“Mm…” Kaitlyn replied as she was doing some of her homework.
“I hate Mondays,” Kaylee whined as she flopped down onto the couch.
Kaitlyn made another noise just to show Kaylee she was listening to her a little.
Kaylee got up and walked into the kitchen where Kaitlyn was doing her homework. She leaned against the door putting her hands on her hips as she looked around the room. “Who’s flowers?” She asked looking over at the huge arrangement of flowers sitting on the counter.
“Mine,” Kaitlyn replied as she kept her eyes on her work.
“Who from?”
“Nick.”
Kaylee looked at Kaitlyn and then back at the flowers. Then she walked over to the flowers and picked up the card and read it aloud; Thinking about you, Nick. “Oh my god, how sweet.”
Kaitlyn shrugged and said, “I guess.”
“Are you going to call him?”
“Nah.”
“Why not?”
Kaitlyn looked up at Kaylee removing her glasses. “I don’t expect you to understand, alright? It’s ok. But I have a lot of work to do so can you just leave me alone for a while?”
Kaylee sighed and stared at Kaitlyn, as she went back to her work, dumbfounded. She shook her head and then walked out of the room sighing rather dramatically, just for an effect.
Chapter 6
“I think something is wrong with my car, it’s making a funny noise,” Kaylee said as she walked into their apartment.
Ok, he sent me flowers.Beautiful flowers, I might add. What am I supposed to do now? Swoon? Throw myself at him? What? It’s just flowers. Flowers wilt. They die. Why waste money on flowers? I never really understood the concept of buying flowers and sending them to someone. Why would you want to send something to someone that is going to die? Just doesn’t make sense.
But I must say that it is slightly flattering to see such a large arrangement of flowers for you. They did make me smile though.
“Kaitlyn your mom is on the phone,” Kaylee yelled from the living room.
Kaitlyn groaned as she rolled off her bed and staggered into the living room. She grabbed the phone from Kaylee’s hand and sat down in the chair tucking her legs underneath her.
“Yeah?”
“Hi sweetie.”
“Hi mom.”
“How are you?”
“Tired.”
“You do too much.”
“Mom.”
“I know I’m sorry you don’t want to get into it. But I just worry about you.”
“I know.”
“So how are your classes going?”
“They are ok.”
“That’s good. And work?”
“Work is fine. I got another job during the week.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m a struggling college student with a car payment, insurance, among other things.”
“I know honey but you can always ask us for help.”
“Mom, I don’t need to ask for help. I can make it on my own.”
Her mother sighed on the other end of the phone, “I know dear.”
“How’s daddy?”
“Working.”
“Like always,” Kaitlyn replied rolling her eyes.
“Yeah, how is Kaylee?”
“She’s fine a pain in my ass but that’s about it.”
“What is she doing?”
“Trying to find me a boyfriend.”
“Well that’s not a bad idea.”
Kaitlyn rolled her eyes sighing.
“I know you don’t want to hear any of this.”
“Exactly.”
“But what are you going to do when you graduate?”
“Get a job at a law firm?”
Her mother sighed and said, “Honey I’m not going to say anything.”
“Thank you.”
“I have to go though.”
“Alright mom.”
“I love you dear.”
“Love you too.”
“Bye.”
“Uh huh,” Kaitlyn replied as she hung up the phone.
Kaylee looked over at Kaitlyn, as she laid her head on the arm of the chair, “How’s your mom?”
“She’s ok; she didn’t say how she was feeling or anything. So I’m hoping she’s feeling alright my dad has been gone though, working so I don’t know.”
“She wouldn’t tell you if she was feeling bad anyway.”
Kaitlyn rolled her eyes. “I know. It took five months to finally tell me she had breast cancer.”
“You worried about her?”
“Everyday,” Kaitlyn replied softly as she looked over at the TV.
I was in my first year of college when I found out my mother had been diagnosed with breast cancer. She’s so stubborn. She refused to tell me, but about five months after she found out it slipped out. I was devastated. I wanted to come home but that’s why she told me she didn’t want to tell me because she knew that I would want to quit school and come back home.
It had been almost a year since she felt a lump in her right breast before she actually went to a doctor. It was my father, as funny and weird as it, who actually felt it and knew it wasn’t something that was supposed to be there so he pretty much forced her to go to the doctor and sure enough she had breast cancer.
Now, almost a year later she is still in treatment and no one is there to take care of her. Well I take that back there is plenty of people around her to take care of her but it’s different if I was there because I’d make sure everything is perfect for her.
Everyday I worry about her and how she’s feeling. But she refuses to tell me anything. She says she’s protecting me, but really she’s just making thing worse. Because when I don’t hear anything bad then I’m thinking everything is going good and so what if something bad happens I’m not expecting it and the blow from it all will hit me harder. But she doesn’t see that.
My dad on the other hand should stop being an over the road truck driver so he can stay at home with her. But he refuses, because he makes more over the road. It pisses me off. It’s almost as if he doesn’t care all that much that his wife has breast cancer.
“Has she called you yet?”
Nick shook his head no.
Mike pressed his lips together trying not to laugh.
“I know you want to laugh.”
“Maybe she isn’t a flower type of girl.”
Nick shrugged and said, “Maybe.”
“Maybe you should call her crazy friend.”
“Why?”
“Conspire with her.”
“Conspire?”
“Yeah, they say that on ‘While You Were Out’ all the time.”
“What?”
“It’s on TLC.”
“TLC?”
“The Learning Channel.”
Nick nodded and then looked the other way as he started laughing.
“So are you going to call her crazy friend or not?”
“Nah.”
“What are you going to do? Give up?”
“Dude, I don’t know.”
“Alright.”
“You think I should call?” Nick asked looking back over at Mike.
Mike shrugged and said, “You do what you want bro.”
“I don’t know what I want to do.”
Mike rolled his eyes as he leaned back crossing his arms.
“I’m going to bed.”
“What? It’s only 8.”
“Yeah but I have class tomorrow.”
“So do I but damn.”
Kaitlyn rolled her eyes as she headed in the back to her room.
“Night,” Kaylee yelled from the living room.
“Yeah yeah,” Kaitlyn replied as she walked into her room closing the door behind her. She sighed as she leaned up against the back of the door, she looked around her room and then fell onto her bed face first closing her eyes and eventually falling asleep.