Serenity

I See Her

Adams POV

3 weeks later...

Today was not going well for me. It had been 3 weeks since Frannie passed away and it had been literal hell for me. Summer had just started and I was on the hunt for a summer job to start helping my mother out with the bills like I had been every summer before. It also happened to be the summer before I was suppose to head off to college. I never wanted to participate in the whole college thing but after Fran passed, it got me thinking about my future and where it was headed.

In the fall, I had planned to go to a little community college outside of the city so that I could still stay close to mom and take care of her. I was going to take a 120 hour course to get my EMT licenses and then hopefully move up after awhile. I refused to let anyone else die on my watch.

"Adam, why haven't you been answering my phone calls?" My mothers high pitched voice shrieked at me when I picked up the phone. I rolled my eye at how dramatic she was being. She had only tried calling once before and the only reason I didn't answer was because I had left my phone in my car. Every since the funeral, my mother feels like she had to keep close tabs on me everywhere I went. She was terrified that I would do something stupid.

"Sorry mom, I left my phone in the car. Everything okay?" I asked her, wondering why she was acting so frantic.

"Can you come home soon? I need to talk to you."

"About what?"

"Just come home, Adam. This once could you just do as I asked, please?" She sighed and I imagined her running her hands over her face in exhaustion. I knew I was causing her to stress lately with me being out of school and haven't been able to find a job yet. I wasn't suppose to be here this summer though. Fran and I had planned years ago to go on a summer trip around the states and we both had even started saving money back for it but since she's gone, I was no longer interested in pursuing it. Now, the money I had saved, is gone because I needed a car more then anything else and the little bit that I had left, I used to help mom get caught up on mortgage. She hadn't been working since dad left us, I knew that bills weren't getting paid.

"I'm on my way." I told her as I headed to my car. She concerned me. She hadn't been the same since dad left and with the way things had been going the past few months, she'd never be the same again. I don't think any of us would be.

***

As I pulled into the driveway, I noticed that my mothers car was packed full of boxes. She drove a 2008 Black CR-V that my father had given her when he left and she had crammed it full of all of her belongs.

"Mom?!" I yelled as I walked into the house. There was boxes pilled up in the living room, stacked two on top of each other. What the hell..

"In the kitchen!" I heard her shout from the hallway.

"Why's there boxes everywhere?" I immediately asked her, wanting to know what was going on.

She turned to me and smiled faintly, but you could still see the pain in her eyes. It looked like she had been crying by the way her eyes were red and had bags forming underneath. She looked puffy.

"Mom, what's wrong?" I closed the distance between us and wrapped my arms around her waist, holding her. She was so fragile lately, and my heart went out to her. I never wanted to see my mom hurt in this way.

"Oh nothing sweetie. Don't you worry." She spoke softly while pulling away from me. "Now, there's something we need to talk about."

Mom exhaled a deep breathe before taking a seat in the one of the kitchen chairs and beginning. "I'm moving to Kentucky. You're aunt called, baby. She has a job for me up there making some really good money and I figured if I get good enough at it, I could come back and help run a business down here but I have to go see how everything works first."

My Aunt Jackie owned her own business in Lexington, Kentucky. It was a horse ranch in the middle of no where. She funded a camp for disabled kids to come and ride horses, something about it helping them. She had been wanting to open another one here in Arkansas but had never gotten around to it. Aunt Jackie and mom had a falling out when mom married dad but after he left us, they became close again. She didn't agree with the way that dad treated mom, and didn't understand how mom put up with it for so long and honestly neither could I. Aunt Jackie would talk into moms ear about him all the time, which made my mom paranoid, which made dad extremely anger and had my mother stop speaking to anyone on her side of the family.

"What about me, mom?" I was in complete shock that she had made this decision without even thinking about me first. It was almost like she could care less.

"Baby, you're 18. You can stay on your own for a little while. I need to do this, Adam. I need to provide for us."

"Who are you trying to convince, mom? Me or you?" Anger boiled up in my veins. I knew if she was to leave, she probably wouldn't come back. She had been looking for a way out for months now, and now that the opportunity has come, she'll take it and run with it without thinking twice about glancing back. That was just the type of person my mother was. She's been a runner her entire life, every time shit would get hard, she'd run. I think that honestly had something to do with the reason dad left us, he didn't want to have to deal with her anymore. Yes, he had his fair share of problems too and definitely didn't know how to treat a woman but I knew that mom was a difficult person to deal with. She always had been.

"You'll be okay, Adam. I'll call and visit. It's only temporary, please remember that."

I knew that there was nothing I'd be able to say or do to convince her otherwise. She would do whatever she pleased regardless. She's proven that too many times.

"Okay, mom whatever you say." I turned away from her and swiftly walked up the stairs towards my bedroom. I was so upset but I didn't want her to know that. I never wanted to get in her way of wanting to do better for herself, especially considering she hadn't done much of anything other then lay around the house and drink all day and night since dad had left. I often wondered why my parents had even decided to have children considering they hardly took care of me anyways. I basically provided for myself my entire life. Yeah they were there for me and they brought money into the house but that was it. They didn't ask me about school, or friends -other then Frans family- they just didn't care about the small things..

"Adam?" Her voice sent shivers down my spin as I stood in my room frozen at the voice I had just heard.

It couldn't be possible..

I twisted my body around abruptly, wanting to see for myself.

There she was, sitting on my bench next to the window. Her hair shined as the sun rays went through it, making her entire body glow. She didn't have any shoes on and she wore a baby doll dress that hugged her body in all the right places and flowed down to her knees.

I shook my head roughly and squeezed my eyes shut tight, trying to get her out of my head. She couldn't really be here, it was just a fragment on my imagination.

Shit, Adam. You need to get it together.

I opened my eyelashes slowly, to see if she was gone and I was taken back when she was still sitting in the same place I had saw before.

I couldn't believe this.. There was absolutely no way.. right?

"Francesca?"