I Was Saved... by the Jerkface

Brownies and Lovely Mothers

{Annabelle}

Are you freaking kidding me...? Why does this always happen to me?! I thought to myself the second I heard my mom's voice and Blake dropped me. I hardly noticed when my butt hit the hard floor, because I whirled around to face my mom.

"Mom?" I asked, incredulous. They weren't supposed to be back until tomorrow! Not that I wasn't exactly happy to see her, but still! She couldn't just scare me like that!

"What, no 'hello, how are you, how was your trip'?" my mom chastised, holding her arms out as if for a hug.

"Sorry," I said, feeling a tiny bit guilty. Blake was still awkwardly standing behind me while I was just sitting on the floor. "How was your trip?" I mumbled.

"It was fine, thank you. Now..." she trailed off, walking a few steps towards me slowly. She reminded me of a lion walking in circles around its prey – I know that's kind of rude to refer to my mother in that way, but that's what popped into my head – what can I say? "Mind telling me why you're out in the middle of the night with this... boy?" she asked me, scrunching her nose and emphasizing the word 'boy' as if it were a curse word.

I hesitated speaking for a second or two, not sure what she was getting at. She knew who 'this boy' was... and it wasn't the middle of the night... So why did she look ready to bite my head off? "We just had dinner and saw a show at Rockefeller Center..." I trailed off, still not entirely certain where she was going with this.

"And did you need to stay out until midnight? And not only do you stay out late, but as soon as you walk in the door you're smoochin' like a couple!" she exclaimed, her expression truly angry.

"But we didn't-" I started, about to protest and say that we weren't kissing – not at all – but she cut me off quickly.

"I don't want any excuses from you young lady. We leave you alone for a month, thinking you can handle it, but obviously you can't! Do we need to supervise you 24/7?" she ranted, throwing her hands up in the air.

This struck a chord. What the hell? No, she did not need to babysit me all the time! I can take care of myself! I heaved myself up from the floor and stood at my full height, raising my chin indignantly. "I am perfectly capable of being on my own, and I don't need you telling me what I can and can't do all the time. It's not like I'm smoking pot or out drinking at a club somewhere! We had a nice dinner and went to see Cirque du Soleil!" My eyebrows scrunched together and I put my hands on my hips.

"Oh and I suppose you weren't planning on going over to his house afterwards, hmm?" she asked mockingly, as if I were stupid.

"Actually, I wasn't," I retorted, not mentioning the fact that he has lived in this house for the last month. Speaking of which – he had everything of his packed, but his bags full of stuff were still in the guest room! I tried not to let my panic show on my face, but it would all work out – as soon as my mom went off into her bedroom, or when she wasn't looking, we'd sneak his bags out.

"Oh, I bet," she sneered sarcastically. I narrowed my eyes at her, truly done with this argument. She just wasn't going to believe me, no matter what I said or did.

"Whatever," I mumbled, turning around to grab Blake's hand and drag him into my room with me. I needed to get away from the Wicked Witch of the West.

"What was that?" my mom asked in response to my 'whatever.' "And ohhhh no no no, young lady. You are so not taking him back into your room with you."