Hollywood and Vines (A One Direction Fanfic)

Chapter 15 - Smoke Ghosts

I sat impatiently at the kitchen table, frowning at Mom as she attempted to remove lasanga from the oven.  "Mom, I have ballet practice in fifteen minutes!"

"I know, honey, I know."

When I stood up on my chair, I was clearly able to see the back of Mom as she straighted with the lasanga in her hands.  She spun around and tossed the steaming meal on the counter where it clunked noisily.  I waved a hand in front of my face when billows of smoke enveloped my eight-year-old body.  

"Mom!"  I screamed.  A chain of coughs tickled my throat.  I could barely speak.  "It's burned!"

"I know!  I know!"  She exclaimed.  Among the ghost-like figures that distanced us, I watched my mom as she collapsed on the counter.  Her long, blond locks encompassed her face as she coughed and sobbed unceasingly.  "I can't!  I can't do it!"

"Don't cry, Mom."  I jumped off my chair and wrapped my arms around her waist, afflicted with tears of my own.

"I miss him, Holly.  I miss your dad."

"I miss him, too."  I pulled Mom by the arm and lead her through the smoke ghosts to living room where my lungs absorbed a cool wave of air.

A tear drizzled down my cheek when I turned to Mom.  Though her hand was shading her eyes, I could see that her incessant crying had ruined her makeup.  She took a spot on the couch and pulled me into her, burying her head in my strawberry blond hair.  Her cool lips kissed my head.

"I remember the first time I saw him," Mom murmured.  She inhaled a deep breath which tingled across my forhead.  "His eyes.  Those blue eyes.  And his smile.  All my friends had always talked about him.  About how cute he was.  I never believed them since I was always into the dark-eyed, dark-haired types of guys myself.  But honey when I saw him . . . I was in love.

"And the way he looked at me.  Like there was nothing else he's rather have in his life.  Like I was all that mattered.  That feeling sent my head spinning, and I though that at moment, he was the one.  I never thought he'd ask me out.  But when he did, I couldn't believe it.  He made me feel so special.

"And then the proposal.  I remember thinking in my heart that he was the one.  How couldn't he be?  I mean, he was proposing after all.  My life was so happy in the beginning of our marriage.  But then we got distant.  And I figured out I wasn't important anymore.  I knew that I had been replaced.  I wasn't good enough anymore.

"What was it, Holly?  Where did I go wrong?  Was I not skinny enough for him?  Was I too boring?  Maybe I should have been more mysterious.  Or spontaneous.  

"I called to ask him last week.  I asked him who she was.  Her name's Jessica.  But she's blond.  And blue-eyed.  Just like me.  So where could I have gone wrong?  He needed an upgrade, I guess."

"Mom?"  I interupted when Mom stopped at last to take another breath.  "I'm not going to ballet lessons, am I?"

Mom nestled me closer.  "We're going to have to figure out what to do with dinner.  It might take a little longer that fifteen minutes."

"Okay," I sighed.  I stretched to escape Mom's grasp but Mom was frozen in her position.  

"I'm not sure your dad was ever in love with me to begin with,"  Mom began.

My body relaxed.  There was no doubt that I was going to be here for quite a while.

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