Played By Riggs

5

Saturday morning arrived faster than I would have liked it too. It seemed, lately, as soon as my head it the pillow, my alarm let its raucous scream reverberate into my dreams and wake me up seconds, milliseconds, afterwards. Anyway, when I sat up and realised where I was, the thought of going back to sleep for the rest of day truly sounded like an idyllic way to spend the weekend, at my Mothers. It wasn't even worth debating the idea, however, because I knew if I followed through, she wouldn't hesitate to the fill a bucket with ice cold water and throw it over me; the evil act had been, must I admit, done several times when I snoozed my alarm longer than she approved.

Once washed and dressed into a pair of light skinny jeans and white vest, I ventured downstairs to find my Mother stood at the counter, buttering some toast.

"Tell me, KelseyKins, who sleeps for 11 hours that is not over-working themselves?"

I grunted in reply as I rummaged through her fridge for a carton of orange juice. "I'm not over-working myself."

"Oh, really?" she raised her eyebrows, hand on her hip. Oh, no. Her hand-on-hip stance was not a good one. At all. In any books. She was up for the fight, and I, having just woken, was definitely not.

"Really," I nodded. "Look, can we not do this right now? Critic me about my hours later on in the morning."

"The morning's almost over," she sung. "And I repeat, you're over-working yourself. Your body shouldn't need to sleep that long."

"You're right, my body doesn't. Perhaps it just didn't want to wake up and face you and your digs."

My Mother grinned and bellowed out her witch sounding laugh. "I've missed you..." she paused, and a frown replaced her grin. "You never visit me anymore."

I placed my glass onto the table and felt guilt stab my chest like a freshly sharpened knife. Her face softened as it always did when she brought up the horrid fact that I only see her once a month, if that.

"You know I try my hardest to find time-"

"Well, if you didn't work so damn hard, you wouldn't have to find time! I understand your career means everything to you. Kelsey Kins, I wouldn't be living in my dream house if it wasn't for your career, but I wish sometimes you would just take a break, and not your shitty little weekend break, a proper break. A holiday. And spend some time with me."

The knife dug even deeper, into the very pit of my heart. She was right. So right – and I damn well hated admitting that.

"Maybe I'll look into booking one," I said slowly. "You'll have to help me, though. We would need to pick somewhere that appeals to the both of us."

Her face brightened. "You'd really do that for me?" she asked. "A holiday, for the two of us?"

"Yeah. If that doesn't sound like the scariest thing ever, then yes."

Because it was scary. My Mother and I in a foreign place? Together? We would end up pulling each other's hair out or pushing one another off the hotel balcony. I bit back a smile at the thought. We would make sure a pool was at the bottom, of course...

"Until then, though, I promise I'll try make more effort with visiting you."

"Thank you," she gave me a sincere smile. "Now, would you like some toast? I've already fed James, but I'm sure he wouldn't mind another plate."

I raised my eyebrows. "He's up?"

"Yep. Since 9am. We ate breakfast out in the garden as he told me all about your plans to build a gym-spa-diner type pit stop project thing.