Maddox silently watched his mother as she arranged the white carnations in a small, round, crystal vase. She was humming a low tune with an upbeat melody as she did so.
Maddox, whose tall and firm body was leaned against the staircase wall continued to observe his mother until she slightly looked up.
Innately, her lips contracted into a smile.
"Hey babe," She merrily greeted him as she placed the flower vase down on the roundtable before her.
She placed her hands on her hips and took in a deep breath before glancing up at her sullen faced son.
"Everything okay?" She skeptically asked him knowing he would give her the same response she had been receiving for months already.
"Fine," He morbidly replied as he stood up straight and headed for the front door.
Maddox was waiting for his father to hurry up and take him to school.
Clasping her hands, Nina slightly tilted her head to the side, "Can we talk about you?"
"What's there to talk about?" Maddox questioned her as he stuffed his hands into the front pockets of his jeans.
"You Maddox, you're not yourself," Nina told him as she crossed her arms over her chest, "You haven't been yourself for a while now."
"I'm fine," Maddox replied with an indifferent tone in his voice.
"No, you're not fine I've known you for 17 years I know when something is wrong with my baby," Nina chimed as she approached her son.
Maddox oversaw his mom as she extended her arms to wrap them around him. She brought him into an embrace where she rested her head on his chest and smiled to herself.
Her short arms could barely reach around her son, but she tried her hardest.
Maddox always had a soft spot for his mother, no matter how much more despondent he became he could never intentionally hurt her.
He returned the embrace.
Truthfully, it was something he didn't know he needed.
His mother's reassuring hug.
"X?" Nina mumbled as she let her son go and awkwardly took a step back.
"Yeah?" He snapped his eyebrows together.
Nina pushed back the short strand of hair behind her ear, "Can I tell you something?"
He skeptically nodded his head, and Nina immediately gripped onto her son's left arm.
Much more skeptical now, Maddox scrunched his face at her.
Nina was feeling a vast amount of uneasiness centralizing itself in the flow of her bloodstream. She took in a small breath and held it for a few seconds.
With his free arm, Maddox scratched at the nape of his neck, "Yeah?" He sounded worried.
She squeezed his bare arm with her hand trying to find a way to say the right words without stumbling over them.
In her mind the night before, she had made up various scenarios to see how her son and husband would react to the news.
"Maddox-"
"What's going on?" Stanford unintentionally interrupted as he came down the stairs with his cell phone in the palm of his hand.
"Mom was about to tell me something," Maddox told his father as Nina let go of his arm.
YOU ARE READING
STARGIRL
General Fiction"Her lips are like the galaxy's edge, and her kiss the colour of a constellation falling into place" (AM). - Every time he looked at her, he could feel his heart breaking. She was the girl with the gleam in her eyes plucked from the stars themselve...
