My Best Friend's Sister-In-Law

Chapter 18: Serving Struggles

~ Jayleen's POV ~

A few weeks have passed, and we've already been through a month of college. I sighed as was sitting at my desk on a Friday night, home from work finishing up a few essays when my phone rang.

"Hello?" I answered.

"Hi Jayleen." I heard, smiling.

"Hey dad, how are you and mom doing?"

"We're doing good, how have you been?"

"It's all working find over here. I've been managing so much for the past month and now finished everything for the weekend, so I'm one-hundred percent free." I smiled as I submitted my last essay online and shut down my computer.

"That's great." He said, and I just smiled, getting up to grab a bottle of cold water. "Actually... I called to ask you something..." He said, sounding very hesitant.

"Okay, shoot." I placed him on speaker as I drink some water.

"Um... you know tomorrow is Saturday, and you know it's mom's 50th birthday, right?" He asked me.

"Yeah, of course I know." I said as I sat on my couch looking up at the ceiling, with my phone in my hand.

"Well, we were thinking of throwing a big surprise party for her. If you're free, I bet she'd love it if you stopped by." He said.

"...Yeah. I only work on weekdays, so my weekends are always open, especially for school assignments." I said.

"Okay, well, Kale called me and said him, and Wendy were going to fly down here and stay the weekend just to visit. It's been a good couple of months since we last saw them." My dad spoke. "I already told Sydney and her parents too."

"Okay. What time? Or at least, what time would you like me there?"

"Your mom's co-workers are thinking of taking her out for some lady time, they all know about the party, so they volunteered to be the distraction." He chuckled. "But they said they were going to bring her back to the house at about 5:00pm. You can come by around 4:00pm the latest maybe... since I want you to say hello to everybody." He said.

"Okay, if anything comes up, I'll give you a call." I said.

"Okay, sounds great Jayleen, hope to see you tomorrow." He said, with happiness in his tone before we both hung up the phone.

~~~<>~~~<>~~~<>~~~

Waking up the next morning I let out a breath as I got up. I should go get my mother something, since it is her birthday today. It's hard to know what she likes now, since we've been so drifted for the past couple of years. Sitting here and thinking as I took out a book and sketched a draft of what this present could look like. As I looked at the sketch in front of me, I smiled to myself.

Well... if this can't win her back to be the mother I've known for eighteen years, the I don't know what will anymore. I decided to give it a shot and stood up. Getting up and off my bed as I showered and changed into some casual clothes, taking my keys and walked out the door, not wanting to eat anything, I can probably grab a cup of coffee later.

Turning my engine on as I reared and drove to the closest store. Getting out as I locked the car and walked around one of the aisles that had picture frames. I decided to take a cart with me as I grabbed a rectangular frame board, allowing seven pictures to go inside. I placed it in the cart and went to the jewelry section of the store. I found a necklace in a box. Asking the woman if I could see it and took a glance, I looked around the box, the necklace had five rings on it and I smiled. Five rings, for five decades. Smiling as I nodded to the woman and she smiled, ringing the item up at the register. Paying as I took the bag and walked out to the other register to ring up the picture frame. Finally getting out to my car, I placed the things in the trunk as I got inside and drove on home to the apartment.