Strangers

Our time

Taylor looked at herself in the mirror and put patches under her eyes. She put on her robe and walked out into the spacious, bright hallway of her penthouse and into the dining room. Their cook had already set the table, Taylor sat down, and a few minutes later her daughter Jenny, in her pajamas, walked into the dining room.

"good morning, mom"

"good morning. What time did you go to bed last night?"

" half past one in the morning, and what?" asked Jenny in a disgruntled voice, she didn't like her mother speaking in that tone because it didn't bode well.

"I thought I told you to go to bed at 11:00 p.m. Didn't you understand?"

"Mom, I'm fifteen, not six. Are you going to choose when I go to bed?"

"Yes Jenny, because you can't do that. You have a regime and you have to stick to it"

"Stop it, please, don't ruin my day in the morning" Jenny grimaced.

" How do you talk to your mother?!" Taylor raised her voice "If it wasn't for me and my hard work, you wouldn't be sitting in that penthouse right now, flying to the islands on vacation, and you wouldn't have even a fraction of what you have"

Jenny turned away from Taylor and moved her plate of food toward her. She began eating cereal and milk while Taylor drank her morning espresso. Taylor heard a quiet cough, she turned around and saw Jenny's nanny Abigail

"What is Abigail?"

"Good morning, Taylor. Jenny has a competition tomorrow, I was wondering if you'd come to see it. It's a very important championship"

" No, I don't have time for that. Great, another gold medal on the wall. Look, Jenny, don't let me down"

"of course mom. As always, if your daughter comes in second place, it will be terrible" Jenny's tears came to her eyes.

Taylor sighed when she saw this, and decided to tone it down a bit.

"Jenny, I believe you can do it. I just have a lot of work to do, but I'll be rooting for you. And after the competition, we can fly somewhere. You wanted to go to Rome, we can go there"

" I wish you'd just come"

"I can't, and finish your breakfast. Go to the bathroom, you can't be late for school"

"as usual"  Jenny threw her spoon into her plate with irritation and went to her room.

Taylor looked at her with indignation. Jenny's behavior had gotten worse and worse over the past few years. She didn't want to listen to Taylor, she was constantly resentful. Taylor understood that it was adolescence and all that, but in her opinion to behave like that to the person who had given you money, the best tutors and governesses, a good education, it was disrespectful and ungrateful.

"Taylor, why don't you come over? You were last at her competition two years ago?" asked Abigail, who was very fond of Jenny and always defended her to Taylor.

" No, Abigail" Said Taylor in a tone that could not be objected to, but Abigail had known her for years, so she was not frightened

" But the parents of the others always come and support the other kids. And Jеnny is always alone, she's hurt"

"and life in general is a cruel thing, that's it, Abigail, conversation's over. You can go, you have to take Jenny to school"

"Whatever you say" Abigail pursed her lips in displeasure and went out into the other room.

Twenty minutes later, Jenny walked down the hall fully dressed and with a backpack on her shoulders. Taylor walked up to her and said:

" Have a good day"