Priceless

(I deleted the previous chapter; I combined all its contents here. It was too short to be a "chapter".)

"Why don’t you tell me about the boy you were with last night?”

I stood there stunned. I literally couldn’t speak. Her question played on my mind over and over; I understood it, I was just too shocked to react.

“Now you decide to shut up,” she snapped, moving closer to me. “C’mon, Bailey. You said you wanted to talk. Now I’m asking you, who was that boy? What was his name? Enlighten me, I want to know about him.”

“Do—don’t bring him into this, Mom,” I said, my voice quivering as I turned around and started walking away, but then she quickly grab a hold of my wrist and turned me back towards her.

“No, I want you to tell me about him right now. Because imagine my surprise when I went to the rooftop of this hotel to clear my head and watch the city, only to find my daughter locked in a skinny boy’s arms who, until now, I’m very unfamiliar with,” she said.

I didn’t speak. I avoided her gaze, looking down at my feet, as I tried to remove my wrist from her grasp. But she just tightened it.

“Are you cheating on Alex with that boy, Bailey?” she started. “I hope you’re not. I hope you’re better than that. I hope you’re better than your father.” She drawled out the last word and I couldn’t help but wince at her sudden loud voice.

“He-he’s just a f-friend,” I stammered, still not looking up at her. I feared that if I did, she would just know that I was lying.

“Oh, so friends kiss like that,” she commented, her voice sceptical. “Twice, even. Do you wanna know what I feel about that?”

I didn’t. I didn’t want to hear her talk anymore. She shouldn’t have seen us. She shouldn’t have gone there. She shouldn’t be confronting me like this right now.

“Do you wanna know how I feel about you lying about where you went, Bailey? And then afterwards, maybe we could start bonding over my feelings about everything else you want to know?”

I wanted to escape already. I yanked my wrist away, hard, and finally, managed to get away from her. “I’ll just go to my room,” I mumbled, and started to run back in there. Luckily she didn’t run after me, or yell. She just let me go.

I locked it as soon as I got in, then jumped on the bed and just cried. I was crying over my dad, crying over Mom, crying over fear, crying over everything. All I wanted to do was cry and cry until there were no more tears left; until I was somebody else, maybe.

~~~

Waking up to puffy eyes was something I had experienced many times before. It wasn’t new to me, and I was pretty much used to it already. What I wasn’t quite used to was the fear I was still feeling; that fear of Mom bringing up Stephen again.

I was wide awake but I didn’t move from my bed, every inch of me not wanting to face my mother. I didn’t want another yelling session with her like yesterday; her mention of Stephen really got to me. I just laid there, staring at the ceiling, wanting to go back and keep myself from reacting the way I did when Mom talked to me. I should’ve kept calm instead, maybe then she wouldn’t have mentioned it.

But in case I did, would she ever talk about it? It was kind of surprising why she didn’t confront me right away, considering she saw the kiss. Was she really not gonna mention it, had I not asked her to stop shutting me out? Was she really planning to just let it go?

I was busy thinking this through when all of a sudden, there were four consecutive knocks on my door.

“Bailey, get out of bed and get ready,” Mom said, her voice just normal, “Our flight’s at 3 PM.”

The way she sounded gave me the vibe that she was over what happened yesterday. If that was the case, well then part of me was relieved, for obvious reasons. But part of me was...well, confused. I mean, if she was going to just let it go like that, why did she bring it up in the first place? Just to make me shut up? Considering it was my mother, it was possible, though.

"Bailey." She knocked once more. "Get up and get ready, seriously. Get moving, sweetheart."

Sweetheart? Oh, so we were really going to pretend that the talk didn't happen. Typical. I shouldn't even be surprised.

I sighed loudly as I sat up and okayed to her. I decided to bathe first, feeling the need to take a long, relaxing one. As I got into the bathroom, I wondered if this was how it was really supposed to be—if Mom and I weren't really meant to have a real conversation. To be honest, how it went yesterday just made me feel like I was, in some ways, just like her. The way I avoided the topic like that was a move she had mastered over the past years, and the thought that I'd exercised it yesterday sort of freaked me out. I never wanted to acquire her skills, really, especially that of acting like a doll most of the time. I wanted to be real, I wanted to feel, I just wanted to be me. I would constantly wonder what it was like to be her, yes, but I really wanted to be far from who she was.

When I finished bathing, I did my usual routine: dried my hair, and dressed up. Then I started packing up, humming Friday I'm In-Love by The Cure as I folded clothes, trying to cheer myself up.

The day pretty much went by fast. Next thing I knew we were already at the airport, waiting for our flight. Mom had spoken nothing but few words to me, and as we loaded the plane, she had decided to start a conversation with me about shoes.

"I like plumps, they're comfy," I said, defending my favourite kind of shoes.

"But stilettos really accentuate your figure," she argued. "You should wear them more often. Let's buy you more of them when we go to Paris or..."

The rest of her words got jumbled in my thoughts as the specific person walking down the aisle managed to steal my attention, simply by being there. I was sort of expecting that he was already in Arizona, but I guess even if that was the case I wouldn't have known, since I was neglecting my phone for the past few days.

I met his gaze and as soon as he saw me, his face lit up. His mouth slightly opened, as if he was gonna say something, but then he closed it as he moved his gaze to the woman beside me.

"Bailey, are you even liste—" Conveniently, my mom noticed the state of shock I was suddenly in, and seemed to have felt Stephen's stare, too. I saw her head turn to Stephen's direction, and that was when he quickly sat down—right in front of my seat.

Feeling uneasy, I turned to Mom to see her reaction; but she just muttered a quick "oh", and then her face was unreadable after that. She then turned to the view outside, and needless to say, the rest of the trip was spent in awkward silence.

~~~

Alex took me by the hand and led me deeper into the woods, a big grin on his face. It was dark, but something illuminated our surroundings, and I wasn’t sure what it was. Taking a leap of faith, I just followed him. We walked and walked, and I knew we’d gone a long way already but I wasn’t feeling tired. Finally, we stopped.

“This is all for you, Bailey,” I heard him say. He motioned to his right, and I followed his gaze. And I was in awe as I saw what he had prepared.

I had always thought things like this only happened in movies; apparently, it happened in real life, too. There was a table and two seats there, complete with food and a bottle of wine, and music playing. There were two servers standing beside the table, smiling at me.

We began eating and conversing, and it wasn’t long until suddenly, he kneeled down and started getting something from his pocket. “Bailey,” he started, pulling it out, “will you—”

“Bailey!” I heard another voice call. Alex and I both turned to where it came from, and I was surprised when I saw Stephen emerging from the woods, looking aggravated. His hair was tousled and his eyes looked really tired. “Bailey, marry me.”

“Bailey, who is he?” My mom. Suddenly things got weirder and I saw Erin stand beside me.

“Pick a guy, Bailey,” she started, and then she contorted her face in irritation. “Bailey, wake the fuck up!”

“Bailey, wake the fuck up!”

I was startled as I felt something hit my face. I groggily opened my eyes and was greeted by Erin’s fierce face, and it took me seconds to realize that I had been dreaming. I sat up, rubbing my eyes as I tried to condition myself.

I had been sleeping a lot. Ever since we got back from New York, it was pretty much all I did. Mom didn’t mind, though. She was busy with work, as usual. And it wasn’t like Dad was still here.

“What are you doing here?” I asked Erin as I yawned. I was pretty sure it wasn’t her birthday yet. I couldn’t possibly have hibernated that long.

“Girls’ bonding time today,” she said as she plopped down on my bed, twirling her hair around her finger. “Mary let me in, and then your mom just told me to come to your room directly. I texted you, I called you, and you weren’t picking up, so thank you very much for that.”

“How’d you know we got back already?”

“Stephen told me,” she said, and I was glad that I wasn’t drinking something that time otherwise I would’ve choked. “He saw you at the airport, I guess. He went to New Jersey to visit a friend of his at New Year’s Eve.”

That confused me. If Erin wasn’t the one who told Stephen about the hotel we stayed in, then who did? It was only her who knew.

Nevertheless, I said nothing, as she went on. “So, you better get ready. Jess has something to tell us all. Plus we really missed you, so we need time to hang.” She looked at me and smiled soothingly. “And don’t worry, I didn’t tell them about...your parents. It’s yours to share, if ever you want to.” She shrugged.

“Thanks, Erin.” I hugged her a little and then we both got up from the bed. She then told me to hurry up and she ran down, deciding to wait for me at the living room.

I sighed as I got ready, but I was really excited about hanging out with them. I needed girl talk to keep my mind off other things.