I Can't Explain

Happy Birthday to Me

I wake up a few weeks after Keith proposed to find my fiance' watching me sleep. "Hello," Keith said with a grin as ge continued to watch me. I kissed his non-morning-breath lips.

"Hello to you, too, Mr. Moon," I grin.

Keith kisses my forehead and wraps his arms around me, enveloping me in his warmth.

I start on breakfast, well, more like lunch since its noon, while Keith showers. He puts on his boxers and sits at the kitchen table while we eat. Halfway through breakfast, I reach across the table and squeeze Keith's hand. He gives me a loving smile back. I still can't believe it, I mean, we are getting married. And it only took him a decade to propose...

As I clear the table, I hear a knock on the door. "Dear God, can't we just have a day alone?" I whisper to myself. I tighten the belt around my pink bathrobe and head for the door. I just about pass out when I see my mom standing on our stoop.

She's gotten a bit older, her blonde hair laced with gray, her face properly made up, and her blue dress hangs around her knees. She still has blue eyes like me, but her face has aged and I could tell.

"Kenleigh, how are you?" Her voice was the same, light and graceful.

I don't quite know what to say. I hadn't seen her in ten years, haven't even thought of her in God knows how long... I wasn't really angry from her basically abandoning me, but I felt...nothing for her. I never really loved my mother as I should, but she would stand by and watch me cry for my entire childhood and didn't bother to do anything. Should I be upset? Should I scream at her? Hell, should I even be happy to see her?

"Hi...Rebecca. I'm doing good," I say calmly. I hear Keith in the kitchen yell, "Who's there?"

"Baby, come here for a sec!" I say as I give my mother a small smile.

"I see your accent has...improved." Rebecca smiles.

"What do ya mean?"

"You never had much of a British accent, it sounds like you've got one now," Rebecca smiles at me with civility, and I gesture for her to come in. Keith appears, still in boxers but he put a shirt on. He is taken aback when he sees Rebecca.

"Oh, hello..." Keith looks to me as if to say, What's going on?

I give a, Come here right now, look, and Keith stands by me and takes my hand.

"Hello, Keith, its good to see you again." Rebecca smiles at Keith.

"So... what brings you here?" I ask.

"I wanted to talk to you, both of you, actually. I heard of your engagement in the paper. I wanted to congratulate you."

"Well, thanks, then," I invite my mother to the living room and Keith makes some tea. He sits by me on the loveseat, with Rebecca on the couch across from us.

"So how are you?" I ask, a little bite in my voice.

"I'm just fine, after you left, your father took off, and I got a job, remarried, now I'm happy as ever."

"That's good, but why did dad leave?" He would never leave my mother.

"He...said he was going to find you, but I guess he never did because he didn't come back." She doesnt seem fazed by saying any of this, like she didn't even care that her husband left her.

"Well, Kenleigh and I are getting married, I hope that's alright with you," Keith says with worry in his eyes.

"Oh, yes, quite fine. You too seen so happy together."

Keith playfully hugs me and gives a sloppy kiss on the cheek, while saying, "We are!" I guess he's trying to lighten the mood a bit.

Rebacca smiles at us. "I really just wanted to tell you both that I'm sorry. I'm sorry to you, Keith, for my husband's hatred towards you. And Kenleigh, I'm sorry for ignoring you whenever you were hurt, I'm sordy I stood by and let Harry do all those things to you. You never did anything wrong, neither of you did. I just wanted to tell you that I'm so sorry for these years of pain you had to endure Kenleigh."

I sit by Keith, speechless, and he smiles at me reassuringly.

"You needn't accept it--"

"No, no, Mum, I...I'm not really upset by it, I tried to put my past behind me when I left home." I explain.

The three of us talked and Mum even helped me make dinner. She brought over some of my old stuff, including some old pictures of Keith and me. I gave her a hug before she left, and said she was definitely invited to our wedding.

Keith told me he had plans for my birthday tomorrow, but this was the best gift I could have received.

A/n: Ill be writing again at 11 tonight (: