Page 30 of Lost in the Current of You

Avery huffed at my vague answer but let it go as she typed on her phone.

“As long as there’s cake, I don’t care about much else,” I added.

Alex scoffed. “Who do you think we are? Of course there’s cake.”

“What type?”

Alex narrowed his eyes. “I’m not that dumb, so don’t even try to trick me into telling you. It’s a secret since you ruined the rest of it.”

I smiled innocently at that.

The conversation died down, and it wasn’t long before we retreated to the bedroom and fell asleep.

My phone buzzed beside me as I sat at the kitchen bench the next morning, sipping my coffee.

Avery and Alex both left after raiding my kitchen again for breakfast and kissing my cheek as a farewell. My neck felt stiff that morning from waking up without a pillow under my head because Alex had stolen it sometime during the night. He tossed and turned in his sleep, and I usually slept through anything.

Dad had come out a little while after they left, and my phone buzzed again as he passed by with an incoming call.

Just like the time before, I was going to ignore it. It was too early to deal with whatever she was upset at me about. Most likely from ignoring her call from the day before as well. Dad shot me a look as he took his place beside me, daring me to decline the call.

“Answer it, Dakota. She’s your mother,” he said.

“Yeah, and a pretty lousy one,” I mumbled.

He heard me and gave me an unimpressed look. He opened his mouth to say something, but I answered the call and pressed it to my ear.

“Hey, Mum,” I answered while I gave Dad the sweetest, innocent smile I could muster. He just rolled his eyes and shook his head.

She hummed. “Ignoring me again, I see. I thought we talked about this. I deserve better than that for all I’ve done for you.”

I squeezed the bridge of my nose and held my breath to try and keep all my thoughts from filtering through.

It was hard sometimes. Especially when she said things like that. Because what did I deserve? I was ignored for the better half of my life, only seemingly interesting when she thought I was throwing my life away. She never paid attention to me when I was a child. And I tried so hard for that attention because I saw how she treated Nate. It was like she only had room for one child in her life. I was just an accident, born into an already shaky foundation of a family. I grew to accept it, though, that I wouldn’t have a mother-daughter relationship I had seen with all the other kids I grew up with. I had my dad, and it was enough. It didn’t make it hurt any less, though.

I released my breath slowly to control that anger before I replied.

“I’m sorry, Mum. I had my phone on silent in my room the whole day. I was with my friends.”

Only a partial truth, but she didn’t need to know that it was only there because of her incessant ringing.

“That’s not a good place to have your phone. What if something happened to me? Or Nathan? Or your dad?”

I closed my eyes, pressing my lips together and mustering the rest of my strength to feign politeness into my voice.

“Is there a reason you called, Mother?”

She paused for a second, most likely biting back all her arguments to my question and the attitude laced in it as she would point out.

“Yes, there is,” she started. “I’m not going to be able to do the seventh for our lunch reservation, so I’d like to move it to today. I only have a short amount of time open, so meet me at one o’clock at Le Jardin Beachfront Restaurant.”

It wasn’t an offer, it was more so like a demand, which was always her way. She never asked, she just assumed you would make time for her whenever she was available.

So, I didn’t argue. I agreed and she hung up shortly after with no casual conversation. No ‘how are you?’ or ‘how are things going?’. It was just how she was. She cut straight to the point.

Dad squeezed the back of my neck. “It won’t be so bad, chook.”

I scoffed. “Have you met her lately?”

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