"Mom, for the love of God quit touching my hair please!"
Laura gives an innocent smile before taking an exaggerated step back from her son, Kyle. It's his senior year this year and as her only child, Laura is experiencing a bit of empty nest syndrome. Her only baby boy is now grown, turning eighteen in a few weeks, and he will be graduating in the spring. Laura quickly steps ahead once more, patting down Kyle's chocolate strands of hair that was sticking up. Kyle gives her a dirty glare before smiling and shaking his head.
Kyle laughs, "honestly Mom, you're acting like I'm going to interview to Harvard or something. I'm still in high school, may I remind you. It's just another day in another year and you're going to make me late if you keep fucking with my hair."
Laura gasps, staring unbelievably at her son. After a moment she regains the fact that that did indeed happen and she smacks him lightly upside his head.
"Ow! Mom!"
"You may be nearly grown, Kyle Matthew Hines, but I can still smack you if you disobey my rules. You're still a baby, you shouldn't be swearing like that."
Kyle rolls his eyes and turns back to the bathroom mirror to make sure the light swat didn't harm his hair anymore, "Mom, my first word was fuck. I don't know what the big deal is. I'm not a baby anymore."
Kyle's mother rolls her eyes and approaches her son, hugging him and silently realizing how much her child has grown, "you'll always be my baby, though."
"Mom, I really need to go otherwise I'll be late."
Laura pouts, looking up into her son's dark eyes. He has his father's height but Kyle was still on the shorter side compared to the other senior boys in school. His brown eyes mirrored his father's, a small daily reminder of the love they had between them. Kyle was the spitting image of Fredrick Hines, his father. Every day Kyle acted more and more like him. The small bickering, his smarts, his attitude, and even down to the way he'd inwardly pout to try to persuade Laura into doing anything.
Laura loved Fredrick. More than anything. Sadly, Fredrick filed for divorce five years ago after "the spark died". He claimed that he loved her dearly but couldn't stand a day in and out routine with her for the rest of his life. With raising Kyle for the past five years alone, the resemblance he holds to his parent gives Laura a small ache in her heart. She would do anything to get her ex husband back.
Pushing those thoughts out of her head, she smiles and pushes a strand of her blonde hair behind her ear. She stands there, admiring the man her boy has become. Kyle always jokingly called it "the mother's stare" because the look held such love that only a mother could understand. She assured Kyle for years that he'd understand that gaze once he had children but she was never believed.
Kyle groans, throwing his head back, "Mom! You're doing it again!"
"Doing what?"
"Th-that stare again! The stupid mother's stare! It's kinda creepy if you ask me. You just stand there and smile at me until it blows over."
Laura's response is cut short when an alarm sounds. Kyle growls, ripping his phone out of his pocket and exhaling deeply once the sound was turned off.
"Now you're going to make me late! Mom I really need to go!"
"Then go on, I'm not going to stop you. The keys are on my nightstand."
The boy childishly stomps his way into his mother's bedroom, mumbling complaints on how the keys were in her room instead of next to the door to keep him home a little longer. The son returns, giving a sheepish smile and blushing a light pink.
"Hug," Laura demands, arms spread out.
"So needy!" Kyle complains yet he brings his mom into an embrace, noticing the usual smell of her citrus perfume.
Once the two depart, Kyle waves and dashes out the door. Once the door is closed and silence echoes through the too large of a home. Laura smiles.
"Just like your father," Laura tuts to herself while shaking her head, "behave for me please, Kyle. You will never understand how much I love you. How much I love the man you've grown into. Have a good day at school."
YOU ARE READING
What Brings Us Together
General Fiction"He only hates you because he likes you." "Mom, you couldn't be anymore wrong. Turner hates my guts. How do you know he likes me?" "Because I can see it in his eyes. Your father used to look at me the same way that Turner looks at you." ••••••••••••...
