The rest of the week had gone by pretty uneventful. Nick was excelling in art and quite honestly, I don't think I've ever enjoyed a job this much. Seeing these kids everyday was oddly therapeutic and almost took my mind off my current situations.
Well... Almost.
I was awakened by the sound of my cell phone going off Friday night around midnight.
"Hello?" I asked, my voice a bit groggily from my sleep deprivation. The school was gearing up for their fall festival and apparently all the teachers and parents had to help out with decorations and such. I had been planning basically all day for the crafts I'd have to start tomorrow. Of Course, with my stellar luck, I'd been partnered with Chris.
"Hi Aria." My mother spoke. I immediately shot out of bed, scrambling to slip on my slippers and switch the lights on.
"H-hi Mom." I replied awkwardly. It had only been a couple weeks since I had last spoken to my mother yet it felt like it was months ago. Months since I packed everything up and just left. Months since I've had to deal with any repercussions for my actions... But leave it to my mother to rain all that wrath down upon me at 12 o'clock am.
"Where the hell are you?." She demanded, skipping whatever introductions and ruining whatever little hope I had of her just ignoring the fact that I had disappeared for the past couple weeks.
"I needed a break." I sighed, running my hands threw my hair as I finally started to wake up.
"A break? You left your fiancé at the alter. THE ALTER. Then you just leave? Not even informing your own mother on your whereabouts? Where are you, young lady, I'm coming to get you."
I could feel my cool façade slip as her words settled inside of me. Something in me finally snapped.
"No. You'll do none of that. Mom, I don't expect you to understand any of this, but I'm taking a break. From everything. This was my decision, this was my money spent, and for fuck sakes, this is my life. If this turns out to be the biggest mistake, then it will be a lesson learnt. But what I won't do, is come crawling back to a controlling husband. This is my life and I have decided to live it. So if you've called just to lecture me on how I can't figure my life out or how I wont be able to make it out here all on my own, then I suggest you hang up because I have a fall festival to prepare for and a very beautiful man yet aggravating man to deal with early tomorrow morning." I finished, my voice now more confident then it had ever been.
The line was quiet for sometime on the other side so much that I actually checked to make sure she hadn't hung up on me. That sounded like something my mother would have done.
"I just want the best for you." She finally said, her voice a little softer this time than her demanding tone she was using earlier.
"And I'm not doubting that you don't mother, but this has been the most liberating two weeks I have ever experienced. There's been some rocky patches in between and things aren't all rainbows and unicorns but I've never felt so free. So... Alive." I spoke, my voice fading a bit as I thought back to the first day I had arrived in Maine.
"Will you at least let me come visit sometime? I-I know these past few years, I haven't been the most supportive-"
"Let's not humor each other." I scoffed, shaking my head at the lack of support she had administrated.
"Okay, I might not have been supportive at all... But things were going so well. You were about to lead a life that I had always dreamt of you, something that I wanted you to be proud of. I just never realized just how much I had pushed you and I truly am sorry for that, but you can't just ask me to not be worried, I'm your mother for Christ sakes." She joked on the line as I could hear her voice crack.
I wasn't sure if it was the aftershock of the situation, or maybe the her face when she saw that I already had a suitcase packed and money saved... That I had planned this... It might have been the fact that it was in the middle of the night, where our thoughts were felt so raw by the quiet of the darkness...
...But this was the most venerable my mother had sounded in years. And it broke me, it really did.
"I felt like I've been living in the motions, living up to the expectations of what you've put upon me after father passed away, but I can't do it anymore. I can't continue to live the life through your eyes, I have to experience it for myself. You have to let me make my own mistakes." I finally whispered into the line as I finished.
"I know honey. I-It's just been a hell of a week. I know I should of called. I just- I'm not even sure how to explain this mess. All I can say is, I want to come visit. I promise not to try and drag you back home but I just can't handle anymore loss in this god forsaken family."
"Neither can I, mother." I spoke into the line, no longer being able to conceal my drowsiness as sleep began to overtake me.
"I'm going to let you go now, baby. But I love you. Remember that. And call me as soon as you can so we can talk about everything. In extensive detail." She joked.
"I love you too, and okay." I whispered back, laughing lightly before I heard the line cut.