On The Way Out

Chapter 3

To be honest, I wasn't even sure where my mom was living at the moment. Cassie had given me her address, but even though I had lived in New York City my whole life, I had no idea where it was. She would call about once a week to check in and whenever Cassie's kids had a birthday party or something to that extent I would see her, but other than that, I didn't see her very often. I was sure she didn't have much money, and my heart always broke for her a little bit when I thought about that fact. Growing up, my dad had a good income, and whenever my mom would say she should go back to work full-time, he told her that he would take care of everything and she didn't need to work. The last I heard from Cassie was that she was working at a gas station and trying to find a few other part-time jobs. Cassie also told me she had a new boyfriend, which I wasn't surprised to hear. After my dad died, my mom waited a few years to start dating, until I was a freshman in high school, basically, and Cassie was a senior. She wanted to make sure we were okay with it, and even though we really weren't, we gave her our blessing, because we just wanted her to be happy. The problem was, most of the men she attracted were married men she met at the bar during her stint as a bartender, who thought of her as their "mid-life crisis". My mom knew how to have a good time, but no one ever thought about actually having a serious relationship with her.

On the outside, my mom is a very pretty woman. Even though she's 45 and has two daughters in their 20s, she could easily pass for someone in their 30s. She never had a problem attracting men, but it was almost always the wrong kinds of men. They would go out a few times, and then she would come in my room at night and tell me how he was the one, and how he was going to leave his wife for her, when in reality, I knew there wasn't a bit of truth to that. Then a few weeks later, the guy would tell her he was going back to his wife, leaving her heartbroken. Some days I would come home, and my mom would be sitting on the couch in sweatpants, eating ice cream by the gallon, and sobbing hysterically. That was how I knew she had just been dumped again.

This cycle continued for a few years until she happened to go to one of my parent teacher conferences, something she never did, and met my math teacher, Mr. Merino, or just Joe to us. They instantly hit it off, and since Joe was actually divorced, they didn't have to worry about breaking up a marriage to be together. Mr. Merino was my favorite teacher, and probably one of the nicest people I ever met. Even though it was weird for my mom to date my teacher, I was somehow okay with it. Cassie and I both loved him, and I could see that my mom was really falling for him. He would always get flowers delivered to the apartment and even though my mom always hated when guys would do that because she thought it meant they were hiding something, they loved when Joe did it. Joe was perfect, or close to it.

He was kind, smart, and the best part was he looked at my mom the way my dad used to when he was alive, just with complete adoration. They started getting more serious as the weeks went by and they even started talking about marriage. Cassie and I were ecstatic, and my mom seemed to be walking on cloud nine everyday. During the next few months, life was the best it had been in a long time. Maybe even as good as when my dad was still alive.

And then one day, I came home to find my mom on the floor, slumped next to her bed, with her head in her knees, shaking with her sobs. I sat down next to her and shook her. "Mom, what's wrong?" I said, even though, deep down, I knew what was happening.

She lifts up her head and looks at me. "He's gone." She says, shaking her head, as more tears well up in her eyes.

"Gone? What do you mean Mom? What happened?" I say, as I try to deal with the utter disbelief I'm currently experiencing.

"I came home today and he told me he didn't want to be with me anymore. I don't know what I did. He took all of his stuff and he left. I don't know what I did, Mol." She wails.

I try to piece together everything in my head before saying. "I have a hard time believing he would just leave. He's not like that. Did you do something Mom?"

"Are you blaming me for this? I didn't do anything wrong! You girls always do this whenever a guy dumps me and I'm kind of sick of it." She huffs, and when I look at her, she actually looks hurt.

Even though I want to believe her, I have a hard time, especially considering her track record when it comes to relationships.

"No, Mom. I'm not blaming you. I was just asking a question." I say as calmly as possible, and leave the room.

Even though I knew she would deny it, I was convinced that she had done something to cause Joe to leave. Joe wouldn't just leave her, I knew he wouldn't. For the next few weeks, we don't talk at all, especially not when I come into school the next day and see that Mr. Merino has transferred to another school and we have a different teacher. Mr. Merino was my absolute favorite teacher, and probably the reason I still even enjoyed coming to school. When I get home, my mother and I get into a screaming match, which ends with us both going into our rooms and slamming the doors.

I usually do all the laundry and wash the dishes, and everything else around the house but eventually, I just start leaving her clothes for her to do herself. Sometimes I wake up and see her standing in the doorway giving me a sad look, but by the time I get up she's already gone. I hated her for screwing up the one chance we had at having a better life and getting out of this crummy apartment where everything was falling apart. We could have lived in a nice house again and wouldn't have had to worry about barely making the payments to our monthly bills and my mom was trying to make me look like some kind of villain for not talking to her.

I couldn't stay mad at my mom forever and eventually we started talking again, but we didn't have the same relationship we had before. I never really talked to her about my problems again, and she didn't really tell me anything either. It was like the trust between us had been broken forever.

And now, here I was, standing right in front of her door.

Hi everyone!! So sorry it has been so long since I last updated. I will try to do it every few days, I can't really give you a schedule of when I will update right now, but I hope to soon! Hope you all are enjoying, thank you so much for all of your support as always everyone!! :)