If You Would [h.s.] HOLD

Thirteen

Three gentle knocks on my door wake me from my sleep. My eyes open and I realize I've fallen asleep on the couch. Again. I groan and stretch before standing up to answer the door.

When I do I don't expect to see my parents standing there with their suitcases. My eyes widen as they meet theirs. My mother has a slight grin on her face and my dad holds a nervous one.

"Shannon, David." I say in a dead voice. I open the door for them to walk in, still too tired to ask about the suitcases. Every year they show up and just stay for a week.

"You know you can call us mom and dad right? That horrid man is gone now." My mom says as she walks inside, dragging her suitcase behind her. Dad follows her lead and enters silently, shutting the door behind him.

"Oh.. yeah sorry. Habit." I shrug and move to give them a hug. They both greet me with open arms.

When I was with Randy, he slowly started to turn me against my parents. He would make up reasons not to go to their house all the time. I used to visit every weekend and then I barely saw them on the holidays. Randy was very possessive. No one could have a piece of me, not even my own parents. It got ridiculous when he created fake texts between him and my dad. The texts showing my "dad" threatening him. I called my father immediately of course and completely destroyed him. He said he didn't do it and I should have believed him but damn, Randy was convincing. My mom obviously took my fathers side and we lost contact for a while. We shared some not-so-civil words up until me and Randy split up.

"Eve?" My mother calls from the kitchen. I was too busy in my own mind to even realize she migrated to the kitchen. I walk in and she already is digging through my cabinets for baking supplies. Normally she doesn't cook until the second day because she's tired from travel.

"Here, I moved some things around since last time," I pause and hand her a baking sheet, "you know, you should really start giving me a heads up before you come." I finish and get the flour off of the top shelf that she can't reach.

"Well you'll say no." She replies without hesitation. A pang of guilt courses through my veins and I drop my head.

"I'm sorry. It's different now I promise. But I'm also so busy. What were you going to do if I wasn't home?" I ask and lean against the kitchen counter. My father has turned the tv on in the living room. I can hear jeopardy playing loudly.

"Go out to eat and wait for you to come back." She starts mixing dry ingredients in a bowl.

"I've been craving macadamia nut cookies for a week straight..." she mumbles as she mixes in eggs and milk. I sigh at her response.

"Okay... well just text me next time and I can leave a key under the mat or something, in case I'm working. Because I do work. Actually I work tonight so you guys will have the apartment to yourselves." I look at the time on the microwave. 10:45 AM. They must have left at 8 AM.

"Do you want some help?" I approach her and she nods while licking some batter off of her finger.

"Preheat the oven please." She still doesn't look at me. I do as she says before turning back to her. Her short responses and unwillingness to look at me raises my suspicions.

"Mom are you alright?" I ask and cross my arms. Waiting for her response felt like an hour. The longer she doesn't reply the more worried I get. Then she slowly faces me and smiles a great big fake smile.

"Yes of course. But we do need to have a talk once you get home from work. When do you go in?" She tried to change the subject.

"Talk about what?" I track back.