FLAME

Alone

RECAP

"I'll see you later tonight, Ember." He said in a promising tone. When he turned to leave, he looked back over his shoulder throwing me a wink. I could feel my face heat up, and knew I had turned red.

I could here his lovely laugh fade as he walked down the hall.

God, can I record that laugh and listen to it on repeat?

CONTINUED

My mother turned to me.

"He is so cute!" she chirped.

"Oh my god, mom...no!" I looked at her with my mouth agape.

"What? Did you see him? What a hunk." she said, she then surveyed my room. "Ummm... Where is your room mate? She dis a great job decorating! But where is your bed?"

"I don't have one."

"You don't have one." she repeated back to me, her eyes wide.

"Nope."

"You don't have a bed?!"

"No! I mean yes! I don't have a roommate, I do have a bed. The school decorated my room for me, and gave me 1.5 thousand dollars to change whatever I want. But the room is perfect!. This must've been why they asked me my color scheme. When I told them rose, white, gray, and mint. I wasn't expecting this at all!" I turned again, looking at me room. "This is insane." I thought aloud.

Mom simply stood there and gawked at me. I  grinned and turned towards the monstrous suitcases that Zeke had put on my bed. I blushed at his thoughtfulness when I noticed he had deliberately kept the muddy wheels off my bare mattress. 

My room was much bigger than my mother and I had anticipated, so my decorations weren't going to cover very much space. I sighed and made a mental note to go stop by the furniture store we passed on the way here. I was definitely going to take advantage of the school's generous gift. 

I unzipped my suitcases and began to pull out my things.

"Can I help?"

"What?" I turned to my mother, confused. She never offered help.

"I want to help you get unpacked." My mother peered at me, her cheeks flushed with affection.

"Oh, um... Absolutely!" I point to my second suitcase. "Will you start hanging up the clothes in there? All the pants should be folded already, so you can just put them in the dresser drawers. the dresser's inside the closet"

"Alrighty then!" She cheerfully turned and started unloading my plethora of clothing items, still admiring my room. 

"Since we didn't know how big your room was, do you want to go shopping for some more things? You're going to need a queen-sized bed set and some mint throw pillows for your armchairs and bed. Maybe some throw blankets, like a cute knit gray one? You could use some floor and table plants, maybe we could even find some little mint green pots!" My mom's former interior designer began to emerge. "You have a lot of wall space, so you could use some photo frames and cute posters. This room would be incredible with some fairy lights and flowy mint curtains. We could pick up some food and such too. But, maybe we could grab some dinner before you drive me up to the airport?"

"Oh, wow. Yeah!" I said a little to quickly. I forced myself to take a deep breath. "I would love that, Mom. Getting your help on my room would be fantastic."

She smiled brightly. I was taken aback by my mother's mood change. When I thought about it a little longer, and I realized that she was probably scared to see me go. She and I had been through so much together; it had always been me and her against the world. Now that I was leaving, she was gonna be on her own. My income wasn't going to be flowing towards her bills and she was going to have to find a way to make her ends meet. She was grieving. I smiled softly at the bittersweet thought. I was going to miss her, too.

I glanced at her out of the side of my eye. My heart stopped. She had pulled my last t-shirt out and hung it up. My breath caught, when she turned back to the suitcase. I saw it in slow motion but it occurred in a millisecond, with no time for me to make up an excuse. She pulled out a piece of one of my brand new lingerie sets and inspected it for a moment, as if she couldn't believe her eyes. She smirked lightly, and tossed it into the drawer as if it was no big deal.

I was mortified. 

Oh my god. Mom just found a sexy piece of underwear and now knows that her pathetically shy and virgin daughter is planning to have sex. Well not planning, right? Cause there isn't anyone that I know yet. So I'm not having sex anytime soon. Right? Right. Then that's that, so it's not a big deal.

"Oh! This one's CUTE!" my mother exclaims from behind my suitcase. I turn back to her. She's holding a lacy white bra that I picked out a couple of weeks ago. 

"Mom! C'mon, don't make fun of me." 

"I wasn't. I was expressing my opinion, I thinks it's adorable. Zeke will too."

"MOM!" I turn back to her, eyes wide with shock.

"Yeah, yeah." She throws the bra in the drawer and turns back to me. "That was the last thing, are you ready to go?"

"Yeah, I guess." 

I grabbed my jacket on the way out the door, turning to turn off the light and get a last glimpse at my new home.

--------

The rest of the day was difficult for everyone. My mother cried for the first time in 3 years. Which made me cry, of course. 

We got everything that she had mentioned and we had tons of fun picking out some designer clothes from the nearby thrift store in order to help me fit in. She helped me finish setting up my room with the new things we got before I took her to the airport. It took me almost ten minutes after her plane took off to realize that I was officially alone.