The Girl Who Chased Stars

XXIV

"Mom?" I knock on the hospital door to let my mother know that I'm coming in, and then I enter the room and close the door.

"Hi baby."

My mother sits up in her hospital bed and smiles at me. "How are you?" she asks.

"I'm fine... but more importantly, how are you?"

Mom sighs. "I'm alright. Nervous about tomorrow, maybe. But okay nonetheless... Now, I want to talk about you. How was your trip?"

I make a face. "You knew?"

"Of course. Your father told me about it."

"Oh."

"Well?"

I sigh, and a smile appears on my face.  "It was really fun."

My mom smirks at me, as if she knows something that I don't. "And you took Skai?"

"...Yes."

"Do you like her?"

The bluntness of the question takes me by surprise.

"Are you girls dating?"

" Yeah, we are... how'd you guess?"

My mom smiles, and repositions herself on the bed. "Sweetheart, it was kind of obvious."

"Oh."

"Well, are you going to be shy? Or tell me about it?"

I give in, and decide to just spill it all... Well, not ALL of it, but, at least the PG parts.

"Oh my god, Mom. It was amazing. I took her to the cliff, and to the creepy house that Paris found that one year, and Skai told me that she'd never been camping before, so it was a totally knew experience for her. And we had s'mores, and I taught her how to make a fire and it was really awesome."

She laughs, and pulls me into a hug. "I'm gad you had fun. I just hope you were responsible."

I laugh nervously, and suddenly the stolen candy bars from yesterday feel like they weigh a ton in my bag.

"How much do you like her, Amy? You... you seem different when you talk like this. I mean, even right now. Your eyes got glossy when you just talked about her."

"I-Yeah, she means a lot to me, Mom... I, I really love her."

My mom smiles, and then covers her face with her hands.

"Oh man... my girl."

"What's wrong?"

My mom looks up at me, and rests her chin in her hands. "You're growing up right in front of me."

I chuckle, and pull her into a hug. "I-"

Suddenly the door swings open lightly, and a nurse walks into the room. "I'm sorry." She says, "But unfortunately we're going to start prepping the patient for her procedure tomorrow. Just a basic run through. I'm sorry, honey. But visitation is going to be cut short for today."

"Oh, um."

My mother kisses my forehead. "It's okay, sweetheart. We'll finish this conversation on Tuesday."

"Yeah, yeah." The disappointment is written on my face as I stand up. "Alright then. Uh, I love you."

The nurse smiles warmly at us, and my mom squeezes my hand. "I love you too, sweetie. Why don't you take the next two days to knit me a hat. It won't be long before I'm hairless."

She laughs, and I do too, even though the joke doesn't sound at all funny to me. Matter of fact, it bums me out a lot.

"Okay, bye. I'll see you Tuesday."