Push to the Limit (the sixth book in the Glee series)

Chapter 86: Mommy Issues

"You invited my mother over?" Kitty exclaimed as she stood in Marley's living room with Vince, Taylor, Marley, Dean and Riley. Ben was sitting on the floor next to Riley, both of them looking up at her like children who had just been busted doing something they weren't supposed to. That's how everyone other than Alexa, asleep in Taylor's arms, was looking at her.

"Good morning," Dean told her, enjoying her neurotic behavior like it was an episode of Keeping Up With the Kardashians.

Kitty glared at him. "It is NOT a good morning," she said.

Taylor covered up Alexa's ears as Vince said, "Patricia's gone now. Why are you still upset?"

"Because," Kitty said, crossing her arms, "when she shows up she isn't really gone until I move out of the city, cleanse myself, and then return! If she's here it's to send me right back to D.C. for the career she wants for me. If she's here it's because somebody in this room told her that I had a daughter."

"Your mom didn't know you had a baby?" asked Marley.

"She didn't even know I had gotten pregnant!" exclaimed Kitty. "And when she's done having her break at her hotel I'm sure she's going to come right back to remind me what a failure I am for getting pregnant without being married, for coming back to Lima, for taking a leave from my job... And even for you being in the picture, Taylor. No offense."

"None taken!" she said, though she looked a bit freaked out by the whole situation. Kitty's mother had that effect on people.

"How didn't your mom know you were pregnant...?" muttered Marley.

"Ok, stop living in the past," Kitty snapped at her. "Which one of you mentioned me to her, huh? Who did it?"

"Maybe you should take a breath," Vince recommended.

"Yeah, it's not that big of a deal for your mom to know that—" Marley said.

Seeing the growing anger on her mother's face, Riley rose from her seat and exclaimed, "I did it! I called her!"

"You?!" said Kitty, shocked. "But you know how I feel about that woman! I told you I didn't want her near this baby!"

"I know..." Riley sighed. "But I like Patricia and she called me to check in and wanted me to visit her and... I just felt bad keeping this from her. Alexa was crying in the background. I mean, what was I supposed to say?"

"That you bought a goat," Kitty shrugged. "Or something. I don't know. I don't care. I am very disappointed in you, Brutus."

Riley rolled her eyes as Kitty picked up her baby from Taylor's arms and made her way to her bedroom, where she intended to stay until the beast that gave birth to her was gone.

***

Julie spent her Sunday at home, trapped inside her old room at Albany's and doing her hardest to focus on something that wasn't her conversation with Alex. That was a difficult task, but rewinding on his words wasn't as bad as reliving the same old scenes with the other guys, which was the alternative.

When she tired of the apartment, she collected her guitar and her notebook and headed out to the only place she didn't expect to be interrupted: her house. It was messy there, with construction going on all over the place to not only fix the damages but ensure that they didn't happen again. Her house was old and according to the inspector "not worth what it would take to restore it" but it was the only true home she'd ever known and she refused to let it go so easily.

At the house, she made her way around to the backyard, past the workers who were currently there, only to remember that the studio was the most destroyed part. Replacing all the damaged equipment was going to be expensive and she wasn't even sure if she wanted to do it but with the few painful experiences she'd had at Blackbird so far, she really had no choice.