Scared to love

Jake's POV

"Told you she's acting strange, for God's sake, she ate cereal this morning. She never eats cereal as breakfast", I say to Matthew who is standing in the kitchen with a confused look on his face and a cup of coffee in his hands while leaning against the kitchen counter. "Well the cereal could be because she wanted to change things up, but that thing with her phone was just straight up out of character", he responds before sipping his coffee. "Do you know who it might be?", he asks me. "No idea, there was just a name on the screen, one she has never mentioned before", I reply. "Wait do you know the name, maybe we can find something online", Matthew perks up. "I think it was Veronica. But where would you find something anyway?", I say. "Let's go to my room so that she doesn't find out", he responds while looking at her closed door.

He takes his laptop from his bag and opens up different social media platforms. "Did she ever mention any family members names?", he asks. "No I don't think so", I reply. "Hmm okay then let's just look on her social media, maybe we find something there." We look on all of her pages and just when I was going to say that we should give up, we find something. "Look at this, she tagged someone on this picture", Matthew suddenly says. He clicks on the tag and it bring us to an account of a couple. "Strange, the account has been deleted", he says while inspecting it. "Yes but now we have names", I say. "True let's look them up", he replies. We look both names up and can conclude that the man is her father and the woman is her mother, who's name is Veronica. "Wait so her mom called her?", Matthew asks confused. "I guess it must be her, but why would she suddenly call?" "Didn't Chloë say that they didn't even call after she left?" "Yes she did, so why now?" We keep asking questions to no one in particular, it's like we're just throwing all the questions in our head out in the open. 

"Guys?", we suddenly hear. Matthew quickly closes his laptop before yelling back at her so that she nows where we are. She knocks on the door before opening and looks at us with a frown. "I'm going to the gym for some time, so don't give me up as a missing person", she jokingly says. "Uh yeah okay, be careful and have fun", I reply. She nods, closes the door and leaves the apartment a few minutes later. "Why of all people would her mother call her? And why so suddenly?", Matthew asks again as he walks back and forth. "I have no idea, but see? I told you she was acting weird. Waking up at 7, eating cereal, the phone, it all adds up now", I respond. We talk about it a bit more before we get ready and go on with our day. She doesn't return until lunch, which kind of worries me. She suddenly walks through the door with a heavy sigh, which is why Matthew and I share a look. "You uh, you sure you're okay angel", I carefully try asking her. "Yeah yeah I'm fine", she brushes me off.

Just when everything seems to return to the way things were a few days later, there is a knock on the door. I go to open the door with Matthew beside me when we see a woman standing there. She looks confused at a note in her hand, our door and then us. "Does Chloë live here?" she asks. Right then it clicks where we know the woman from. I look at Matthew and he seems to have figured it out too. "What the hell are you doing here?", we hear out of nowhere. I turn around and see Chloë, who is looking furious, staring at her mother. "Oh baby you're alive", the woman at the door cries. "Don't you dare act like you give a shit about me", Chloë snarls. "I'm not acting baby, I'm really glad to see that you're still alive", her mother responds. "Look woman, I don't have money to give, love is something you don't deserve, just like forgiveness. I don't know how you found me, or why you're here, but I suggest you get back from whatever hell hole you came from and never return", Chloë harshly tells the woman. "Baby, I'm your mother, you can't do this to me", the woman cries. "You're not my mother, my mother died the day she told me she hasn't loved me since I was ten, which you said to me a week before my sixteenth birthday. Or maybe she died earlier since she was never there for me anyway", Chloë yells with tears streaming down her cheeks. Matthew and I are just standing there, not saying anything and feeling out of place.