A Normal Life | COMPLETED

Chapter 11: Abandonment

"What happened?" Jonathan asked as he took a seat next to me on the grass.

I glance up at him as I closed the cover on my drawing. "I got into a fight with my mom."

I didn't even have to say another word for him to envelope me in a bear hug. I sobbed into his shoulder with the thoughts of my parents fill my head.

I was abandoned before, but that didn't mean I could be abandoned again, right?

"Tell me what happened in the fight.....or don't. I'm okay with either." He whispered in my ear while he rubbed my back.

I pulled back from his hug and wiped my eyes. I relayed the story back to him, trying not to break into another ugly cry.

"You're biological mom abandoned you?" He said with sympathy behind his eyes.

"She gave me up because she thought drugs was the only thing she could love, and I was the burden. Who knew that what she loved ended up killing her?" I laid back on the soft grass and stared at the stars.

"You know you're loved right?" He turned staring back at my blank expression to his question.

"I do. It just gets tough.....sometimes, ya know?"

"When my mother left, I was filled with resentment and I started to blame myself for her leaving. I felt like if she did love me, she would've never left." He laid back putting his hands behind his head. "That maybe I wasn't good enough for her."

"It's not your fault she left. Don't think like that. She had her own twisted reasons of leaving, but you weren't one of them, okay?" I turned to face him.

"I know. It's just hard."

I laid back on the grass. "We can't choose our parents."

"I know."

We both fell silent but we knew it was our thoughts that occupied the silence.

"Alex, just know that your Mom really loves you. She may say the wrong thing sometimes but she's human. We're human. We make mistakes." He propped up from the grass. "Things do get hard, but you just have to fight get through it to see the sunshine at the end of tunnel."

"That last part sounded something straight out Tumblr." I shook my head.

"It's so not. That's not the point, Alex." He started to smile.

"I get it. Thanks for coming to the park to talk to me." I sat up and wiped the grass off my back.

"Anytime. I'm sorry about what I said earlier today. I didn't know what I was saying." He started to fix his hair. I don't know why he was fixing it, his hair was perfect.

"It's fine. I can see why it looked like I liked Micah. But I assure you, I don't." I got up from the grass and grabbed my lilac drawing book.

"What were you drawing before I got here?" He asked with curiosity in his voice.

I opened the lilac covering to show a girl sitting on a tree branch watching the sunset. I handed him the book and then started to recollect my other stuff. I don't usually let people look at my drawing book but I felt like I could trust him.

"These are amazing Alex!" He flipped each page with excitement wondering what drawing was next. He touched the last page and felt the groove of the pencil marking.

"Thanks, dork." I chuckled.

He finished looking through my drawing book and stood up. "You're gonna be okay, Alex." He enveloped me into another bear hug.

I hugged him back grateful I had called him. We slowly leaned back and started to gaze into each other's eyes. His eyes flickered from my eyes to my lips and started to lean in.

His phone started to ring. He broke from the hug and looked at the ID. "I'm sorry. It's my dad. He's probably wanting me back for dinner." He glanced up from his phone to me with a small smile. "Are you okay now?"

I nod as I took my keys from my back pocket. I got in my car and drove away as he did the same.

**

I got into the driveway noticing only my Mom's car was still there. I guess Matthew went home early.

I parked my car right next to Mom's and started to walk to the front door. I opened the creaky front door to see my mom's mascara dripping from her eyes. She sat at the dinner table as she started to sob quietly. Her eyes were swollen from crying and she was clutching on to pieces of tissue as she wept.

"Alex, is that you?"

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