the truth ~ chapter two ⁽ ᵉˣᵗʳᵃˢ ⁱⁿˢⁱᵈᵉ ⁾ ☆ Jake wanted to wave goodbye to Mom before she left, so I took him to my bedroom for him to see her out the window. There was no way Mom would appreciate me bringing him out in front of our driveway, bedhead and whatnot. If he wanted to watch her leave in person while cars roomed past our house, he should have brushed his mop beforehand. After Jake came down half an hour later carrying his overnight bag, I sat him down and we ran through the necessities. Every other item on the list made him run back up and grab it, giving me relief. At least we were going down the list, instead of sending him off without a single thing he needed. Finally, we finished, and I walked Jake to his friend’s car. “Thanks for picking him up,” I said to his friend’s mom as we exchanged numbers. “It’s nothing, sweetie,” she replied, with that all-too-familiar smile plastered on her face. “You’re good to your mother.” She left after that, Jake and his friend practically bouncing with excitement in the back seat. I didn’t say a word to her. No matter how friendly she seemed, I’ve never been able to shake off the look and smile people gave to me, knowing that my dad passed away when I was ten. The empathetic looks were too much. Honestly, I can only imagine what thoughts go through peoples’ heads. “Oh, the poor thing.” “It must be hard for them.” A popular one, the statement Jake’s friend’s mom gave to me: “You’re good to your mother.” The one that ticks me off though, really gets under my skin is the good old, “She’s her mother’s girl.” It’s rare, but I do get it. Maybe I have been the only controlled one in the family this entire time, with a brother too little to understand, and a mother who spends all of her time working and dating and cooking. But does that really mean I didn’t care about my father? No! All people want to see is that all of my focus is on my living family, and not my deceased dad who I can’t do anything about. What would happen to this family if I wasn’t there to support them? I try to tell myself that I’m only doing what’s needed to keep the family together, even though it seems like I couldn’t care less about my dad dying. ☆ chapter three coming soon
