Season Of Love (gxg) | ✍︎︎

12. Catch Your Eye.

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| SEASON OF LOVE |
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Having to see her mother on a Saturday morning isn't exactly what Noelle wanted to do, but she needed an excuse to get out of the house. She needed a reason to get away from Hope, and taking her younger siblings out for the day was the perfect way to do that, even if that meant having to cross paths with Yvette in order to do it. And Noelle hadn't been avoiding her mother per se, but since calling off her engagement and wedding, Yvette has not been the easiest person to be around.

"Noelle," Yvette said when she opened the door for her daughter.

"Hi, Mom," Noelle smiled, even though Yvette did not reciprocate it.

"You're here for Glory and Gabriel, aren't you?"

"Yes. I told them I would take them to get some Christmas shopping done before downtown gets too crowded the closer we get to the holiday."

Downtown Riverlin is a modest-sized city, so it is not nearly as impressive as a major city. But even so, they had shops, restaurants, and even a mall, albeit a small one, that made the twenty-minute drive from the boonies into town worth it.

"They could barely wake up this morning, so they're upstairs still getting ready. Although Gabriel hasn't been doing the best in school, so he's lucky I'm letting him go out at all. He should be grounded."

"What's going on? Have you tried talking to him?"

"Of course I have. We both have, me and your father."

And by that, she means that they told him he needs to bring his grades up by the end of the semester so that he graduates that upcoming June with absolutely no exceptions. They did not ask what was going on and why there was a shift in his grades. They didn't care, as long as he fixed it.

"I'll talk to him."

"You can try," Yvette scoffed. "It's so hard to get through to that boy. He just doesn't care about anything."

"Mom, can I come in?" Noelle asked because she was still standing in the open doorway. She could feel the warmth from inside the house, but the cold from behind her was countering it.

It was below freezing outside and Noelle woke up to a light blanket of snow over everything but the roads, so she didn't think she'd have to ask her mother to invite her into her own childhood home. She never thinks about things like that, which is why Noelle wasn't surprised her seventeen-year-old brother acted the way he did.

"Oh, of course sweetie. I'm so sorry," Yvette said, pulling Noelle into the house.

"Where's dad?" Noelle asked once she walked into the warm home. She took her wet boots off by the door and shrugged out of her coat as she followed her mother into the kitchen.

"He left earlier this morning. He's at the church."

"Of course he is," Noelle mumbled under her breath because she should have known already. That's where he spent most of his time.

"Would you like some tea? The kettle is still warm. I just boiled it before you showed up."

"That would be nice, thank you."

Noelle rested her jacket on the back of a wooden chair before she took a seat at the six-person table in the dining area just off of the open-style kitchen. She watched as her mother poured her a cup of tea and brought it over to her on a small platter.

"Thank you."

"You're welcome," Yvette said as she retook her seat at the table with her own cup of tea.