I grab my bag off the passenger side and get out of the car. I look up at my home and briefly wonder if mom has shown. She’s been a bit lost lately. Ever since dad left again she’s been wanting to get out of the house.
I let out a sigh as I pull my bag up over my shoulder and make my way up the steps. I push open the door and step through. “Mom?” I call out through the big house. “You home?”
Mom appears in the hallway before me with her hand propped on her hips. “Where have you been?” she demands. “I’ve been waiting for you all afternoon.”
“Um… school only just ended,” I say, looking at her with confusion. “I literally came straight home.”
“I know,” she says, fighting a smile. “I was hoping you’d be one of those rebels and skip school to come home early.”
I raise an eyebrow at her as I try to work out what the hell is going on. “Mom, when have I ever skipped class?” I say, hoping she doesn’t pick up on the fact that I do it all the time.
She practically bounces on her feet. “I wanted you home.”
“Why?” I say. “You could have texted me or called the school and had me sent home.”
“No,” she groans, throwing her arms around me and rocking me from side to side like she used to do when I was a kid. “Your grades are in the toilet. I need you to soak up every ounce of knowledge those teachers are willing to share. I had no choice but to wait.”
I pull back out of my mom’s arms and study her closer. She’s acting way too shady and I want to know why. “What’s going on, mom?”
She takes my hand and drags me into the kitchen behind her. “Come on,” she says. “I’ve got something to show you.”
My brows pull down for the hundredth time this afternoon. “Tell me,” I say.
She shakes her head as she continues dragging me behind her. “Jesus,” she laughs. “Have a little patience.”
“If you wanted me to have patience then you should have wired it into my DNA seventeen years ago. This is on you, not me.”
We get into the pristine kitchen and sitting on the table is an envelope. My heart starts to race as I look down at it. Could this be…? Shit, I don’t want to get my hopes up. “It’s a big envelope,” mom says, still holding my hand.
“Is it from…?”
“Yeah.”
“Crap. Ok,” I practically chant, looking down at the untouched envelope. This is dad’s work papers all over again. “You do it.”
“No,” mom says, shaking her head. “You have to do it.”
“I can’t. What if it’s… you know.”
“Not possible,” she tells me. “They don’t send big envelopes for rejection letters.”
“Maybe they ran out of small ones,” I argue.
“Don’t be ridiculous,” she laughs. “Now, do I need to go and spill a glass of water to get you to open it or are you going to man up and tear that baby apart?”
“Fine,” I groan, reaching forward and taking the envelope off the table. “But if this is bad, you owe me a lifetime of Ben & Jerry’s.”
“It’s not going to be bad.”
I take a deep breath and slide my finger under the tab before tearing it across the envelope. I go to take the papers out as my heart threatens to beat right out of my chest. Holy crap. This is it. The moment I’ve been waiting my whole life for.
I slide the papers from the envelope and begin scanning over the words as mom shoves her head over my shoulder, reading it too. “Holy shit,” I shriek, grabbing the paper with both hands and shaking it. “I got in. I actually got in.”
Mom throws her arms around and me squishes the life out of me. “I knew you would, baby. I knew you would.”
I hold her back with everything I’ve got as tears of joy spring to my eyes. This is one of the best days of my life and all I want to do is tell Nate about it. I don’t care that we’re not together. I don’t care that he’s spent the last two weeks pissed at me for the stupid shit I can’t seem to stop doing.
All I care about is telling the man I love that I just got accepted to college. I pull back out of mom’s arms and give her a beaming smile. “I have to go,” I tell her.
“What?” she sulks. “Where?”
I look at her as though the answer should be obvious. “Ahhhh, to tell everyone about this,” I say, holding my acceptance letter up. “Can we go out for dinner? Maybe go somewhere special?”
A smile filled with nothing but absolute joy takes over my mother’s face. “Nothing would make me happier. Did you want to invite your friends? Nate and Jesse? We can make a big deal about it.”