All In My Head

Chapter one: Happy Birthday To Me

"Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you," My family and friends surrounded me as they sweetly sung the happy birthday song to me. "Happy birthday dear, Vanessa. Happy birthday to you!"

"Make a wish, sweetie." My mother whispered, her hands resting proudly on my shoulders. I stared at the twenty candles on my cake. I watched as the flames flickered, almost dancing on my cake. I thought of something simple before blowing the candles out.

A combination of applause, cheers, and laughter filled the room. The lights came back on with a click and I blinked my eyes quickly, adjusting to the lighting.

"Come on, Vanessa! The birthday girl has to do the honours of cutting the cake!" My uncle announced, handing me a large knife. I gazed at it from an eye-level, grinning when I saw my reflection from the spotless knife.

"Jesus, Rob!" My mother scolded my uncle.

"She's a grown woman now, Denise. She can cut her own cake."

"You're right... Go on, Vanessa." Once my mother gave me the okay, I eagerly cut the cake in the middle and sliced down with ease.

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I lounged on my bean bag chair, munching on popcorn and watching reruns of old shows. Every one of my friends and family members have already gone home, and we had finally finished cleaning up the mess.

My mother approached the opened door to my room. She knocked on the doorframe to get my attention. "Vanessa, when are you ever going to have kids and marry someone?"

"Not for a long time. Why, do you really want to be a grandmother?" I joked. I paused the show and shifted in the bean bag chair to face her. She leaned up against the doorframe and seemed baffled by my response.

"Well, I am getting old. Might as well call me grandma!" She argued loudly. I rolled my eyes as she showed me the faintest grey streaks in her hair. "Nessa, look at this. Grey streaks in my hair!"

"It's not even that bad, just dye your hair!"

"I could rock this look." She said proudly, feeling like the queen she is.

I laughed it off. "Okay, Grams."

My smile fell when she looked at me with a serious expression. "I'm serious, Vanessa. One day, you're gonna find a man who'll treat you right. Not a man like dad."

"I will never find a man like that douche-hole..."

"Watch your language."

"But it's true, he walked out on us when things got tough! Even after all this time, you never like to talk about the night he left. Maybe you can keep everything bottled up, but I can't. I'm glad that night happened. Look where it's gotten us!"

"You have his brown eyes and his temper-"

"We're stronger than ever because of it! So what if I look like him, or have a couple traits of his? I'm still your daughter, can't you see that?" She stopped and paused, closing her eyes and trying her hardest not to cry the painful tears of the past. "You know what? Come with me, I have an idea."

"That's never good..."

Reluctantly, she followed me to my desk. I opened the lid of my laptop with my mom watching cautiously over my shoulder. I ignored every one of her protests and questions while aiming all my focus into the best decision of her life.

"Seriously? A dating site?"

"A lot of people do it more than you think. Just don't knock it until you try it..."

I looked back at my mom, who pressed her lips in ponder. She motioned me to get out of the desk's chair. Once she was in the seat, she began clicking away. "Woman seeking a man, zip postal code..."

Minutes later, we created her account. I found myself surprised at how much she was actually into this. "All done. What should be my profile picture?"

"How about the one when we went on vacation to Florida?" I pulled that specific picture out from my laptop's photos and cropped myself out. It was beautiful out that day and she wore a yellow sundress, large sunglasses resting over her head, and she smiled happily at the camera.

"What do I do now?"

"Find a match." I told her before collapsing lazily on my bean bag chair. Fifteen minutes later of watching more reruns, she found a match.

"Vanessa, someone clicked on my page!"

I got up quickly to hover over my mother while she admired the profile. I tried to bite back a snicker at the name; Caden. Age forty-six, widow. He had almost everything in common with my mother. If he didn't have blue eyes, he'd definitely be my mom's type. Regardless, I said, "That's your match. You should chat with him, see where it goes from there."

"Okay. Can I take your laptop?" I took a short glance at the time; it was late. I was utterly exhausted and didn't feel the need to argue with her.

"Yeah, sure, take my charger too so the battery doesn't die." I sighed and collapsed onto my bed, my body sprawled across like a starfish. My mother softly chuckled at my tiredness.

"Thank you. Goodnight, sweetheart." My mother softly spoke, turning off the lights and closing the door behind her. I murmured a goodnight back before letting the sleep wash over me...