Bad Intentions

Fifty-Eight

Leah

"Oh, mother!" I shouted as I entered her dark room. It took my vision a minute to adjust to the darkness. Because my mom works various shifts ranging from morning to night, she has these black out curtains that quite literally keep the sunlight out. If I held my hand out in front of me, there's no way I would be able to see it. Almost as if it isn't there.

I heard her groan slightly in frustration.

One thing about my mom is that she loves her sleep and hates when anyone disturbs her. Honestly, I see where I get if from now. It was definitely one of the things that my parents were the opposites on. My dad loved waking up bright and early in the morning. He was the one to get up at 5am, go out for a walk and take his camera for the early morning sunrise. He loved seeing the array of colors and the transition from the dark night sky to the early morning hues of orange, yellow and hints of red.

He always tried to get my mom to go, but as you can see there was no way she was moving from the comfort of her bed. I think my dad may have gotten her up early less than five times in their many years of marriage. Even that was pushing it.

Sometimes, I would hear muffled voices arguing and clattering of items on the floor early in the morning. Probably a pillow tossed at my dad. She was feisty first thing in the morning. My dad knew that and loved to get her all riled up.

"Mom." I said inching closer to her bed. I had to go off of my memory of the room, envision it in my mind to know where to go. I held my hands out to feel around for the edge of the bed. When I felt the softness of the mattress, I crawled onto the bed until I felt the warmness of her body and laid right next to her.

"Leah, I just worked an eighteen hour shift. So whatever you want better be good." She grumbled out pulling the blanket closer to her chin. She was always like a kid when she wanted to sleep.

I reached over to the nightstand and pulled the chain on the lamp to turn it on. It brighten up the room, but not enough to fully take the darkness away. I turned to face her, she had her eye mask on. She was serious about the 'no light' policy. "I just wanted to come and spend some time with you. I haven't seen you in days."

That part was true. I haven't seen her in a few days because of our schedules. Her pulling those extra shifts always put us on the opposite ends of the day. Plus, I'm not rude. I let her sleep in.

"You've been sleeping for eight hours. I think I gave you enough time." I added.

She yanked off the eye mask and glared at me with her dark eyes. "You are so lucky I love you."

I chuckled softly. "I love you too." I capture her in a tight hug squeezing with all my might. Her once tense posture relaxed completely from my gesture.

"Alright." She let out a soft laugh. "What is it that you really want?" Her attention turning fully to me.

I looked at her with wide innocent eyes trying to stray her away from the mere thought that I could possibly want something.

Which I did. But I couldn't let her know that.

"I just wanted to spend some time with you." I answered. "Especially, since Dad's birthday is coming up." His birthday was a week away and every year around this time I would feel the overwhelming sense of sadness.

Her dark eyes softened. She took the blanket that she was covering with and toss half of it over me. I welcomed the warmness as the room was a bit cold. I snuggled into the blanket as she pulled me into her embrace.

"How about a Hallmark movie marathon?" She asked grabbing the remote off the nightstand and turning on the TV.

"You know my answer is yes. I love those predictable romance movies." I told her adjusting the pillow behind me. As predictable as those movies are, we couldn't help but love them. Cheesy and romantic, knowing that at the end the girl always ends up with the guy and they live happily ever after.