Mad, Bad, and Dangerous to Know

XVI Your Mom Sounds Nice

I felt like I could sleep much better knowing the security cameras were put in place in the living room. I finally felt safe again in my own home. I was still putting my string of cans on the door and I knew I should stay alert, but I felt safe.

My shift at the diner on Friday felt like it was flying by in a breeze. I had a nice conversation with Gabe and cleaned every table and booth between waiting on the customers. I didn't even have that much energy before all of this Mrs. Lamb crap started to happen.

I'd gotten so much work done during my shift that I almost forgot to take my break. Luckily, I was able to realize the time and grab my purse from my locker before heading to my normal break spot out behind the diner. When I unlocked my phone, I noticed a missed call from my mom and decided to call her back while I enjoyed the fresh air before having to finish my shift. I assumed she had some book club updates that were urgent and she needed to discuss.

"Hi, Mom," I greeted her as I leaned against the building and pulled my coat close to my body to shield me from the rough wind.

"How could you be so careless, Maren?" she spat through the phone, which took me by surprise. She sounded so upset, but I could not think of anything I'd done to make her angry. And I had a lifetime of practice at making my mom angry, but I'd always known why she was mad.

"What?" I responded in pure confusion.

"I know you're an adult and you like to do things you're own way, but this is disgusting," she continued ranting about something that I still felt left in the dark about.

"Mom, I have no idea what you're talking about," I insisted as I tried to rack my brain for anything that I'd said or done recently that may upset her. Since the last time we talked, absolutely nothing has changed in my life except for the stalker situation, but there was no way she could know about that, and I couldn't see why she would be angry at me for that either. Even though this was just a phone call, I felt the urge to hide like a little kid about to get a spanking.

"Don't play dumb with me, Maren, for God's sake," she muttered and then continued. "I already saw the pictures you sent, I'm assuming by accident and that you have some secret boyfriend you haven't told us about?"

"A boyfriend?" I repeated slowly. Of course, I didn't have a boyfriend. I'd only even been with one person recently, and I clearly would not have considered him a boyfriend. "You mean David?"

"Oh my God," she groaned, sounding utterly disgusted. "I feel sick."

"Tell me what's going on," I tried again to get an answer out of her so that I could at least defend myself against what ever accusations she had against me. "What pictures are you talking about?"

"The naked pictures, Maren!" she nearly yelled at me. "What else could I possibly be talking about?"

"What naked pictures?" I felt even more confused every time she opened her mouth. She wasn't making any sense, and the sinking feeling in my stomach just continued to grow larger.

"Stop playing dumb, I'm trying to have a conversation with you," she said, sounding like she was losing the last bit of her patience. After a long pause, she finally added, "Just an hour ago, I received naked pictures from you."

"That's not possible," I denied the accusation immediately, for a couple of reasons. The first reason being that I'd been working for the past four hours and didn't even have my phone with me. The second reason being that I don't have any naked pictures to send to anybody. Not of me, or of anybody else. "I've been at work all day, it must have been from somebody else, maybe a prank or something."

"I'm not an idiot, I know who sends me texts. Not only is it disgusting to take these pornographic images of yourself, but to spread them to other people too. And you're not even careful about it! You want to be a famous singer, how can you be this careless about the image you put out into the world?" she could barely hear anything that I was saying through her own anger, so I just listened.