Kiss and Tell

Kiss & Tell - [Part Seven]

Kiss & Tell

Copyright ©

Kiss & Tell - [Part Seven]

***

            “We need to talk.”

            “I know.”

            “Jasmine…”

            I sigh. “Yes, mother?”

            “Please?”

            How could I have forgotten today—my birthday?! You only turn eighteen once, I should have at least remembered today. I guess I’ve been too busy surfing and working at Surf’s Up Ice Cream to remember simple things such as my birthday. With high school over and summer starting this past week, things have been chaotic.

            I wasn’t really surprised to see my mother tonight, celebrating my birthday with Amy’s and David’s parents. She came last year; of course she wouldn’t miss it. The whole world would end if my mom missed her own daughter’s birthday. I’m serious; she takes this whole ‘birthday’ thing really extremely.

            After getting over from the shock of forgetting about my eighteenth birthday, we all ate cake and then opened presents. It was fun celebrating with just us—I wouldn’t have asked for anything better.

Especially when Amy practically blasted the radio and her mother started dancing like those ‘trash’ girls. Yeah, unfortunately I wasn’t the only one with the crazy mother. I guess that’s where Amy inherited her craziness. Thank God I didn’t.

           

            From the beginning of the ‘party’ I knew something was wrong though. My mother wasn’t as chirpy as she usually was. But whenever I asked what’s wrong, she’d start blabbing: ‘What? Nothings wrong! Why would you think something’s wrong? Does it look like something’s wrong? Everything is fiiiine! Here baby, take some cake!’

            And then I knew something was wrong. She would always start blabbing whenever something was.

             It wasn’t really hard to tell.

             So later that night when the excitement of the party died down and my mother said: ‘We need to talk,’ I wasn’t surprised at all.

            “So…where’s Cody?” I ask as I sit on the porch swing next to my mom. The California heat was fading into a cool wind now. I’ve always loved these nights when I’d lay down on the porch with Amy and just talk and talk and talk until one of us fades away.

            Mom sighs. “Where do you think?”

            “Ignoring me?”

            “You know…Cody is going through a tough time right now. You have to start understanding his point of view.”