Left

“He left me, mom.”

“Yes I understand that. What I’m failing to understand is why I cannot go kick his ass.”

“Because he’s gone, I don’t have any idea where he went. And you couldn’t kick his ass mother, Jared was over six feet tall, you barely hit five foot four.”

“Honey, you’re my daughter. Trust me; if I wanted to I could’ve jumped on top of a table. And trust me, I wanted to.”

“Doesn’t matter if you wanted to, you couldn’t. And I didn’t get to do anything either.”

“Why didn’t you, have I taught you nothing Sierra?”

“It was too fast.”

“Bullshit.”

“Wow, thanks for your support. Not like I’m dealing with some trauma here.”

“You know I support you, but I’m still calling bullshit.”

“Fine, I froze.”

“Froze?”

“I couldn’t think, I didn’t know what to do when he told me. It was like three fucking o’clock-“

“Language, Sierra.”

“Mom, I’m twenty years old. I think I can-“

“I don’t care how old you are. Keep going.”

“… Fine. It was really early in the morning. I worked overtime the night before, I was exhausted. And then he comes in telling me, who was there for him through all the shit he went through last year, that he’s leaving for all of his ‘big city dreams’ to California. He’s screwed.”

“Yes he is.”

“Thanks for the advice mom.”

“You did the right thing, there’s not much more to say.”

“How the fuck is doing nothing the right thing?”

“He had to go, and he wasn’t right for you, never was.”

“But why now, why after five years, now?”

“Who knows honey, you should’ve asked him then.”

“I’m going to scream. You just told me doing nothing was the right thing.”

“Don’t, your sister’s sleeping. And you know what I meant.”

“Do you think I care about waking her?”

“… No. But, I’ll kick you out of the house for the night, and you need my helpful advice.”

“You never gave any advice!”

“That’s because your decision was fine, you didn’t need to do anything different.”

“But mom, that doesn’t change the fact that he’s gone. Forever.”

“Oh come on, you know he’ll be back in a week when he burns through his savings. It’s Jared.”

“Maybe.”

“You just need to realize that you shouldn’t take him back.”

“What? But mom, I love him.”

“He left you honey, don’t love him.”

“I can’t just turn it off.

“Then give it time.”

“I’m still waiting for this amazing advice you said you’d give me.”

“I don’t remember saying that.”

“It’s called paraphrasing, you certainly implied it then.”

“I never win arguments with you.”

“Really? Because I never feel like I win.”

“Sure you do, but you’re not winning this one. You know what you need to do about Jared, you’ve already done it. What’s the problem?”

“I guess nothing.”

“Then why are you still here?”

“Because I don’t know what to do.”

“You already figured that one out.”

“I give up."