Song Three - Fake Love by BTS
* * * * * * * * * *
Like she does every night, Mia did her house sweep. She made sure the front, the back, and the windows were locked; and more importantly, she made sure the security system was on. As she made her rounds, she yawned in exhaustion.
She was so tired, she hadn't even taken her dress or make-up off yet. The first thing she did when she got home was put Angel in her pajamas and into bed. She then spent an hour watching late-night cartoons while devouring a pack of M&M's on the living room couch.
Finally listening to her body's desire for sleep, after she made sure the house was locked down she went upstairs to her room to find Nikki laying in her bed seemingly asleep.
"Nikki?" she walked over to the bed with her eyebrows furrowed.
The teen opened her eyes, without any signs of tiredness.
"I couldn't sleep," she said softly.
"How come?" Mia climbed on the bed and laid down on her stomach so she was face to face with Nikki.
Just like she did as a kid, Nikki grabbed a strand of her mother's hair and started to play with it.
"Just a lot on my mind, I guess."
In other words, Nikki was ready to talk about why she skipped class. Nikki was a good girl; it wasn't normal for her to do something like that. Mia knew that she probably had a good reason but Nikki wasn't ready to talk about it at first.
"Talk to me," Mia propped her head up with her fist. "Was it because of your dad's birthday? I know it's been a year since we left now."
"I actually wasn't affected by his birthday. I was feeling pretty good that day, actually."
"Okay," Mia nodded for her go on.
"The day that I skipped, before class, I was in the hall with my friend and, there was this couple in the hall. They were . . . they were arguing. It was stupid, you know how people my age are. 'You liked her photo blah, blah, blah'."
Mia let out a laugh which caused Nikki to do the same.
"This is serious, ma," she dug her head into the pillow.
"Okay, okay," Mia cleared her throat, "this is serious. Go ahead, I'm listening."
Pulling her head out of the pillow, Nikki sighed, "okay, so, they were arguing, right? And it's high school, even the teachers are used to couples arguing. So it didn't seem like a big deal . . . until the girl got angry - like so angry mom she was crying. It might have been over him liking a picture but, she got so mad, she started shoving him."
Mia watched as her daughter started mentally leaving.
"She shoved him and he tried to keep his cool. He was trying so hard but she just kept pushing him. He didn't hit her but he started grabbing her and she just fought him more and the next thing I know, I was thinking about you and dad. The fighting, the screaming and I just . . . I started having an anxiety attack."
"Hey," Mia sat up, caressing Nikki's face. "Baby, look at me."
It took a moment for Nikki to come back but she did. When she looked into her mother's eyes, tears started to well.
"It was so bad, I couldn't even make it to class," her voice broke. "I stayed in the bathroom and cried my eyes out the whole period."
"Nikki, why didn't you tell me?"
