Difference

Chapter 2

After stomping the snow off of my boots and hanging up my orange puffy coat, I called out, “Hey mom, I’m home!” hoping that she hadn’t worried too much. I was only about an hour late, and she knew how crazy things could get at the diner some times. On the other hand, I don’t usually lose track of time…

 I was snapped out of my train of thought when she appeared from around the corner and I saw a look of worry fade into a warm smile. “Your dinner is in the fridge.” She said as a way of greeting. “I had to get the twins dinner and get them to bed but you can heat it up,” she said a way of explanation.

 “Will you keep my company while I eat it?” I asked, hoping to get a chance to talk to her about her big job interview today and to explain my arriving home an hour late.

 “Of course” she replied, a smile blooming across her face, obviously glad that I had taken interest in talking to her. With balancing school, work, and homework I often didn’t have time to spend with my mom. Although, I wish I did.

 I skipped around the corner and to the kitchen, feeling the sudden burst of happy energy that comes with being home with my mom instead of dealing with rude customers at the diner. Even when they aren’t rude, it’s still relaxing and comforting to spend time with my mom.

 After heating up my dinner and filling in my mom on the basic happenings of the day, I finally got around to asking her what I really wanted to know.

 “So mom, how do you think that job interview went?” I asked, trying not to sound overly excited in case it hadn’t gone as planned.

 Mom and I had been trying to act like this interview wasn’t a big deal, but it’s a very, very, big deal. If she got the job I could stop working so much and she could finally work at something she actually enjoyed instead of bouncing around from store to store, selling different things at each place. This job meant a lot to both of us, but if there was one thing we had learned in the past few years, it was to not get your hopes up, because there is always something that could go wrong.

 “I think it went pretty well, but we should find out for sure within a few days,” she replied. I could see a small flicker of pride in her eyes and realized that it had gone much better than she let on.

 “That’s great!” I said, hoping she would get even a little bit excited about what she had accomplished, but I could tell that she was still wary, and with good reason. Sometimes ideas are easier to let go of if you never really believed they were possible in the first place.

After getting in some more much needed time with my mom, I brought my backpack over to the kitchen and started to work on whatever homework I could finish before I completely crashed and went insane.

 I began by pulling out my math homework and was immediately reminded of the $20 tip I had yet to give to my mom. I was about to walk over to her when I realized that she had a fair chance of getting a better job, and decided to only give it to her if she didn’t get the job.

 The math homework reminded be of Jed’s smile and the way he was always trying to make me laugh. (Not an easy thing to do.) For the rest of the night I couldn’t stop trying to count all of the different times I smiled over the course of the night. More than in the rest of the week combined for sure. Try that for a math problem.

 It was 3:00 am when I finally tip-toed past the twins room and crawled into bed next to my mom.