Let Me Explain

S E V E N T E E N

"COMING back at two in the morning is a new record for you," My mom leaned against the front door and stood in front of it so that I couldn't leave for school yet. "Since when did you get so comfortable being disrespectful?"

It was always something with her every morning. Blocking me in the house before school was an all time low.

My mom was always full of surprises.

Too bad I hated surprises.

"Weston was drunk and I stayed over." I bent down slightly, sliding my uggs on my left foot. "I'm sorry."

She shook her head at my response, unimpressed. "Was Easton not there for it?"

"He was."

"You still wanted to stay, though." She tilted her head, fulminating against my decisions in life. "You still wanted to be around him."

I stood up straight and chose not to say anything to her anymore. Instead, I silently looked at her while I waited for her to move away from the door so that I could leave.

She would only get more upset when I would end up late for school.

"So you went over his house even though you came home the other day upset about him still talking to another girl."

I twisted the car keys that were in my left hand. "How do you know I wasn't there for West?"

"I'm not stupid." She stated, acrimony in her tone while she attempted to prove a point. "The moment you start talking about him like that, there's no way you're going over to their house just for West."

"She was drunk and she wanted me to stay over."

"No way in hell you're gonna get me to believe it."

"Okay, I'm sorry." I went ahead and apologized since I knew for a fact that she wasn't going to believe me.

It was better to apologize and be wrong than be right and fight with her.

"Layla, you have to stop. Seriously." My mom sighed, shaking her head at me. "You two are going to blur the lines and start confusing each other. Either you guys are fully committed or you're not."

I adjusted my backpack from the one strap that was over my shoulder. "Okay."

Her blue eyes focused on me while she looked at me for a short moment. "And you act like you don't even care."

"I do care."

"It looks like you don't." She unlocked the door and stepped over to the side to let me out. "I hope you keep this same attitude when you find out he's talking to her again."

I ignored her and used every bone in my body to not allow it to make me mad. It sucked that she would act like this right before school.

I think she knew it was good idea to do since I would have to think about it all day.

***

I clicked the backspace repeatedly, deleting the past three sentences I had typed. An essay had been assigned to be completed by the end of class.

It was an argumentative essay on whether or not gentrification was beneficial to society or not. We had about five minutes left of class and I still hadn't got farther than two paragraphs.

There goes another F in the grade book.

The coffee I had gotten with Weston today already gave me a headache, and I was already thinking too much.