Forever Changed

“Text me when you get home,” he said, opening the car door for me.

“I will. Hey, you never answered my question before. Is Drake’s dad some kind of asshole or something?”

“Oh no, he’s the exact opposite. He’s a really great guy, but you don’t want to start a conversation with him unless you have several hours to talk. Once he gets started, there’s no shutting him up,” Maddon said, chuckling. “Now scoot,” he said, closing the door behind me.

I backed up as a pair of headlights lit up the night behind me and a dark pickup truck pulled into the space next to Maddon’s car. I couldn’t help laughing as I saw Maddon trying to get in his car before he got stuck talking. My last glance in the mirror before the night swallowed them up was Drake’s dad pumping Maddon’s hand up and down in a handshake like it had been ages since he’d last seen him.

I was still smiling when I pulled into my driveway. The night had been perfect, that is until I opened the front door to find my mom waiting up for me with a severe look on her face.

“Hi, Mom,” I said, trying to head for the stairs like nothing was wrong.

“Who’s your new friend, Kassandra?” she asked in a deadly serious voice.

I grimaced and silently cursed Lacey and her cow of a mother. I sighed and turned around. “His name is Maddon,” I said.

“Maddon Johnson?” she asked in a more elevated voice.

I nodded my head.

“Kassandra how could you? Do you not care anything about the memory of your father?” she asked with tears coursing down her cheeks as she stood in front of me.

“Mom, I think Daddy would have been okay with…” I started to say when a stinging slap stopped my words in midsentence. Shocked, I raised my hand to my burning cheek. I couldn’t remember my mom ever hitting me. Anger flared up in me as I looked at her.

“Oh my God,” she said, dropping to her knees, sobbing. “I’m sorry, Kass, I didn’t mean to hit you. I was just shocked to hear you say your father would have been okay with it,” she choked out.

The anger left me like a deflated balloon. I sank down on the floor next to her. “Momma, I was serious,” I said, holding her hand. “You just don’t know Maddon. He’s nothing like his father. He’s kind, funny and wouldn’t ever think about hurting anyone,” I said, thinking of the little girl Bethany. “I think I love him,” I whispered.

“How long have you been seeing him?” she asked, pulling her hand from mine so she could stand up, no longer crying.

“A week,” I said, knowing it sounded terribly weak to admit I was in love with him after only a week, but she didn’t understand everything we had shared.

“A week,” she said sarcastically. “A week,” she repeated, laughing incredulously.

“I know it sounds crazy, Mom, but if you got to know him you’d know why. He’s the funniest person I’ve ever met. He’s so cute, and he makes me feel special,” I said, trying to explain.

“Have you slept with him?” she asked harshly.

“That’s none of your business,” I said, shocked by the person she had turned into suddenly.

“I’m your mother and it is my business. I’m responsible for your actions,” she said in the same harsh tone.

“That’s rich. Where was your parenting when I needed you so badly after Daddy died? Where were you when Megan needed you?” I demanded. “I’ll tell you where, you were in the nice little pity cave you created for only yourself. You left me to handle everything, my pain, Megan’s pain, and everything in between. Did you care that my friends didn’t understand? Did you care that I felt like my whole world was collapsing in on me? I felt like I had lost not just Dad, but you also. That’s why I cussed out Mr. Mathews and pulled the fire alarm. I was so sick of being alone,” I said, as hot tears poured down my cheeks. Everything I had been holding inside came flowing out of me like an erupting volcano. “It’s because of all of you that I met the one person who does care about me,” I said, sinking down on couch, sobbing uncontrollably.

The couch dipped down from Mom’s weight as she joined me. “Kass, I’m so sorry,” she said, pulling me into her arms. “I have no excuse for what I did. You’re right. I made you become the adult. I will never be able to apologize enough. I don’t know what happened to me after your father died. It was like something in me died, too. I’m ashamed to admit I let the pain consume me and forgot all about you and Megan. I put my selfish needs ahead of my own children,” she added quietly. “I don’t know how I will ever be able to ask for your forgiveness.”

“You don’t have to ask,” I said as tears poured down my cheeks. “I know it was hard on you.”

“Yes, but it was hard on you too,” she said.

“But I survived with Maddon’s help,” I said, trying to get her to understand.

She sighed. “Honey, I don’t want you to see him because he’s no different than his father,” she

said, standing up and walking toward the antique desk she used on the far side of the room.

“Mom, you don’t know him,” I started to protest, but was cut off when she held up a legal envelope.

“Kass, I do know him in a sense,” she said, extracting some of the papers from the folder.