Another Day I've Conquered

Chapter 19

Chapter 19

(Ginger)

 

                My thoughts were still humming with everything Saxon had told me. I wondered what his mom was dying of. I wondered why he seemed to blame himself over her turning even though his dad did it. I understood why he was being rude –although I didn’t like it nor did I think it really justified him being a confusing prick, but I would get over it. But most of all I couldn’t get that fact he thought I was beautiful out of my mind. No one had ever really said that to me besides family but they didn’t count. They were supposed to compliment you.

                “So you and Anderson, huh?” Garret broke the silence of the car. Per Saxon’s directions, Garret had picked me up from his house, since I wouldn’t answer any of my mother’s calls.

                “Yea. I guess so.” It took me a moment to realize I was smiling, so I immediately wiped the expression of my face. Garret chuckled slightly.

                “We’re just a couple of disappointments aren’t we?” His voice was tight and his knuckles were white where they gripped the steering wheel.  I winced slightly, hearing the very words I thought. In my mother’s eyes we were exactly that.

                “No.” I objected, refusing to believe it. “You’re too smart and too talented to be a disappointment.” He barely glanced at me, but his expression softened some.

                “You’re too nice.” Garret shook his head. He didn’t believe what I had said. My parent’s approval was all he needed but he was never going to get it. My mother’s expectations were too high and too unrealistic and didn’t fit the people Garret and I turned out to be. 

                “I’m being serious.” I insisted. Garret wouldn’t respond.  I sighed.

                “How bad is she?” I whispered meekly as we pulled into the subdivision where our house resided. He sent an anxious glance in my direction, shaking his head.

                “You argued with her.”

                “Yea.”

                “You wouldn’t answer her calls.”

                “No.”

                “You’re dating Anderson.” I winced. She was going to kill me. He pulled into our driveway, the car lurching to a stop. The place where my father’s car usually sat was gone.  I exchanged a look with Garret but he just frowned.

                “It must’ve been an emergency call for work?” I nodded slightly in agreement. It must’ve been.

                We were both wrong. Our mother was sitting at the kitchen table, weeping, while Genevieve wrapped a consoling arm around her thin shoulders. When the door clicked behind us, my mother looked up, her face streaked with tears. She scooted out of her chair, pointing an accusatory finger at my brother and I.

                “You!” She screamed at us, not specifying who she was talking to. Even Genevieve looked distressed as my mother sniffled and sobbed.     

                “What happened?” Garret said lowly, his presence looming beside me, as if we were attached. My brother was my rock and I, his anchor. We kept each other calm.