A Little bit of Shade

T H I R T Y - E I G H T

3 days

"I did a thing" Jack says, walking down the stairs. He sits next to me on the couch. "Oh god" I sigh.

"I did a bad thing!" He leans on me. "What did you do?" I ask, sitting up and he falls behind me. "I might have went on your Facebook and messaged your mom" he cringes. "Jack!" I yell, standing up.

"I'm sorry!" He whines. "What if your mom wants to be in your life?" He says. "What if she doesn't!" I groan. "Why would you do that?" I ask, pacing back and forth. "I want you to have your family, you two were close"

"Jack, I don't need blood family when I have you guys, I can't believe you did this!" I groan, sitting back down. I go on my phone, going into Facebook messenger and seeing if she'd replied yet. She hadn't seen it.

"Can you delete messages?" I ask, trying every way I could. "I don't think so" He cringes. "Shit" I sigh. We sit in silence for a few minutes.

Eventually Zach came down, rambling about some game, which I was too distracted to listen too. Jack and him talked about it for a while before they both ran off upstairs. "Hey" jonah says, sitting next to me. "What's up?"

"Jack messaged my mom from my Facebook" I say, not looking at him. "What?!" He sits up, staring at me. I sigh. "He wanted me to have family"

"We're your family!" He gasps. "That's what I said. Now I'm just waiting for a reply, I guess. I don't know what to do right now" I explain. "Okay, I'll wait with you" he leans back on the couch and opens Netflix.

"Let's watch the umbrella academy, I heard it's really good" he suggests. I lean back and get comfortable, watching the show with him.

•••

Around 5:30, Jonah was hungry. He suggested he made pasta, of course I had no complaints against it. We ate while watching the show. My phone buzzed and I nearly had a heart attack. I picked it up, but it was just a text from Christina. She messaged to say good luck in school and that she'd miss me.

I'll miss you too ❤️ and thank you

The fourth episode starts and my phone buzzes again. I figure it's Christina again, but it wasn't. It was a Facebook message.

My eyes start to water as I think about everything it could say.

Teresa Kelly: Hi Kylie, I'm so glad you reached out. I've wanted to explain myself for these few years, but I never had the courage. I figured you hated me and never wanted to talk. Do you want to meet somewhere? Do you still live with your father in Toronto?

Tears flood my eyes. Probably of relief. Jonah pauses the show and turns to me. "Are you okay? Did she answer?" He sits up to comfort me. "She's happy I reached out and wants to meet" I cry. "That's good right?" He asks. "Yeah" I smile. "I think so"

I answer her back.

Kylie Matthews: I never hated you, I just didn't understand why you left. I actually live in L.A right now, but I'm moving to Seattle in three days.

Teresa: Perfect! I live in Vancouver, I could come visit you when you move there. Are you going there for school?

We ended up talking for the rest of the day, she asked so many questions about my dad, although I tried to avoid those questions. We planned to meet up the week after I move in, since I'll need time to get settled in.

I was so happy my mother wanted to be in my life. It had been so long since I'd seen her and I had so many questions. Although I'm happy, I couldn't let Jack get away so easily.

I run upstairs and starts to cry, of course I'm good at fake crying. "Jack" I cry, sitting on the bed beside him. Zach and Jack both look up from their games, once they notice me crying, they jump up. "What happened?" Jack asks. "My mom answered"

"She said she didn't want anything to do with me and that I shouldn't have tried to talk to her" I explain. Zach rubs my back. "I'm- I'm so sorry Ky" he stutters.

"You don't need her, you're amazing and you provided for yourself when she or your dad wouldn't. You're so strong and will always have us" Jack rambles. "I know I am" I smile. "I just needed to hear you say it" I say, wiping my fake tears and showing him the conversation on my phone.

"Oh wow!" He hands the phone back. "I can't believe you did that to me!" He whines, laughing and hitting me with a pillow. "I had to make you feel bad! What if she'd actually said something like that or just never answered me!" I laugh.

"Well I'm sorry, but at least it worked out well" he says, throwing the pillow back on the bed. "So you're meeting her next week?" He asks. "On Friday" I smile. "Wow, can I come?" He asks.

"No, but I'll call you after and if I need you, you'll have to fly over" I say. He smiles and nods. "Are you excited?" Zach asks.

"Yeah, I have so many questions I want to ask her and I'll finally get to know why she left" I answer. "That's great, you're gonna have your mom back" Zach smiles. "Yeah" I smile too.

"Want to learn how to play fortnite?" Jack asks. "Yeah, we can teach you!" Zach cheers. "Sure" I shrug, sitting on the floor with them.

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The story is almost over, but I have two special chapters planned :)

-K