Butterfly Wishes

25 - Jade - The Saddest Pleasure

A/N: Please keep in mind that this story part hasn't been edited. Sorry for the mistakes, but hopefully you'll be able to enjoy this chapter anyway. Also, the last part isn't great, but I'm literally falling asleep as I type this and I really wanted to have this part up tonight. There are only about 6 more chapters left now :)

Chapter 25: The Saddest Pleasure

[Jade]

 

One Monday, a few weeks after the whole divorce fiasco, Mom and I go shopping. She suggested this out of the blue and who am I to turn down an opportunity to skip school. If being sick has one advantage, it would be that the school conveniently believes that when Mom calls in that I'm not feeling well enough for school, they don't question my absence. They're used to me not coming in on Tuesdays and Wednesdays anyway. This leaves me heaps of school work to catch up on, more than any other regular student at school, but it isn't like I have much else to do while Caleb is at work or spending time with his family. And Mom would help me and explain if there was something I don't understand. Well, she used to have lots of time to help me out, now with Dad no longer living with us, I have no idea how Mom makes do with whatever little income she has from working part time.

Even though Mom and Dad -- well, Dad didn't really have anything to do with it -- tried to explain the changes that were going to happen in our little family, I still don’t feel as though I am fully informed or up to date. Everything around the house feels foreign. Although Dad was working all the time and we never saw much of him, it is still strange to come downstairs and not see his coat on the coat rack, or his shoes or slippers at the bottom of the stairs. The house never smells of his aftershave anymore and the toilet seat is always down-- except for when Landon is at home from university. The house isn't the same anymore without Dad and now we get to see him even less.

As for Mom, instead of being pissed off at Dad, she now has moved onto a happy-stage. Life couldn't be any better as a single mom if you asked her.  

"So how is everything going with Caleb?" Mom asks when we sit down for our organic tea. We are at one of those all organic, all biological, all healthy and no taste little shops where you can sit and have tea and tasteless, sugarless dessert. At least the music they play in the background is nice.

Even though my strawberry lemon tea is still too hot, I tentatively take a sip -- if only to prolong not having to spill the beans to Mom. I was right, the tea is still too hot and I burn my tongue and the upper half of my throat. I'll never learn my lesson.

"You have to wait a bit longer. You're ruining your taste buds by burning them. You won't be able to really savor the flavor of your tea." Unlike me, Mom doesn't try to sip from her tea -- see, if this isn't proof that wisdom comes with the years, then I don’t know what is. She is stirring the tiny spoon in her cup, staring at me the entire time.

"So, how are things going between the two of you?"

"We're good. Everything is good."

"Does he still treat you nice?"

"He is the most considerate guy I know. So yes, he is treating me right. I have nothing to complain about. In fact, it feels like I won the lottery."

Mom beams at me, lovingly. "You have no idea how much I love to hear that. You deserve this, Jade. You have had such difficult things to deal with in life and now it is your time to shine."

A little shy after hearing Mom's words, I stir my tea. I am not sure what to say or how to respond, but I give her a tiny, small, shy smile anyway.