The day I wrote a song about you

Chapter 34: Passion

Trevor Belinsky took 12 hours to come out and weighted almost 10 pounds. He was a big baby. No wonder my sister in law looked like she was about to pop. Poor girl. I was more and more sure each day that I didn't want to have kids. I felt like I had already raised a hundred.

Things were calmer now, Ash and his new family were already settled down and mom was in good terms with me again.

I hadn't seen or talked to Nico in days but I didn't know how to address the whole situation. So when he called me almost two weeks after that, I almost jump in bed. It was past my bed time but I couldn't stop thinking about him.

"Hello?"

"Hey." He said softly. "I'm so sorry, Cara. I didn't- I wanted to talk to you but... I missed you. I'm sorry."

"You don't have to be sorry." I whispered.

"I yelled to your mom." He said.

"And she yelled at you. She didn't have to do that, she-"

"She was just worried. I get it." He sighed. "She's scared to lose you."

"She... she likes you, Nico. I can see it. She just... she's been worried 'cause I had been acting weird. Those side effects were because of my medication, so I stopped taking it, what caused me to act even weirder." I finally explained. "Like the other day when I was-"

"You stopped taking it?" He asked surprised.

"Yeah. I didn't like how they were making me feel. Now I'm afraid to tell my mom but I know I gotta take a new one. I can't be like-" I sighed. "I'm sorry, I can't even talk. My mind is going so fast."

"You need to tell your mom, Cara." Nico told me.

"I don't wanna talk about it, please talk to me." I whispered.

"I was actually calling to tell you something else, too."

"What is it?"

He paused. "There's a date for my exhibition. March 19th. Save the date. I want you there."

"Yay. I'm so excited." I smiled to myself. "Wow, Nico. You did it."

I could feel him smile at the other side of the line. "I did it."

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Thursday nights my mom was usually at home. It was the perfect time to talk to her. I knocked on her bedroom door and her soft voice told me to come in. I walked inside and saw her in the bed, leaning her back on the headboard, glasses on as she read a book.

"Hey, mom."

"Hey, sweetie."

She opened one of his arms for me to lie down beside her and I rested my head against her chest, as she continued reading, stroking my hair.

"What are you reading?"

"The ocean at the end of the lane." She told me.

"Is it good?"

"Yeah. You should read it." She said, stopping to stroke my hair for a moment to turn the page.

"Yeah, so I can finish it four years later." I scoffed.

My mom sighed and we stayed silent for a few moments.

"I stopped taking the medication, mom."

She paused for a moment. "Do you think I didn't notice?" She chuckled.

"You knew?" I raised my head and stared at her, who had a little smile on her lips.

"I was waiting for you to tell me."