Everything Changes-The Summer I Turned Pretty

Thirteen

~a few weeks ago~

A door slammed down the hall and I heard Dad swearing.

"Conrad, damn it!" Heavy footsteps pounded past my room and I peeked out, watching Dad enter his and Mom's room and slam his door just as loud. "You know what? You leave too. I need to be alone," I heard him say loudly and the door quietly squeaked open as Mom left their room.

"Momma?" I said. I called her that when I got nervous or sensed that she was upset. Mom looked up and quickly brushed her hand across her eyes. She was entering comfort mode, hiding her own emotions inside. I think that's where Conrad got it from.

"Kristy, honey," she said and rushed over to me, swallowing me up in her arms. She felt smaller than usual, but it was probably because I was growing up and getting bigger. "You didn't need to hear any of that. I thought you were asleep."

I shrugged. "It's not your fault," I told her. "It was Connie and Dad who woke me up."

Mom sighed and led me back inside my room. She patted the edge of my bed and I sat beside her. My alarm clock glowed with the red numbers 2:03 in the morning. I reached behind myself until I felt the fuzzy foot that belonged to my stuffed leopard, a toy that I had since I was little, and pulled it onto my lap.

It wasn't Mom's fault that Dad and Conrad were fighting, except for the fact that they were fighting about her.

I woke up to Conrad saying that Dad didn't love Mom, and Dad snapped back that he didn't know what he was talking about.

"You know, there are times she needs you more than you think, and you're so oblivious to it all. I can't believe I used to look up to you. All you care about is yourself, your job, whatever makes you happy," Conrad spat. "Well you don't have to worry about putting on a show for me anymore. For Jeremiah or Kristin, sure, whatever. But I'll be better to them than you ever could...better than you ever were to me." That's when he slammed his door.

Mom wrapped her arm around me then and asked if I wanted her to stay with me until I fell asleep.

"Yeah," I told her. Then, knowing that Dad wouldn't want her in their room for the rest of the night, I added, "Stay until I wake up again. My bed's big enough for the two of us."

It was dark in my room, except for my alarm clock and the street light leaking through my curtains. But I could've swore that I saw Mom's eyes get shiny, like she was holding back tears. I hardly saw her cry.

She leaned over me and kissed the top of my head. "Okay, Sweetheart." She stood up and pulled my covers back over me before walking around my bed to lay on the other side.

I fell asleep quickly that night, hearing Mom's soft breathing beside me, my hand in hers.

~present day~

I wake up before Belly the next morning and lay in our bed thinking about that night only a few days before we left for the beach house this summer.

I don't want to disrupt Belly's sleep, and I don't want to confront what happened last night, so I exit our room quietly.

The rest of our house is dark, so I check the time on my phone. It's barely six in the morning, so it's no wonder everyone's still asleep. I tiptoe down the stairs to the kitchen and decide to make Mom a cup of coffee.

From behind the coffee machine on the counter, I have a perfect view of the sunrise over the ocean. Layers of pinks and oranges fill the sky and reflect off the water. It takes my breath away and I watch it fade until the coffee machine beeps.

The noise makes me jump, since the house is so silent, but I quickly compose myself and pour a glass of the steaming brown liquid into Mom's favorite mug.