Hopeless Hearts

When I stepped inside my house, I was surprised to see my mom pacing in front of the door. She stopped when she noticed I was watching her. She just stared at me for a minute.

“Where have you been?” she asked suddenly. It was now my turn to stare at her as she had just stared at me.

“What do you care?” I replied.

“I’m your mother,” she said.

“You could’ve fooled me,” I said. I started heading toward the stairs to go upstairs.

“Claire,” my mom said as I reached the staircase. I stopped walking and turned to face her.

“What?” I said.

“Claire, I know I haven’t been a good mother,” she said. “But I’m going to try and change. I know it’s a little too late, but I’m hoping you’ll forgive me and let me try and be a better mother.”

“Why did you decide to change all of a sudden?” I asked. I wanted a good reason for this change. Years of neglect and she decides to change now.

“Well, when you weren’t home last night, I didn’t know where you were,” she said. “Then I realized I didn’t even know if you had made any new friends. Plus you’re in 11th grade. Before you and I know it, you’ll leave and go to college. I realize it’s kind of late for me to change, but it’s better than not changing at all.”

I stared at my mom. She did look serious about her decision.

“Fine,” I said. “But if you start going back to your old workaholic self, I won’t give you another chance.”

“Thank you, Claire,” she stepped toward me and gave me a hug. I hugged her back. “I’m going to start working less, so I’ll be around more.”

I stepped out of my mom’s hug and nodded my head.

“Now,” she said. “Where were you last night?”

I decided I should tell her the truth since she was changing to see me more.

“I was at my boyfriends house,” I said.

“Oh?” she said. “You have a boyfriend?”

“Yeah,” I replied, noticing she didn’t seem to care that I had stayed the night at his house. I smiled. “His name’s Frank.”

“I’d like to meet him,” she said. “Can you call him and see if he can come over for dinner tonight?”

“Sure,” I said. “I’ll call him after my shower.”

“Ok,” she said. “I’m glad we were able to talk.”

I smiled and went upstairs to take my shower and all Frank.

~A few hours later~

I was pacing in front of our front door, just as my mom had earlier when she was waiting for me to get home. I could hear my mom preparing dinner in the kitchen. I had called Frank after my shower to ask him if he wanted to come over for dinner and also told him how my mom wanted to meet him. Now I was waiting nervously for Frank to arrive. I was worried my mom wouldn’t like him. I didn’t know what she’d do if she didn’t like him because she never met (or knew about) any of my previous boyfriends.

Suddenly, there was a loud knock on our door and I stopped pacing. I knew it was Frank. I took a deep breath before opening the front door.

“Hey,” I said, smiling slightly at Frank.

Frank just smiled, nervously, I noticed. He looked around behind me quickly before leaning in and kissing me quickly.

“Ok,” I said. “Time to meet my mom. Ready?”

“I guess so,” he said, finally talking. I took his hand in mine and led him to the kitchen.

“Mom,” I said, stopping in the kitchen door. My mom looked toward us and
smiled. “This is Frank.”

“Nice to meet you Frank,” she said. “I’m Shirley.”

She extended her hand to Frank for him to shake. He took her hand and shook it slightly.

“Nice to meet you too, Shirley,” said Frank. My mom smiled and looked over at me and winked quickly.

“Well,” my mom said. “Dinner’s done, so let’s eat.”