ᴍʏ ᴍᴏᴍ ɪs ᴡʜᴏ? ✔︎

Jeri Advice

| Cody |

Incoming Call - Kristie 🧡

I stare at my phone as if I'm from a different planet and had never seen such a device before. Why she's calling me is beyond me, so I look to my mom for help.

"What do I do?" I ask with pleading eyes.

"For one, you stop panicking." She puts her hands on my shoulders and I feel myself relax. "Secondly, you don't have to answer if you don't want to. Just because she's calling doesn't mean you're obligated to answer, baby."

I take my mom's advice, weighing up my options and, although it hurts, I hit the reject button. I stare at my phone a little longer, but she doesn't call again. Not yet anyway.

"Why did you not take her call?" My mom asks, and I look at her as if she had suddenly grown three heads.

"You just said  I didn't have to take her call!"

"Relax, Cody. I'm only asking. There must have been some reason you didn't want to talk to her."

"Well...I haven't heard from her in a while. Even when I ran her over when I was on my board, our talk didn't last long. Now it feels like because she's single she wants to talk to me? I'm not that easy." I tell my mom, ignoring how the end of the sentence sounds, thankful that she ignores it too, and we make our way back to the car to return home to see grandma.

________

After dinner, I retreat to the bedroom I'm sharing with my mom while she finishes cleaning up downstairs. I don't realize that I'm just sitting on my mom's bed lost in my own thoughts, playing with my fingers until my grandma knocks on the door, peeking her head in because it wasn't closed properly.

"Hi, baby." She says in a sad tone and I know it's because she can sense something's wrong with me. Jeni warned me about that too. I can't stop the smile emerging on my lips though. When she calls me 'baby', it simply reminds me of my mother.

"Hi, grandma. Thanks for dinner, it was delicious." I hug her when she sits on the bed next to me, placing a hand on my knee and I look at her. She gives me a small smile before she speaks, squeezing my knee in reassurance.

"You're more than welcome, sweetie. Now, what's wrong?" She asks and as I'm about to tell her about my so-called love life, I notice that I haven't even told her I'm into girls, and suddenly, for once in my life, I'm scared of someone else's reaction, someone elses opinion. Before I know it I'm falling into a panic attack, and my grandma panics too, which clearly doesn't help me.

"ALEX! ALEX!" My grandma yells for my mom and within seconds she's in the room, kneeling at my feet. The perks of being a star athlete, I think to myself as Jeri and Jen show up a few seconds after my mom, slightly out of breath. I notice their wide-eyed stares when they see I'm having a panic attack. I'm brought back to the problem at hand when I feel my mom taking my face in both of her hands and forcing me to look at her and only her.

"Focus on me, baby. Copy my breathing." She soothes me, and it takes almost ten minutes before my breathing starts to even out, I should be happy that I'm calm now but I'm lightheaded, and sleepy. "It's okay, baby. Get some sleep." I don't even argue with her, I basically pass out.

| Alex |

"What happened?" I ask my mom as we make it back to the kitchen, my sisters behind us. I need a glass of wine after that.

"I asked her what was wrong, she didn't answer, next thing I know she's having an attack. Are those normal for her?"

"They're...no. They only happen when she becomes extremely stressed." I tell my mom and I see the look of guilt on her face. She feels responsible. "It's not your fault, mom."