Earth (Complete)

Sixteen

"Jane?" my mother called. "Jane, is that you?" A surge of panic erupted within me. I rushed to close the window and act like everything was normal. Mother hurried into my room. "Janie?" she called, slightly confused.

My heart flipped in my chest and smiled at the concern in her voice. "Yes mom?"

She hesitated. "When – When did you get in?"

"A few minutes ago. Didn't want to wake you so I just slipped in here."

"Oh, I wasn't asleep. I was just..." She trailed off, her eyes traveling to the ground as if she couldn't recall what she was just doing. That or I got the feeling that whatever she was doing, she felt incredibly guilty for. "Never mind." She straightened up in an instant, smiled and approached the bed, sitting next to me. "So, how did it go?" she grinned and my brow furrowed.

What was she trying? Mother and I simply didn't converse about normal, daily things such as how we were feeling or what we were doing. And now she wanted to have a nice big chat as if we had some sort of unbreakable bond? Don't get me wrong, it thrilled me more than sneaking out did, but it was still incredibly weird.

"Uhm..." I hesitated. Then had an idea. "It was great."

She shrieked in excitement. Yeah, that's right. She literally let out a yelp of exhilaration. It took all of me to not pull a face of alarm and disgust. Seeing mom this happy was amazing and I wouldn't trade it for the world. But somehow this just felt like a message from the gods – a sign to screw me over just because I ditched Jeremy and refused to be his hateful wife for all eternity.

You fucked up, Jane, they taunted me. Now it's time to face the music.

She grabbed my hand and held it in lap with her own, after which she gave it a quick squeeze for me to carry on. Letting out an uncertain laugh, I continued with my plan. "He – was very sweet and – we had a good time."

"Did he–?" she cut herself short, assuming I knew what she was asking, and lifted her eyebrows in question. I shook my head solemnly. Her face fell. "That bastard boy!" she cursed and stood abruptly, starting to pace around my room. "How many hints does he want? How many more could he possibly need?" I watched in alarm as she ranted on, desperately trying to hold back the laugh that craved an escape from my lips.

"It's been three years! Three bloody years! And you'll swear he hasn't even taken off the training wheels yet! I don't know how Andrea and Stephen think that boy will live in the New World without their help." Andrea and Stephen being Jeremy's parents. "He can hardly walk on his own two feet in this one! Maybe if Stephen could get a better grip on him, it'll knock some sense into his pathetically empty head and perhaps he'd walk in the right direction without needing anyone to give him a kick on his ass!"

She gasped at her words and her hands flew to cover her mouth. My eyes widened. I tried my best to keep all the amusement out of my expression but I'm certain it was shining through. She shook her head, apologizing profusely for her outburst. After which she sat down and mentally searched for a solution to my predicament. I let her think for a while, the tiny veins popping out of her temples in concentration only furthering my amusement in this whole situation.

I disturbed her thought after a while, "He did ask me one thing though." I said and her head shot up hopefully.

"And what is that?"

And then I told her the one thing I knew would boil her blood.

"How many kids I want."

Her eyes widened and she bit down hard, trying to hold onto whatever sanity she had left. Slowly fuming on the spot, she straightened out her long skirt and pulled back a few strands of hair that managed to escape the tight bun she forced it into every day, and said, "And what did you say?" Her voice was filled with disdain and disgust, but even, as calm as a gentle summer breeze.