let's light up the sky ☆

Chapter 25

I couldn't sleep, even after taking a whole melatonin gummy to take me down. I laid in bed replaying Kathleen's awkwardness and Ava's warning in the back of my brain. I desperately want her to like me, if only to make this thing with Cody work out. If Kathleen is going to be part of it, I need to make nice and pray she wouldn't become the Mommy Dearest of my nightmares.

After a few hours stuck in deep thought, I might have finally figured it out. Kathleen reminds me of a dance mom. She's not just like the characters you see on the show Dance Moms, but the ones that I've run into on many occasions at competitions. She'll smile in your face then turn on you at a moment's notice. She'll be pushy about her opinions and disguise them as "wisdom" or "advice." I wanted to like her, and I gave it my best shot, but Ava opened my eyes to see past her fakeness.

Mom flicked the switch for the overhead light. I had gone into full goblin mode under the stove light. I hunched over the island counter with a cookie in one hand and my phone in the other.

"Thought you could sneak in a midnight snack without me?"

I smiled with cheeks full of cookies like a chipmunk. I threw up a finger for pause, allowing myself the chance to finish my bite and take a much needed breath. "Better than just laying awake in bed and doing nothing."

Mom swiped a cookie from the tin container that she'd put them in while I was gone. "You've been kinda quiet since you got home," she commented. "How did today really go?"

I hadn't said much about today because I didn't have the right words for it yet. I told her the basics: Cody and I had a great time skating before I fell and hurt myself, I talked to Ava and became friends with her, and Lily was adorable when she asked me to win her a stuffed animal. Those were genuine highlights that I didn't lie about.

But I know my mom. I love that she's my ride-or-die, but she has a pretty bad habit of jumping to conclusions if I drop hints that someone gives me the ick. So I've kept my real thoughts to myself before I let her hear them. If I'm wrong and it turns out that Kathleen's a neat lady, then my relationship with Cody should work out. If my intuition is right, though, then I'll let her in on it. I just need to pick my words carefully.

"Is it just me," I started off, "but did you think Kathleen was a little awkward to be around?"

Mom took a deep, eye rolling breath. Oh boy, here we go. "I didn't want to say it because I know she's your boyfriend's mom and all."

"But...?"

"But... I've spent enough time around her type. You said Cody's on the soccer team, right?" I nodded. "Exactly my point." 

Between backstage nightmares at dance competitions and umpire fighters at baseball games, it's a miracle that Mom is as chill as she is. She's also calculated. She knows what to say at the right time, and she has an uncanny ability to read people like a book. I trust her judgment of people like my life depends on it.

"Was it the Karen cut?"

Mom choked back her laugh. She braced the counter and finished the piece of her cookie she was on. "That... was a visual factor, yes."

Maggie walked into the kitchen, looking a little annoyed that we woke her up in the living room. She bellowed a low "woo" at me to announce her presence and beg for a piece of my cookie.

"Nooooo," I playfully scolded. "Not for doggies."

The old girl whined like she was a puppy again. She impatiently tapped her paws on the tile in protest of the dreaded rejection.

"Maybe she wants some outside time," Mom suggested. She put extra emphasis on Maggie's favorite word to distract her from her snack campaign. On cue, Maggie wandered over to the back door and started whining there for it to open. Mom shimmied with pride that her little trick worked. "C'mon, let's get some fresh air."