Stop Me If You've Heard This One Before (Girlxgirl)

Chapter # 5

I got home late after practice and called, "Hello?" through the house. There was an answer back that I was wishing I never had to here again. "Taylor, come to the living room, we need to talk," I sighed and dragged my feet along the carpet to the living room, still making it a point to keep my distance and sat on the couch to the side of her. I didn't even call her or answer her –two—calls.

"How was school?" I tightened my jaw. "It was great," I answered. Much better than this. Here. Now. "And I suppose you're going to tell me about your grades?" She sounded bored. "I'm sorry, but how is it that you're the one who initiated the conversation, but you sound like even skinning a cat would be better than this?" I asked bitterly. She rolled her blue eyes at me and laughed. "Oh, hush, Taylor. How's that boyfriend of yours?"

I didn't answer her. I bit my lip and checked my phone for messages. Or the time. Or a missed call. Or a freaking way out. "I have asked you a question, Taylor." I sighed. "He's great, too," I told her.  "What's the attitude for? Haven't you missed your mother?" She was mocking me.

"No. because I'm fairly certain that the last time I saw her, she had just slapped me." A maniacal laugh sounded, and it came from my mother. Then she straightened out and her face hardened into a scowl. A hatred that she only felt for me. Her daughter, her own blood.  "You shouldn't have pissed me off, darling. You know, if you were anything like your brother, I would be so much happier. It's your fault I'm going through menopause at the moment. Too much stress."

"Oh? I would have thought it was because you're an old bitter hag who's got nothing else to do but abuse her daughter."

"Darling, let's not forget that I am your mother and you are my daughter and I am not above grounding you from life until you are 23 years old." I wanted to roll my eyes and brush her off, but something made me stop.

I didn't want to fight and get in trouble for some stupid bullshit. I wanted to know why she even had children if she didn't care. She cared for my brother but she never cared and never would care about me.

"Why didn't you leave me on some church doorstep instead of keeping me? What are you getting out of it?" She didn't answer me. She only shook her head.

"You poor, stupid girl. Be thankful that I did keep you." 

Then I realized. Things would never change. My mother would never love me and I had been foolish to think she ever would.

She didn't understand what it meant to be a good mother. She had a disability and I am the unfortunate one, not her. She is twisted and crooked and spiteful.

I looked her in the eye. "Fine. You can think what you want to think about me. Say whatever you like. But no matter how many times you wish it, I'm not disappearing. I'm staying right here and I'm going to get out of this hell hole and when I do, I'm never coming back just to show you that just because you were never there for me, it doesn't mean that I've missed you."

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Talia's POV

No one really knows what sort of struggle one has to go through every single day of their lives. That's why you're not supposed to judge. That and also because judging makes you seem god-like and no one ever has been or even seemed god-like.

People mistook me for the girl with a plan--the girl with a future.

I didn't think so highly of myself because I knew the real me inside and out and I knew that I tried three times as hard as anyone else to maintain my good grades and posh façade.

I wasn't extremely rich like most kids at my school, or even in this town. We were low middle class if that. In America, it's like the middle class we worked so hard to build is disappearing right before the human eye. We could wake up in poverty any day now, so we take it in stride.

That's why laid out in front of me were five letters from five different colleges. I needed a full ride to go, but acceptance gave me hope as well.

My baby brother was sitting in his highchair beside me and I took in a deep breath and looked over at him. "Ready, Evan?" I asked quietly. He raspberried and started kicking and waving his arms up and down, his tiny little fists swinging in the air. I smiled and tickled him shortly before opening the first letter.

Harvard wanted me. But I needed to come up with half of the tuition. Which was fine, understandable. I had money saved up from work, but I'd need money to live off of and that whole eating top ramen thing wasn't my style. I liked fresh produce and homemade pasta.

The next was my local university, which was only 15 miles away. They wanted me as well, but no full ride.

If a Podunk school didn't want my full ride, why would anyone else?

The next two were all the same. When I picked up the one from Brown University, I hugged it and opened it slowly.

My dream school. If I didn't get in, I'll think I just died. I opened it cautiously before sighing in relief. They wanted me.

Full ride.

I looked at Evan and shoved the paper in his face like an 18-month-old could actually read. "Do you know what this is, Ev? It's my ticket to happiness."

"Why are you shoving paper into my baby's face?" My step-dad came into the room and gruffly picked up Evan. Evan talked in his own baby-language happily and animatedly, putting his soft baby hands in his dad's face.

I smiled. "Morning Tim. I got accepted to Brown University with a full ride scholarship." He smiled at me. "That's good, Talia. Your mom comes home tonight, why don't we celebrate at a fancy dinner?" I smiled at him. "Yeah, that sounds awesome."

My mom was ill. I would say sick, but when you're sick, you tend to get better with time. You heal. But with an illness its not as simple. You may get better, but it's not forever. My mom had gotten better five years ago.

It was simple, too. She woke up in a hospital bed, like any other normal Saturday morning and I had been picking at a tray of bland hospital food and she sat up and smiled at me. And whispered,

"I feel so much better than yesterday."

They let her got home two weeks later and she was doing so well. She took up jogging around the neighborhood and walking the dog and tai chi and yoga. I guess when you spend so much of your life dying, you have to, at some point, start living. But then she fell in the kitchen and we found out she had stage four bone cancer.

They took her leg and gave her a stupid fake metal one that gave her pain and made her bedridden most days.

I had thought that was the worst of it, but cancer spread and now she is terminally ill and does chemotherapy three times a week.

She's going to die. But I don't want her to. I've been seeing a therapist for years and I still can't imagine life without my mom. I'm afraid to live without her.

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Thanks for the votes guys! I appreciate it so very much!
I wish I could hunt every single voter down and give them all hugs.

Chapter 5 is here! I don't know how quickly these chapters will be coming and how long they are because I'm on my phone, but hopefully, this isn't too short for you.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter!

(This was an inside look at what they both go through at home so sorry if it lacked excitement)