It was a cold winter morning, which was highly unusual in the sunny small town of Capper Hill. To Maria’s surprise the weather matched her mood perfectly, today was not her day and she had no intention of hiding it. Her thoughts whizzed in a world of confusion in her brain, she had no better way of dealing with her parents’ divorce than just diving into the world of alcohol, drugs and partying. As she walked slowly to the bus stop her mind replayed the arguments she’d heard from inside her bedroom. How could her mom say it was Maria’s fault? How could her dad just betray her mom’s trust by bedding another woman? They tried to play it off saying they just had differences and couldn’t live with each other anymore, but Maria knew the real truth, the truth they had been hiding for the last two years.
Everything started two days before her sixteenth birthday party. Her dad called to say he couldn’t make it, his business trip got extended for another three days, but he would make it up to her big time. Yeah, it was disappointing to hear but that meant one less embarrassing parent to deal with .She loved her parents dearly but sometimes they went a bit over the top when it came to childhood stories ; all would be well in three days and she’d get a nice gift to compensate . Her mom however, wasn’t taking it well, Maria remembered hearing her mom argue for the longest time, she just tried to block it out, and from that moment she picked up that something was not right. Over those last two years all the late nights at the office, extended business trips and freelance work were lies .Maria shook her head in disappointment she should have known sooner especially since their cost of living didn’t improve. Maybe her mom was right, maybe it was her fault, if she had caught it earlier she could have spoken to her dad and try to make him stop even if it meant doing it for the sake of their daughter. Instead Maria did what any teenage girl would do, she tried to forget about it and dive into other activities that would distract her not knowing that the problem was still brewing and eventually would boil over.
She was nothing compared to her mother, just younger. Her hair was midnight-black and it flowed over her shoulders, she had a shapely figure and a bubbly outlook on life .she didn’t have any kids ,I guess that’s why he liked her , there was less burden ;he could be his old self again . It’s funny how the missing piece to a puzzle can be right in front of you and you have no idea. No wonder she was so nice, Maria always got good grades in her class. She was her favorite teacher and Literature was her favorite subject .Now every time she took up a book it reminded her of the pain her parents went through.
November 4th was the day they first met, it was Maria’s first parent teacher’s conference and she was so excited because she had all A’s in her class. Ms. Stewart was very pleasant towards Maria and her father, her mom was a nurse and because of that she couldn’t make it to night events .Like any parent and teacher, they exchanged words about grades, discipline and behavior .Maria wondered how she missed the part when they exchanged numbers, the part where they planned to meet up at different hotels and destinations, the parts where Maria was not the sole topic of discussion.
Ms. Stewart was beautiful, funny, great with kids and had a great smile .She seemed like she had it all together but deep down she was shallow. Shallow for what she did to Maria and her family. Being the child in all of this, Maria had realized the true meaning of betrayal .To throw away something that took seventeen years to build was just awful. It made being trust worthy a whole lot harder , she watched her father plant a kiss on her mother’s face every day before he left home and all her mother reaped from that was sorrow and heartbreak while someone else harvested the fruit.
Then it happened. Maria was in class, doing a book report on her favorite Shakespeare play (Hamlet) , when her mom busted through the door .Time slowed down , she couldn’t remember what her mom was saying , all she remembered was seeing her mother scream and shout as tears fell from her face .Her mom was screaming at the teacher. What could she have done that would cause her mother ; who was a quiet lady to become this brave that she would publicly humiliate herself and publicly embarrass Maria .After security escorted her out , everything changed for Maria. Staring had become something of an art form ,as the weeks went by she felt that all the stares had turned her transparent almost disappearing into what seemed like an endless cycle of experiencing what was now her reality over and over again.
Then it hit her, that’s why her mom blamed her .Maria thought maybe if she was more vigilant she would have been able to pick up some of Ms. Stewarts actions towards her .All the times she was overly nice, asking if her mom helped her, if her mom was working late and other similar questions, they weren’t to be nice .Now it seemed as if it was a comparison to herself, maybe she was trying to say she would be a better mom figure. Even if none of this was true these were the questions that ran through her mind on a daily basis.
A loud horn caused Maria to lose her train of thought , the bus driver was signaling her to get on , she was holding up the bus .She took a seat on the usual third row and looked out the window . with everything that had happened in the last few months it made her make some bad choices, she didn’t mean for it to happen but when she realized she was ten days late, she took a pregnancy test to confirm her assumption, Maria was pregnant and ironically she was happy about that. She was going to have a bundle of joy that she would call her own , someone who would be oblivious to everything that has happened and would love her for her. She didn’t know what anyone would think and she didn’t care at all. One thing she knew for sure was that she wouldn’t bother try to reach out to the dad, she already knew what his response would be .He would say he needed to explore life and he wasn’t ready to be a father and unlike her mom she wasn’t going to make the same mistake, she would give him a free card to spare her the heart break and him the time and energy to sneak around and cheat, like her father did.
Hope you enjoyed!