Page 7 of Promise Kept

It never came to life.

At least not yet.

My mother gets closer to me.

I feel my nerves tingle and twist.

I casually look around, trying to find a distraction.

Trying to find someone, Larissa?

I can hear Love’s voice in my head, but Love doesn’t know everything about me. There’s a secret here and there I keep to myself.

I never truly know where the edge of everything is.

How far desire can go. How far urges can go.

I mean, it’s not like I had a good upbringing either.

Hence the drunk former supermodel hobbling toward me.

My mother’s breasts are doing everything in their silicone power to launch themselves from her dress. Looking to make a great story for everyone to tell. To keep her name in their mouths. So she can find someone’s pockets for her hands to slip into.

“I’ve got this,” I whisper to Love.

“I’m not leaving you,” she says. “I’ll just fade into the background. Here, let me get this going…”

Love walks toward my mother and hugs her.

She doesn’t give my mother a chance to do a thing.

Which is smart.

Love fake cries and my mother hugs her back.

The hug is short lived, but effective.

Love walks away but not too far.

My mother then looks at me.

I shrug my shoulders.

“You need better friends,” my mother says to me. “That one is weird. And clingy. And who names their child Love?”

“You have two first names,” I say.

“I love your humor,” my mother says. She looks around. Then she touches my face. “They’re watching us.”

“Is this where we act now? Like we’re close? Like we care?”

“It has to hurt that he’s gone,” my mother says. “He finally went too far. The stupid bastard.”

“Tell me how you really feel about my father,” I say.

“You know how I feel about him.”

“Then why are you here?”

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