Make believe

Chapter 23

"You should really look in to getting a job." My mother said as she set the table. I groaned from my spot atop the counter and flipped through the pages of a magazine. We were waiting for my father to get home before we began dinner. Eating together as a family felt vague and odd, considering it hardly ever happened anymore. It brought a weird taste to my mouth at the thought of conveying small talk and awkward silences with my own parents. I heard the soft clanging of dishes pause and looked up to see her looking at me.

"Did you hear me?"

I rolled my eyes and muttered a 'yes' before averting my eyes back to the magazine. She was right, I knew it. I had actually thought of getting a job sometime soon, but it still annoyed me-hearing my mother tell me to. I had thought more and more of investing in a car and realized that, once school started, I would want to drive there. After I got my license, I would want to drive everywhere, probably. Yes, I was already sixteen and had been for months, but I had never had any need for a car. But now, I had a want. I racked my mind for job openings that I might've seen; not much. I told myself I'd check the paper tomorrow and maybe go for a walk around town in search of any 'help wanted' signs.

I glanced up from the magazine to see my mother hurriedly setting the table. Her tight hands set the plates down hard with a clang and the glasses were set down beside them, along with the forks and spoons and knives. She had her chocolate-brown hair twisted up into a bun, though many pieces had fallen out to frame her face. Her tight jaw was hard and clenched as she stood up straight from the table and smoothed her dress. The air was thick with tension, not from me or us being in the same room, but from her demeanor. She looked stressed and unsatisfied as she observed the table.

"...you okay?" I spoke up. Her eyes darted to mine as she took a deep breath, then let it out. She plastered a small smile on her face as she nodded.

"Of course."

I hopped down from the counter and bordly played with the ends of my hair. Hesitantly, I asked,

"What's the occasion? Why are we eating dinner together?"

She walked through the archway which led to the kitchen and fiddled with the pepper and salt shakers, moving and organizing the herbs.

"We need an occasion to spend time together?" I raised a eyebrow though she couldn't see me with her back turned in my direction.

"Mom-"

"Your father also has important news to share." Important news? Normally, I would've pressed farther, the curiosity getting the best of me, but her tone told me to keep quiet. So I did. I watched her ridged body move from one end of the kitchen to the other, adding last minute touches to the cooking meal and cleaning along the way. My mother never used to be this way; so stern and to herself. I remember her being so light-hearted and free and artful when she was younger. Her hair always fell in lose waves around her shoulders and her blue eyes held a sparkle in them like no other.

I can't remember exactly when it happened, I guess slowly over a long period of time, but eventually, those eyes lost their sparkle. I slowly lost my mother to her job and my father to his. Memories from my childhood of my mother seemed like a whole other person as I looked at her at that moment. How sad is it, that when we finally spend time as a family, it's for a reason or an occasion, and not just because we want to.

I shook the thoughts of my parents and our issues from my head. My mind drifted to two days before, at the boys apartment with Aubree. My life at home was so boring and lonely, it seemed that, lately, the only times I was happy were the times spent with them. Aubree had got on with the boys so well and it brought such a relief to my conscience. That day was the first day of July, marking the summer to be one-third over. I sighed. How could it possibly end? Returning to school didn't appeal to me at all; neither did the thought of the boys leaving-which they would have to, sometime or another.