Verbatim [h.s]

Five

My family home is located on the outskirts of London in a quaint area. A lot more greenery around. After getting the tube, I got a taxi to my mum's house. It's at the end of a cul-de-sac with a front garden and a white picket fence. It's a medium three-bedroom home with a nice sized back garden.

The warmth I feel every time I come home is indescribable. No matter where I end up in life, this will forever be my home. The place I feel the safest. Nothing bad has and will ever happen to me as long as I'm there.

The taxi driver pulls up, letting me know the charge on the meter and I hand him the cash over. My mum clearly had been eager to see me too, because as I shut the door to the cab I hear the front door swing open and her petite frame charging at me.

Her dark, almost black hair flows in the wind as she picks up the pace. Her bright white smile matches mine as she launches herself at me. She's slightly taller than me, so she wraps her arms around my shoulders and mine reciprocate, wrapping around her waist.

She's wearing her usual blue denim jeans and a white knitted jumper. She has an assortment of jumpers, every colour, every pattern, every style. 

"I missed you." She whispers in my ear, kisses my temple then giving me one more squeeze. Stepping away, she smiles at me just looking at me then grabs my hand basically pulling me inside.

"I missed you too. I don't like missing my weekly visits with you so never again." Looking over her shoulders, she rolls her eyes and laughs.

Stepping into the house, it's spotless as always. I wouldn't expect anything else from my mother. Even on workdays, she gets up earlier than necessary just to clean the house head to toe. She takes a spring clean to a whole new level. That might the one time of the year I don't want to be around her, she's so stressed and irritable. But it's funny so I stick around.

The layout has the hallway with the stairs to the right, the living room opens up to the left with a double archway and then the single archway at the end of the whole leads to a joint kitchen and dining room. Upstairs, my room sits at the top of the stairs, then the bathroom to the left, then my brother Max's room and my mums at the end of the hallway, the door opposite Max's on the left.

"C'mon, we have lots to discuss." She lets go of my hand so I can bend down to remove my shoes and then I follow through to the dining room. The huge family round table sits to the left as the kitchen and island are to the right, or directly in front as you walk through the archway.

As usual, the very fancy afternoon tea/brunch tower sits in the middle of the table. There's a bottle of prosecco with two flutes, a teapot (for momma) and then two of mum's finest china, laid out for us. It's like going out to a posh tearoom but in the comfort of our own home.

My mum doesn't like leaving the house much, it seems she has some anxiety when it comes to going out. She'll go to work and food shopping but nothing else. Growing up, she was never like that, we actually went out everywhere. She'd take me anywhere I wanted, one of our favourite past times was going to the cinema's together, getting the sweet and salted popcorn and a large coke to share. But when I reached around 16 or 17, she seemed to begin locking herself away. She just said she didn't need to go out anymore and played it off but there was a situation once whilst I was at Uni that damaged her, and it all changed for good then.

I don't mind staying in, I don't like eating out anyways, so it works for more. Plus, I don't like her feeling anxious or anything other than happy. When my mum isn't feeling well or is unhappy, I feel it. It's as if we are twins. We're connected. Something happens to her and it happens to me.

Over the years, she's gotten better with her anxiety, but she realised that leaving the house was just a no go so we stayed away. It's quite ironic how something happened to me that made me not want to leave the house too but I'm not so bad. I can go out to a café, or the park. I'm just edgy on clubs, anything that reminds me of that night.