"Be My Bad Boy!"

Chapter 44 ♡ Marrying the Bad Boy

A soft rap sounded on my door a few thirty or so minutes after my outburst. I was laying down, facing the ceiling, deep in thought when my mother stepped inside. My head tilted to her general direction, and when I saw her face I turned my head, and shifted my body so that I was pressing against my bed, burying my face in my pillow for comfort.

I felt the weight of her dip from the edge of my bed slightly, softly she said, "Sadie?", as if she was unsure weather or not to approach me. Finally, I turned and looked at her as I curled up in my sheets. She had an odd look on her face, as if she spent a lot of time contemplating. Her eyes were rimmed with red, and suddenly I felt guilty that maybe I caused her and dad to fight. She looked old and tired, and I was swarmed with feelings of sorrow.

In her hands were two mugs of tea, "I wanted to start off by saying I'm sorry." She said, as if she rehearsed it over and over before coming to talk to me.

I sat up quietly, still not talking. She offered me the tea, which I looked away from in decline. Awkwardly, she put the tea on the table beside my bed.

"And I love you." She added, as if it'd make things better.

My lips were unable to form words. I just sat there, compelled to say something, but unable to find whatever it is I needed to say, so lamely, I shrugged.

She sighed, "Talk to me honey."

"What do you want me to say?" I croaked, voice still hoarse from screaming and crying and just too much talking.

"Say anything- I need to know you're not mad at me. I'm trying to be a good mother." She sighed, running a frustrated hand through her hair, "I'm trying so hard, Sadie."

I shrugged, "You're a good mom. Everything's my fault mostly. But I'm not going to stop seeing Gage." I'd never stop. It'll always be me and him against the world.

Her face was disappointed, but quickly displaced with an expression of reluctant acceptance, "I know."

I was ready to argue, to say nothing she had to say would make me give up him, but I found myself shocked. I sat up, "You know? So, what? No arguments? No trying to make me break up with him?"

My mother rolled her eyes, yes actually rolled her eyes at me, "Honey please. I know you all to well to know that you're too stubborn to listen to anything I have to say. . . Your father on the other hand, may not like it."

That's a lot to say to a girl who thought her whole life she submit to everything anyone had to say. Somehow along the way, I might have doubted my own disposition.

"And besides," She added, "I've been in your shoes too."

Now I was curious, I sat up a bit straighter, "What do you mean . .?" I asked suspiciously.

"Once upon a time, young little Holly Hart was just like you."

It took me a while to put two and two together. My mother's name was Holly. So then it hit me, was she implying she went out with someone like Gage?

"No way," my voice went into a drop whisper, and she seemed amused with my new sudden fascination, "You dated a bad boy?"

She laughed at my word choice, "Yes, honey, if that is what you'd like to call it."

I sat there for a while of silence, then furrowed my eyebrows, "Well, go on."

She smiled, and I listened attentively as her story slipped through, "I broke into the school one night with some friends and people from this party a few blocks down, we popped open three bottles of Vodka," She raked a hand through her hair as I remembered distinctly what vodka tasted like going down my throat. I mentally cringed. She continued, and her eyes went some place far off as she talked, "That's when I met him."