The Veil ***ON HOLD***

Chapter Two

The Veil

Two

Sydney

"I want to congratulate the class of twenty eighteen. You all are officially young adults. No longer a slave to the secondary school system. You all are now someone else's problem." Chuckles fill the auditorium at the comment.

I find myself looking around. Hoping to see her.

"Don't worry, she'll show up," a voice sounds beside me.

Jumping, I turn to face the person who spoke. Sitting next to me is my best friend, Cole. "What?" I whisper, "You aren't supposed to be here."

"What do you mean?" he asks, smirking at me. "I am graduating too. Remember?"

"Yeah, but you...this is not your seat."

He laughs at my comment. "Only you would be worried about seating arrangements, Sydney. Seriously, can't you worry about other matters?"

"Like what?" I retort.

"Like the fact that your mom is in the audience right now." He tells me in a low voice.

I turn and look at the audience. He's right. She is in the audience. In that moment, all the noise around me fades away and everyone freezes.

I stand up and walk over to her. "What are you doing here?" I ask, once I've reached her.

"What do you mean? Do you seriously think I would miss my baby's graduation?" she asks. She gives me a friendly smile, and it seems to reach her eyes. "Graduation from high school is always a big deal. I needed to be here for this. For you."

I stand there, looking at her. She, for once, is dressed in nice clothes. Nothing revealing about her outfit, at all. She's dressed professionally and for once, looks like the mother I knew and loved when I was younger.

"This isn't real," I whisper, shaking my head.

"What did you say?"

"None of this is real. You are not really here. You don't actually care about me."

Her smile changes from caring to a smirk. "You're right. I don't care. I have never cared for you." Her clothes change in front of my eyes, basically melting off. She's left with just enough clothes to cover all her important parts. Nothing more.

"Why are you here?" I demand to know.

"You tell me. I didn't dream this up. You did," she sneers. "You're the one who wishes I was here. I am the one who wishes I didn't have a daughter. So, you know. Dreams are just wishes we can't reach."

"That's not true. You cannot tell me that you never wanted-" I start before she cuts me off.

"I never wanted you." She starts, curling her lips over her lipstick stained teeth. "I still don't want you. You are nothing like me and I will never love you, you ungrateful smart-ass. You're nothing but a failure and you will never be loved!" With each sentence she spits, she takes a step towards me.