparkl, and it peaked Frey's interest enough to try and snatch the phone away. "Got a victim there?"

"You should really stop calling them like that." Arun frowned, rolling away from the other boy. Both to prevent Frey from taking the phone and ruining his chat, and to shield off the screen with his own body. "They're humans too, they have feelings, and I think they deserve respect."

Frey snorted in response, pushing himself up with a laugh. "Arun, they're on Sparkl. They don't deserve respect."

"You're on Sparkl, too." Arun backfired.

Yet, Frey shrugged. "I'm on it for a night of fun, not to find the girl of my dreams." The thought of a relationship didn't sound particularly appealing to Frey. He found himself too young to deal with that – enjoyed his freedom a bit too much. "Live a little, Arun. You don't need a relationship, you just need to get laid and have some fun."

"Remind me again, why are we friends?" Arun voiced his question while pushing himself up on his elbows.

Frey was just about to give him a sarcastic answer, when footsteps sounded in the hallway outside of his bedroom door.

"Frey!?" His mother already sounded annoyed, and he hadn't even shown his face that morning.

"What?" Frey snapped back, matching her level of annoyance because he secretly hoped she was still out doing groceries or whatever.

"Why are you still in bed?" She threw open the door without a new warning, getting a dirty look from Frey in return for her actions.

"Ever heard of knocking?"

"Ever heard of house-rules? Which require you to clean your room on Friday's?" She snapped back, sending a look across the room to take in the mess, until they landed on Arun. "Arun, sweety, it's best if you go home soon. Frey hasn't done any of his chores and he's going to catch up today."

"Yes ma'am." Arun nodded, closed Sparkl on his phone and pulled his bag closer. "I'll be out in five..."

"Oh honey, I made breakfast, what kind of mother would I be if I would let you leave without a decent breakfast?" She smiled warmly at him, with the loving look she couldn't ever muster to send to her own son. "Get dressed and I'll set the table. But after that, Frey has chores to do."

Arun nodded once more, as Frey already rolled over, his back towards his mother.

"I want you down in five, Frey."

Frey rolled his eyes at the wall, ignoring her, waiting for her to close the door again. But since the thud of the door never came, he turned around to find her staring at him with annoyance dripping from every pour of her body.

"It would be great if you'd close the door, so I can get dressed and actually make it downstairs in five."

"As if I've never seen you..."

"Mom!" Frey threw his pillow in her direction with a horrified look on his face. The pillow caused her to duck out of the way, giving him enough time to barge towards the door and slam it shut in front of her, turning the lock quickly.

"Frey Sanders!" --his mother slammed the door-- "open this door, right now!"

"Five, mom, in five!" he snapped at her, swirling around on his feet, noticing Arun was feeling a bit awkward over the encounter.

One would say, after a year, he would be accustomed to the none-existing mother-son bond in their household.

"Let's just get dressed..." he muttered, highly on edge and annoyed because of his mother.

If it were up to Frey, he would've long left her to move in with his father, but neither of them thought that's was good idea. His father lived in a two-bedroom apartment downtown and hardly ever had any nutritional foods in his fridge, let alone him cooking Frey a decent dinner. He mostly had beer or water as options to drink and to outsiders, he seemed just a loser who never had any success in life. As an insider, Frey knew his father could afford so much more. It wasn't like he was rich, but he did have plenty of money to buy a decent house.

But ever since Frey's mother divorced him, he'd been living on the low side of life, putting all his time and effort in his club; which was a huge success.

Now that Frey was about to become eighteen, he aimed to move out of there as soon as possible, to get away from his mother's suffocating grip on his life.

She literally planned his entire week.

Even his fun-time was scheduled; she's that controlling.

Arun and Frey dressed up in silence, and while Arun made his way downstairs, Frey decided on taking a bathroom break. As he left his room, Julia, his two-year-younger sister appeared in front of him with an angry look on her face.

"Hey Jules," Frey hummed in a kind greeting, cocking his head sideways curiously. "She got on your nerves already?"

"Oh, Frey!" She cried out in a low voice. "I can't take it anymore. Have you seen what she did to my schedule?"

"Eh, no?"

"She signed me up for ballet. She figures it's a great addition to my career..."

"You really need to tell her you're not making a career out of dancing, Jules." Frey chuckled, but sighed deeply afterwards. "And tell her you really don't have any time left for any other activities..."

"I did, and she got angry. She said she's doing everything to help us become successful in life and we're all a bunch of ungrateful whine-babies."

"Those are not her words."

"Well... ungrateful was what she called us."

"And with us, she means you and me, right? The twins are the apples of her eye." Frey crossed his arms, knowing his mother already gave up on him, and she was about to give up on Julia too.

"Well... Rudy had a tantrum last night, and Victor had one this morning..." Julia shrugged, not really caring that the twins were starting to act out. "She wasn't too pleased with them..."

"Lemme guess... which is my fault?"

"Well, you did babysit them three times this week..." Julia smirked, while Frey shrugged with a smug grin on his face; knowing their younger twin brothers were finally starting to realise their mother wasn't as cool as they thought she was up until a while ago.

"She made me do it." Frey defended his actions of setting the twins up against their mother, before the two of them chuckled. "But I have to report for breakfast in three... two... one..."

"Frey! Breakfast!"

They rolled our eyes in unison and then Frey headed downstairs to join Arun at the breakfast table. He was instantly greeted with the smell of pancakes poured with syrup, as he like them best.

It wasn't like his mother was the worst in the world. She loves her kids, and she did take good care of them. But she tended to over-do everything.

Like controlling their schedules from minute to minute.

Like deciding what their careers should be once they would graduate.

Julia was supposed to become this great dancer, and she was talented indeed. She just rather wanted to be an environmental lawyer and fight for a better world. She was just sixteen years old and her grades were heading in the right direction to go to law school in two years.

Frey wasn't entirely sure what it was that his mother wanted Rudy and Victor to become – but he had a hunch, since she was teaching both of them multiple languages and all about history. She kept taking them to museums about war and other historical milestones, so it was a safe guess it would have to do with some historical or archaeological stuff.

It was what both of them seem to find interesting anyway.

In case of Frey, she was at a loss; since she initially tried for him to follow into her footsteps and take over the restaurant she owned for years in a row.

But then the crisis struck, the restaurant was sold, and she found herself a job as a chef in another restaurant.

Then she wanted him to learn how to cook, but Frey rather baked.

Then she thought Frey could do that, but when he noticed, he started to purposely burn stuff until she thought Frey wasn't talented enough.

Currently she wanted him to try out digital designing--which seemed interesting and fitted his former hobbies--but he just wanted to take over his father's club one day and be as popular and fun as he was even now that he was 42.

Frey just didn't want some stupid, lame-ass nine-to-five job and die bored and depressed.