Sweet Love #Wattys2016

5 - Cold & Confused

Vote and Comment!

"Mom, I want to go home." I slump into the mattress, using one hand to pull the cotton bed sheet over my body. I hear my mom release a long drawn out breathe through the phone line. "I hate it here. This isn't a vacation mom, this is just torture."

"Oh Aria, stop with the melodramatics."

"I'm not being dramatic! I just can't take it here anymore." I fall back against the mound of pillows clustered in a vast bunch. Frustration is the only thing I feel at the moment.

"Aria, you've been there for less then a day."

"I know, but these people are driving me insane! I knew dad was going to be a pain but to add Linda on top of everything? That's just cruel."

"Aria, it's going to take sometime getting used to things but you're big enough for a little change."

A loud groan escapes my lips. "A little change? Mom, they're getting married. Married."

She doesn't speak for a while and for a moment I think she might have cut the line.

"I know." she finally croaks.

"How could dad do this to us? First he leaves us, and now he's getting married? It's like he's trying to dismiss all memories of us by transforming his whole life around." I bite on the inside of my cheek until I taste a nip of blood. I'm on the verge of shouting.

I wait for my mom to respond. But she doesn't. Only silence.

"Mom--"

"Is she pretty? Linda?"

Now I'm the one short on words. What?

"What are you talking about?" I hold the phone closer against my ear, thinking that I must of missed something.

"Is she pretty? Linda. Is Linda pretty?" her voice sounds strained. Like it's taking everything in her to ask the question.

My mind turns foggy. Why does she even care? "Yes. Yeah she's pretty but so what? I don't like her and it's a shocker that dad does."

Silence.

"Mom?"

More silence.

"Mom?" I repeat, louder.

"Of course he moved on. Of course." she says it so low, I hardly catch it.

What?

"Dad? Well, yeah he moved on. He's basically moving his whole life along."

Her breathes are low and shaky. And the little hairs on my body tingle nervously, it's like I can almost feel each of her strained exhales through the phone line.

She isn't acting like herself.

My mom is never emotional. She never allows me to see the weak side of her. She never cracks.

But right now it seems as if she is on the fringe of breaking out in hot tears.

But over my dad?