Letters to Isabella

fourteen.

Laura's POV

"Morning mom." Isabella chirped happily. It was ten o'clock on Saturday morning and Ross and I had just barely made it home. Of course everyone knew that we'd been away on our little date night but we didn't exactly want to arrive back home in the middle of the day. We wanted to retreat home quietly and thankfully we'd managed to. I'd felt like a teenager all over again doing the walk of shame. Although sadly I only ever really got to do it once. "Can I have a plate of these?" She gestures to the raspberry pancakes that mom had made the precious evening.

I nodded. "Sure baby."

Isabella took her seat across from me and placed her pancakes down on the table in front of her. I was surprised to see her up so early honestly. Most kids her age would have killed for a lie in on a weekend but I guess she followed me. Marano girl's never sleep, we only study.

I sat with a fresh cup of coffee in my hands and watched Isabella with wide eyes as she ate her breakfast. I couldn't quite put my finger on the energy that I felt in the room but I knew my daughter; after all, she was practically a mini me. I knew that something was up with her. I just needed to get to the bottom of whatever that was.

"So..." I began, instantly catching my daughter's attention. I took a slow sip from my coffee. "how was your night with Nona last night? Was everything okay?"

She shrugged and ate a mouthful of her pancake, holding her hand over her mouth as she chewed. "It was good. She mainly spent time in the kitchen making lasagne and pancakes anyways."

I nodded my head in approval. At least she hadn't fallen asleep like the other few times where Ross and I had asked her to babysit for us. We'd come home one night when Bailey was a little less than five years old and both Isabella and my mom were crashed out on the couch with Bailey running freely throughout the house in a smelly diaper.

"So nobody came over?" I offered, watching Isabella for any signs of guilt or fear.

She simply shook her head and smiled at me. "Nope. It was just the three of us." She paused and raised her eyebrows at me. "Why? Was anyone supposed to come over?"

I shook my head back at her and folded my arms over my chest. Was my mini me playing me at my own mind game? I thought I was the one asking the questions - I'm the mom! "Hey! I ask the questions. You answer them." I joked. But actually I was being deadly serious.

Isabella rolled her dark brown eyes at me in annoyance. "Sure... if that helps you sleep at night."

"Bella." I firmly stated, holding my cup of coffee close to my lips. "I'm your mom. I'm the adult. I don't like this attitude, okay?"

"That doesn't mean you have to be intrusive mom!" Isabella scowled back at me. She took one last bite from her raspberry pancakes and carried over the remains to the trash. "I know what you're thinking." She held her hands on either side of her hips and feeling intrigued I raised my eyebrows at her to continue. "You think there was a guy here last night don't you? Or that I had a group of friends over? Well jokes on you mom, I was studying and even nona can back me up on that one because she told me to stop."

I wanted to answer her back but I couldn't. Was it bad that my eleven year old daughter was able to sass back at me like that? After a few seconds of thoughts rippling through my brain I realised that it probably was a bad thing. A very, very bad thing actually.