Nouveau

Chapter 32: Unveil

Laive

"I honestly cry for you."

"Cry for me for what?" Laive was watching her mother get dressed as she headed to an after five charity ball.

"Because your life is so sad."

"My life is not sad Mom, You-"

"It is. It really is sad Laive." Her mom clasped a bracelet on.

"You're being dramatic."

"You don't do anything but go to school, work, and come back home. You don't even have a social life. Me and your dad go out more than you."

"Ok. And? I have friends, they just aren't local. I was like this in New Orleans, I didn't really go anywhere. That doesn't mean my life is sad." Laive was sitting on her feet with her knees resting on her mom's comforter. She had just did her mother's hair and makeup.

"You don't even take care of yourself. Look at your hair! You really need a keratin treatment or to get it silk pressed. You're not dressing up anymore...you don't wear your make-up. With the way your skin looks these days, you need to wear your makeup. You've never had bad skin, I don't know why you pick at your face like that." Her mother was putting on her accessories as if Laive was not hurting from the rude and condescending things she said to her.

"There's nothing wrong with my hair Mom. My skin looks like this because I'm stressed out. It doesn't even look bad. And that's what happens when you have other things to take care of, you put yourself and wasteful things last."

What did she want from her? Laive liked wearing her hair curly! Her mom was obsessed with the length of her hair when she wore it straightened. She disliked how proud her mother would feel when she ran her fingers through Laive's straightened tresses and complimented how thick, long, and pretty it was. Her curly hair gave her the same feeling. But according to her mother, she was unkempt.

"Taking care of yourself is not wasteful Lai."

"It is when you don't have the money." Laive's lips curved up in frustration at her mother.

"When you look good, you feel good."

"Ok." Laive couldn't listen to her as she walked out. "You never want to hear what I'm saying even though I'm right!"

"YOU don't know how to talk to people."

"Yes I-"

"Shut up! SHUT THE FUCK UP LAIVE!"

"What are you cursing and yelling at me for?!"

"Because you don't know how to talk to people! Your tone is always out of line!" Her mother was trailing her to the living room in her floor length gown.

"No! You don't like hearing what I say when it comes from me. But when it comes from other people you hear them loud and clear."

"It is your tone! Everyone can feel the attitude that you have, everybody knows it when you talk." Her mother was towering over her with her 5'11 frame, she hadn't even put her heels on yet.

"No. You hear it when I talk, no one else hears that but you. They can feel the attitude that you give off when you're speaking to me. You receive everything I'm saying like I'm being offensive or disrespectful, but someone can come right behind me and say exactly what I just said, and you have no problem with it. MY TONE is not the problem."

Her mother sat down on the couch and pulled her dress off the floor.  "Laive help me put my shoes on. Like I said you're-"

"Do you honestly expect me to sit here and be cordial with you after you came out of nowhere and told me to shut the F up?" Laive clasped her left shoe buckle.