Until You (Westshore Series #2)

07 | Don't Drink an Entire Bottle of Wine

☼Kenji ☼

My mom is sick. The kind of sick where she isn't going to get better. It's one of the main reasons that I transferred to Westshore for my senior year, to be closer to her. 

I have never been late to our Tuesday night dinners before, but I let myself get distracted tonight. My mom won't care though, if anything she would be interested to know what girl made me late. I have never had a serious girlfriend before and she has been begging me to introduce her to a girl for years.

Little does she know the girl who made me late is a girl I can't have. That she is a friend and nothing more, but I already know I would do almost anything for her.

Hailey Gomez

I was burning with my own form of anxiety from the need to know what had upset her. I wanted to demand she tell me what happened, to not let up until she gave me a name. But I didn't want to push my luck or make the situation worse, so I kept my mouth shut.

She didn't speak a single word to me after crying in my arms– with the exception of apologizing a million fucking times for something she obviously couldn't control.

I didn't know what to do or say to put her at ease.

I kept telling her it was okay, but she wasn't hearing me.

It was like she was stuck in her own head, worrying herself to death over something I couldn't see.

I felt helpless.

I wanted to help her, but it was an impossible thing to do when I couldn't see who she was up against.

____

I arrive at the care home and the front desk receptionist Effy greets me with a big smile, "Hi Kenji, your mom has been talking about your visit all day."

"Good to know she hasn't forgotten about me after meeting Paul." I smile and walk towards the room, already knowing the route by heart.

Paul is an older man who moved in across the hall from her, someone she could not stop talking about during my last visit. Something about him bringing her flowers every week and trying to smooth talk his way into her heart. A heart that has been closed for a long time.

I enter the room and my mom is sitting in her chair by the window writing in her crossword "My son! You are late. I was beginning to think you forgot about me." She puts down the crossword and waves me over for a hug.

My mom was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis when she was 50 years old. I was only seventeen at the time and now at age 54, she has already lost a lot of mobility in her legs. She is still the strongest woman I know, born in Japan but came here on a trip alone, met my smooth-talking father, and never left. 

My parents had quite the love story, my dad proposed only a month after meeting her and they were inseparable ever since. My dad even changed his last name to hers when they married, he wanted his legacy to be in her name. He also thought that Hashimoto was a much better last name than Smith and I agree with that sentiment.

My mom lost a big part of herself when he passed away and as much as I don't like to admit it...so did I. But she is strong, she moved on and kept going for me, I don't know what I would do if I lost her too.

I squeeze her in a hug, kissing the top of her head, "I'm sorry Mom I had tutoring with Hailey, but it went over."

She gives me a cheeky smile, "Oh yes, this Hailey character, the one who saved the cat from the tree."

I scoff, "Hey I saved her and the cat from the tree, I am the real hero here."

"If that is what you need to tell yourself. Now is this Hailey pretty?" She asks, gesturing for me to sit at the table.