Chapter 123 - Promise Sign

In front of the house, we stopped and the familiar sound of her voice finally broke the silence in the car.

"I can't believe she said so many bad things. I regret having spent so many years worrying about her opinion." 

She took a long sigh, "I just wasted my time with her."

I took her hand, "at least you told her and now you don't have to hide anymore." 

I tried to search for the positive in that situation but there was nothing positive about how my mother threatened my sister. I guess being said that kind of things hurt a lot but what hurt even more was that Angie always doubted her love interests yet never tried to support her or make her feel better. A mother, blood of your same blood, who didn't care if her daughter was fine or not. 

"Thanks, Lily." She said offering me one of the fakest smiles I had ever seen on her face.

"You don't have to pretend with me." I shook my head, I didn't want her to lie to me anymore, not even about her mood.

She sighed, "I knew how our mother was, I knew she would have never been happy but I still hoped with a little side of my heart that she would at least live alongside that and accept me."

"You aren't responsible for her ignorance. I know she is our mother and we love her but if she treats you like that, she doesn't even deserve your love anymore." I said, speaking about myself as well, referring to all the people who hurt me and who made me feel unworthy. 

"You're right. She can't blame me or insult me for being myself." She said, her voice raised a bit to its usual tone of voice and her smile grew more sincere.

She walked down the car but asked me to get inside with her and order pizza. Carol was still at work and texted her she couldn't make it in time for dinner and she didn't want to spend the rest of the evening alone with her thoughts.

We ordered the pizza and then we decided to browse through the album of pictures of our childhood. 

She had tons of those, kept in a box upon a shelf in her bedroom. 

So many pictures were of me and her together, we looked so much alike as kids and teenagers, now we just resemble each other in different features. Maybe that was the result of our lives taking two different directions.

There were even pictures of our mother and our grandparents. The pictures which hurt more were the ones where my grandfather was there. I was happy to see him, to have an intangible memory of him that wouldn't fade away contrary to the portrait of his face in my memory. But at the same time, it was painful knowing that was the only place I could see him. I couldn't hug him, stare at him, smile to him, hug him. I only could remind him thanks to a picture, that broke my heart.

After watching the photos and commenting on each one of them the delivery guy knocked at the door, he gave us the pizzas so we paid and tipped him.

Pizza was one of those things damned by hell because it's so good that you could have pizza every day and never get tired of it. It reminds me Of Cameron's lips, so good that they got addictive and you will never get tired of them despite the huge amount of kisses they provide you.

It even cheered your mood, and at each bite, you tasted a piece of paradise.

I sighed, I just loved pizza almost as much as I loved Cameron.

"Maybe I should have waited before telling mom, now you didn't have time to tell her about you and Cameron," Evelyn said in the middle of the dinner, changing the subject back about my mom.

"It's fine, Ev. I will tell her, even if I doubt I will speak to her after he treated you like that."

I always forgave my mother, whenever she did something wrong I always found some sort of excuse for her misbehavior. Usually, I used to tell myself to be more clement since she was a middle-aged woman who grew us alone, or even that she expressed her love by insulting me with her unpleasing comments.

But she had no justification today, her useless rudeness and lack of empathy couldn't be justified nor forgiven. 

If I thought of her, only negative words came to mind so I didn't want to see her at all to spare both myself and my mother of all the bad words and thoughts that crossed my mind. I already had enough when she begged me to forgive Carl but now that she couldn't accept Evelyn I lost my faith in her and stop respecting her from the very first moment she over crossed the limit of patience with my sister.

"Thanks for helping me, Lily. I am sorry for not having told you either. I regret it because I had some dark days of my life and I am sure if I told you, you would have been there for me." Her lips curved down and her eyes filled with tears, yet she didn't let them break out.

"It's fine. I understand. I promise you I will be there for the next time."

She stretched her hand forward and closed her fist only leaving her pinky finger up. 

"Promise. We will always be there for the other from now on." 

I smiled as I joined my pinky finger with hers and we entwined them together in a promising sign.

"Promise," I whispered. The only positive thing about that entire situation was that it helped my and Evelyn's bond to get stronger and unbreakable. We got closer so fast that I could barely believe it myself. 

I hugged her tightly as I smiled as happy as a kid whose sister had just come back from school.