𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐋𝐢𝐟𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐓𝐢𝐦𝐞𝐬: 𝐂𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐌𝐄𝐊𝐇𝐈

24. | F A M I L Y T E N S I O N

"Maybe when she sees Carter she'll feel better. Brooklyn seems like she's excited about it," she nodded at Brooklyn who had changed to the opposite - - she was behaving in school and at home for the most part, she was talkative, cooperative, everything that Khloe used to be. "She's been asking me all morning if today's the day Carter comes to visit them," she laughed, "She can barely contain herself."

"Part of me doesn't know how good of an idea this is."

"Well you can't keep these babies from him, Destini," her mother said, "You know that. I wouldn't allow that. He deserves to at least see his children."

"It's not that I don't know that ma," she sighed, "It's just that I know it might be harder when he comes. Khloe will hate me even more."

"She doesn't hate you. She hasn't said a word about hating anybody."

"She hasn't said a word, period," said Destini, "I'm just scared that I'm doing the wrong thing. I felt like this was best for us all but now I don't know." The phone rang and Destini watched as her mother went off to answer it and replaced her with the visual of Khloe who sat at the table stoic and melancholy in expression. Khloe didn't even bother to play with her food, she just let it sit there in front of her and sat her hands in her lap quietly staring at the cat clock on the wall wagging its tail right to left.

"You gonna eat that?" Brooklyn wiped her mouth with her arm and pointed to Khloe's oatmeal, "Can I have it?" Khloe said nothing, she just simply pushed her oatmeal into the hands of Brooklyn and sat there still and quiet as a mouse, huffing every now and then.

"Brooklyn give your sister her breakfast back," Destini walked over to the table to intervene, "She needs to eat just like you."

"She said she don't want it," Brooklyn said and dug her spoon in, "Don't wanna let it go to waste," she ate, "Mmmmmm good."

"Brook," Destini stared at her sternly, "Give the oatmeal back."

"Mommmmyyyy come onnnnnn yo!"

"You heard me I said - -,"

"I don't want it," Khloe said calmly, "She can have it."

"Why don't you want it?" Destini folded her arms and looked on at her while Brooklyn waited with her spoon to get the go ahead to dig in, "You love oatmeal - - especially grandma's."

"I'm not hungry."

"But it's your favorite."

"Things change," said Khloe, "Just like people," she looked up into her mother's eyes and didn't have regret about it.

Destini slanted her eyes and licked her lips wondering who told Khloe she was an adult because she was surely speaking to Destini like one, "This isn't a debate Khloe. All you have to do is eat your breakfast. That's all I asked. It's not healthy for you to just not eat your food. I don't want you passing out at school."

"Thank you for being such a concerned mother," said Khloe, "I should be so grateful to have such a wonderful mother like you," she said sarcastically, "Not everyone is so lucky to have a mother who deliberately pushes all the good things in her life out so she can be miserable."

"Deliberately? Miserable?" Destini was shocked not only by the vocabulary choices of her eldest but the way that she strung things together without regret or remorse and knew EXACTLY what she was doing when she did it, "Where is all this coming from Khloe?"

"What?" she said, "I read. I'm actually very smart, mother," said Khloe, "Valedictorian. But you wouldn't know that because you don't think about anyone else but you."