Take Me Away | ✓

» 19

P H O E N I X

Monday mornings were always the worst. I loathed them with a passion but surprisingly today I'd rolled out of bed not feeling like I wanted to shoot the sun out of the sky.

I took my time whilst showering and getting dressed with a renewed feeling of freshness. It was an odd change in mood but one that I was grateful for since the last couple of days hadn't been that amazing. Especially after the quarrel I had with my dad. I wondered how long it would take my mom to bring it up and she did that day, just as I was about to sneak past her.

"Phee? Could you come here for a moment." It wasn't a question.

Sighing, I passed the threshold to find her sat on a stool beside the island with various papers scattered all around her. Her pen darted everywhere as she jotted down stuff with the other furiously typing into a calculator. She looked tired.

After a few more clicks she looked up. "I wanted to talk about your father."

"I'd rather not." I muttered but I didn't know whether she heard or just decided to ignore my comment.

After yesterday's therapy session, my feelings towards my father remained unchanged. Even after Dr Meyer had offered alternatives and psychoanalysed me, I still wouldn't budge from my original thoughts. And the last thing I wanted to do was talk about him again.

"He told me what happened and I understand why you did it," She said. "But you shouldn't have said those things to your father."

At that moment I felt like what it was like to be in Kat's shoes. The disbelief she must have felt when I did the very same thing that my mother was doing right now. "Why are you defending him?"

For a second I saw my mom speechless. Her mouth opened and closed again. "The point I'm trying to get across is that you shouldn't have been so harsh on him. He only wanted to talk about college arrangements with you."

"What?"

"That's the reason he came down. He was going to offer you his place to stay so you wouldn't have to pay extra for accommodation on campus."

Now it was my turn to be speechless. Though that was short lived and I soon came back to reality. "You can tell him my answer is no thanks."

She sighed in resignation and tucked a loose strand of her hair behind her ear. "It would save a lot of money."

"Don't you care about what he did? Or what he didn't do?" I accused. She didn't want to talk about it as much as he did. Matt's death had become an almost taboo topic these days.

Another sigh. "I care about you. Both of us do and we want what's best for you."

I closed my eyes briefly and bit my lip before opening them again. This time I gave a more pragmatic response. "I still don't know if I've been accepted or not so he shouldn't hold his breath."

That answer seemed to satisfy my mom and she nodded. "You better get to school."

And that's how a good day turns bad.

-

As it turned out, my bike tyres were flat and the air pump had gone suspiciously missing, so I had no choice but to walk that day. It was long but I ended up enjoying the peace that came out of it. Since Kat wasn't there to fill in the silence with her chatter, I had time to think about the events of the last couple of days.