Before I Leave

Five

Hailey's POV

It was a sunny day in LA. The weather couldn't have been better for a day to be spent on the beach with friends: the sun was shining from a clear blue sky, and it was really warm. The heat was bearable because of the nice cool breeze that played with my hair and messed it up as I walked outside.

I walked through the school yard with the girls and said them goodbye when we parted. They headed to a restaurant whereas I found my way to the parking lot and got inside of our car as soon as I spotted it from the area.

As soon as I got inside, I was greeted by Mr. Howell, my mother and Christina.

"Hello." I answered them all.

"How was your day?" My mom asked while scrolling through her phone.

"It was good, thanks." I simply replied. "Yours?"

"Quite OK, I think." Christina stated.

My mother put her phone into her black handbag and turned to Mr. Howell.

"Please, take us to the center. We need to go shopping clothes for the girls." She pleaded.

Mr. Howell nodded his head and answered politely, and then he started driving us towards our destination.

I leaned my head against the cool window before opening it by pushing down a bottom, realizing that it would help me a lot more.
I was exhausted by school and I kept stressing about the workload that was waiting for me at home.

"Are you tired?" Mom asked suddenly.

I didn't even bother to look at her to see if she had been staring at me the whole time, and so I just nodded my head.

"You look bad." She commented.

I rolled my eyes.

"Thanks, mom. That makes me feel much better." I thanked her sarcastically.

She let out a dry laugh.

"No, but for real, honey. What's the matter?" She kept asking.

I took a deep breath.

"I'm just stressed, that's all. I have lots of homework to do as soon as we get home." I answered.

"I'm so glad we're going shopping, then." She said happily. "It'll help you to get your mind off of school for a while. You're in a serious need of shopping therapy."

I turned to look at my mom and faked a smile for her. I appreciated the fact that she thought that shopping was a way to make me feel better, even though she was completely wrong. To be honest, I couldn't have cared less about shopping, because it wasn't necessarily my favorite thing in the world; I would've rather gone home and read a good book and immerse into it, but my mother didn't know that and I didn't have the heart to tell her that I wasn't enjoying myself at the shopping center. Thinking about the fact that my mother didn't know me at all made me really sad, but I tried to get the thought out of my head - just like I would do every time. During all the years I had been living with my parents, I had learned an imperative ability to push hurtful thoughts and feelings out of my mind. I had learned how to build an armor around me, I had learned how to lie to myself and convince myself to see things in the light I wanted. It was too painful to face the truth about the relationship I had with my parents: sometimes I felt like the only thing they cared about was my education and they wanted to focus on turning me into a cold-hearted businessman who would look after their company when it was their turn to retire.

After a while Mr. Howell pulled out the car to the side of the road and we got out. My mother walked into a shop with Christina and I following behind.
As soon as we got inside the shop, a young woman walked up to us with an overly kind smile on her face.