Tenth Grade was Fun!

24. CLUELESS DUMBOS

My mom and I talk for hours—we talk about the love of her life, my first hero, her other half, my role model, her soul mate, my best teacher, her confidant, my first best friend, her supporter, my first ever partner in crime—about her husband, my father.

We talk about the good memories, the bad ones. We laugh and grimace but we find solace in each other's company.

We talk through the dinner—me occasionally almost spilling the food when we laugh so hard at one of our funny memories with dad—and the conversation goes from dad to my life, my studies, my relationship with Nikhil, my platonic relationship with Ved, my scholarship plans and to our financial problem, how we'll be running with the rents from our tenants as the source of income and how DQ's family's loan guarantees my future education.

I start feeling lighter; spouting everything out to my mom is really something relaxing.

The hurt of losing my father isn't gone, but now I know that I don't have to carry it all alone.

We talk into the late night—losing track of time—until I end up curling on my mom's lap.

"I know that we are not okay, but I know that we will be okay. Eventually." My mom whispers in my hair before kissing my forehead.

And then I'm pulled into the endless darkness.

***

The next day, I wake up to my alarm and get ready for school. Now that I was a bit more far from my school, I have to wake up earlier than before.

While having breakfast, my mom sighs exasperatedly before glaring at me playfully.

"Tone it down Vicky. You're gaining weight and you don't know how much effort I had to put to move you from my lap to your bed!"

That explains how I had woken up on my bed.

I slow down on my chewing and glance at my mom skeptically.

"Do I look like I care?"

And then I remember.

"Back pains again?"

"Pfft!" She dismisses me with a wave of her hands.

"Even after getting yourself a boyfriend, you don't seem to care." She continues, raising her eyebrows.

"Welp, he wants me, he wants my defective eyes, my food fetish, my rapidly increasing and decreasing weight, my lazy ass, my—"

"Okay, okay. I get your point. Yeesh, just let your mother have the fun of teasing you..." My mom grumbles.

"Oh" I pause before continuing with a cheeky smile, "Tell me that next time so that I'll show myself getting irritated."

My mom comes from the kitchen with a spatula raised in her hand as if she was going to beat me with it.

Rolling my eyes, I finish eating while saying, "You know that's not gonna work on me. I'm almost impenetrable to your beatings by now. Girl of Steel."

Huffing she gets back to the kitchen while I chuckle and pack my bag for school.

Bidding farewell to my mom with small—but definitely genuine—smiles on our faces after a long time, I go down to where the school bus had just arrived.

I meet up with Nikhil whose bus is now parked a few buses down mine and we walk to the third floor to our classrooms.

When we reach the third floor, I'm slightly panting while Nikhil walks like he hasn't just reached the third floor by stairs.