Chapter 16

Happy Birthday

Eva

I get home by the time it’s 2 pm. Damn it. Kind of. Because I can’t bring myself to be upset about it. I am just trying to prepare for the nagging I guess it’s coming. Unless my mom’s sleeping. And she isn’t. She’s sitting at the kitchen table, smoking. I pause, and she doesn’t look up once I’m standing at the entrance door.

“Hey, Mom?”

My mother then looks up, as if she is surprised to see me. Maybe she is.

“Eva.”

“Uhh, are you all right?”

“Yes, I am all right. How was it with Chris?”

“Chris?”

Right, I’d told her I was going to be with Chris, right.

“It was...it was okay. We talked, saw a movie; you know. The usual stuff.”

She smiles.

“It’s a good thing you go out now more often. It wa