Nitori pressed her face into the bouquet of roses and inhaled deeply. Her eyes lit up and her eyelashes began to bat wildly. Her mother Megan glanced at Nitori and smiled. Then Nitori turned to her mom and held the flowers to her face too. Megan sniffed the flowers and said, “Of course they smell good, Tori, just as they’ve smelled for the past twenty-two years that you’ve been crazy about them.” Nitori smiled slightly and pulled the flowers into her chest and hugged them. “You can get them dear, but I you know how I feel about when your roses die”, said Megan studying a bouquet of yellow lilies. Nitori smiled widely and leaned in and rubbed her nose against her mother’s cheek. “No need to butter me up, you already know I can’t tell you no”, Megan uttered with a chuckle. Megan then turned to Nitori and put a yellow daisy in her hair behind her ear. Nitori held her mother’s hand to her face and snuggled her face against it.
They continued browsing through flowers. Both of them had a great appreciation for flowers, Nitori in particular. They visited “Floral Fantasy” each time they took a trip to the mall. She had photos of all sorts of flowers all over her room and she also enjoyed photographing them. Glen, Nitori’s father then walked up to both of them. “You ladies plan on being in this flower shop all day?” he joked. Nitori slightly glanced over her shoulder to acknowledge her father, and quickly went back to tending to the array of flowers she was studying. Glen chuckled uncomfortably and looked at Megan intently. “N-Nitori baby, go get your camera out of the car so we can take it to the shop in the mall to get serviced”, said Megan petting Nitori and getting the flowers from her. She got the keys to the car out of her mom’s purse and headed towards the exit of the store. “Come right back, Tori, and keep away from strangers! If you’re not back in five minutes, I’m coming to get you”, spoke Megan sternly.
When she was out of sight, Glen turned to Megan and said, “Have you told her yet?” Megan exhaled and looked at the ground and responded, “No, I haven’t Glen. I don’t want to scare her. I’m not even completely sure about this yet. Though it seems you have your mind made up, I still just need more time to think. I didn’t want to ruin her day and upset her in one of her most favorite places.” “Damn it, Megan, don’t make it sound like I’m excited about this, but it’s time that me and you live our own life, Byron and Cynthia have been on their own for a long time, and it’s time their little sister does the same.” “Now you know darn well that our two oldest children are completely different from Nitori, you’ve always been in denial about that!” “Well she’s going to go to a place that’s good for her, and I think she will be just fine. Nitori is an intelligent girl, and she’s gotten her degree. I’d say that she’s defied many odds, and you should stop trying to keep her sheltered from the world.”
Megan dropped her arms to her side and gritted her teeth while saying, “Glen, Nitori is in fact smart, but she’s not independent at all, she needs someone to shepherd her. She doesn’t know how to be around other people.” “Tori comes to me when she’s crying and upset, yeah that’s nice, but she has nothing to do with me when she’s happy. I’ve never had a bond with my own daughter, and I’ve never been able to connect with her on any level-“ Megan cut him off sharply, “You’ve never tried to! You’ve always ignored the fact that she’s different. All you’ve ever done is tried to treat her like Cynthia, hoping that interacting with her in that way would magically turn her ‘normal’, but it’s never worked.” “I have tried Meg! But your sheltering her is nothing but a crutch. She needs to be in a place where she can know life without mommy and daddy. I’ve worked very hard to get her all the help she needs, all the stuff my other kids wanted, and everything you wanted. It’s not too much to want to know life without a grown daughter being around all of the time. I love Nitori, baby you know that, we’ll talk more about this at home.” “Yeah whatever Glen, yeah she’s grown by age, but that’s about it”, said Megan in conclusion, rolling her eyes and walking away from her husband.
YOU ARE READING
Bad Company
RomanceA group of friends get together to hatch a plan to get rich. They conspire to kidnap a rich young girl for ransom. Christian is forced to participate in his friends' plan that only becomes more sinister. Their victim, Nitori, turns out to be more th...
