Childhood Crushes

Chapter Sixteen - Got You All Figured Out

Though I missed Daddy, Billy, Jimmy and Joel, I didn't really think much about going to live with them again. Every time I thought about it, I felt sick to my stomach. If I go live with them, Momma will be sad. If I stay here, Daddy and the boys would be sad. Whatever I pick; someone will be sad.

Momma kept asking me 'what does Annabelle want?'. She told me this is my choice, and I shouldn't worry about her or Daddy.

It was hard to just ignore how someone I love felt though, and so I just ignored the choice all together. I told myself it would be waiting for me when I came back, and I could choose later. And so I left the question in my pocket for now, saving it for later.

I skipped into the kitchen and saw Momma was looking through some paperwork, wearing reading glasses that made her look smart. She hardly noticed when I walked in, so I knew she was focused hard on something. "What are you reading, Momma?"

Her head popped up, "Oh! Good morning, Belly, I didn't see you walk in..." She trailed off, looking back down at her papers. Whatever was written on them must have been confusing; she looked at it like it was written in another language. "I'm sorry," She said after a moment of silence. "I'm trying to figure out this case! My boss made me take it home with me."

"What's it about?" I sat down across from her at the kitchen table, trying to catch a glimpse of the paperwork. All of the words were too big for me to understand.

"Well, this guy is divorcing his wife. I know he's leaving her for another woman, but I can't say that because I'm his lawyer!" It was obvious in her voice that she hated this situation. "She's pregnant and, by law, is entitled to half of everything. But he doesn't want to. He she's been a terrible wife, and has battled with a drug addiction for the past 3 years."

"Wow." I'm only thirteen, but I know that's not right. Who would do that?

"I know." She nodded. "I'm trying to prove he's right in some shape or form, but it's not looking so good. I just may hand this off to someone else... Oh, but this would pay for our trip to the beach." She sighed.

I frowned, "Momma, he shouldn't win. He doesn't sound like a very nice man." I admitted.

"Honey, I don't want him to win either... but it's money. And she can file for social security, maybe get a good check every month. I don't think she likes me very much, but I would be glad to help her when this is all finished..."

I could tell she didn't like being the bad-man's lawyer. Being a mother herself, she knew this was wrong. At least she would be helping the mom when this was all done, though.

"What would you like to do today, baby?" She asked, not looking up from her papers.

I thought about it... "Why don't we just watch movies today? You could get some work done, and we don't have to go out in... That." I nodded towards the window. It had been raining and thundering slightly all last night and this morning. I don't think going out was the best idea.

Momma looked outside too and grimaced, "Oh... Yeah, I think that's a good plan, honey. Why don't you go pick out some DVDs, I'll be in there in a minute."

I hopped down from the kitchen table and went to the movies. Momma bought a large selection of movies, but most she already had. The ones she already had were a bunch of yucky love movies though, and weren't very interesting.

I bet she was surprised when I told her the type of movies I liked. Transformers, Pirates of the Caribbean, Iron Man - action movies. What can I say, being raised by a group of teenage guys effected me! And here they all were. I picked my movies, but threw in a couple of Momma's too. The Notebook and Titanic were what I picked. They seemed the best out of all of them, seeing as their cases were falling apart from being opened so much.