Ms. Davis walks toward the door and Brinly follows, not even turning over her shoulder one last time.
“Wait…don’t go.” I reach out to touch her but she’s too far away to make contact.
I have no means of keeping Brinly here. Her mother holds all the cards. All I have is the way I feel about her and what I think our future could be like together. I need her in my life and can’t let her walk away like this under these conditions.
“Please, Brin. I love you.”
Apparently, that’s not enough for a guy like me to hold on to a girl like Brinly.
Brinly
My trust fundwill be made available to me when I turn twenty-one.
Four days from now.
My mother knows it and I know it. It’s the only reason I left school last week and walked away from Preston. At the time, it was the only way to resolve the situation without any further theatrics from my mother. She could feel like she had control over me one last time. But we both knew it was short-lived.
I took a leave of absence from Oak Ridge for the rest of the semester, approved by my mother who worked it out with the School Board and Administrators. I’m sure she paid them off in hopes that the time away from school would help me “reprioritize my life decisions.”
What she fails to understand is that I’m an adult now. I’ve been making my own decisions for the last two years since I’ve been away at college and I’ve learned valuable lessons on standing up for myself. I may have played the meek and obedient daughter all my life, but I’m no longer my mother’s puppet.
And in less than a week from now, I will be on my own entirely.
I just hope it’s not too late to repair things with Preston.
I love you.
Oh my God, my heart was wrenched out of my chest and left bleeding across the floor of that room when I walked away from him last week. When he told me he loved me, I felt a pain so raw that I really thought I’d been shot. That ache hasn’t gone away and continues to fester, as I cry myself to sleep every night. I cry for Preston. I cry for my life with my mother. I cry for having to leave the school and the sorority I love.
But most of all, I cry for the irreparable damage in my relationship with my mother. It will never be the same again.
She’s been controlling all my life, but up until now, it was what I felt to be out of concern for my well-being. Muriel Davis had a shitty childhood, made even worse when the love of her life left her when he found out she was pregnant. From that moment on, my mother became a different person and wouldn’t let anyone, especially a man, dictate her life.
And in doing so, she ironically controlled mine.
But no more. It ends now.
I’ve been texting and talking to Maddie and Lola over the last week and keeping them apprised as best I can with what was happening, although I didn’t tell them what I had planned.
As for Preston, I just hoped he’d hold on a little while longer. If he indeed did love me, I hoped he’d give me the chance to prove that I loved him in return.
* * *
I wakeup on my birthday to find a note on the dining room table from my mother. She’s been unexpectedly called away to Japan for the week.
Sayonara, Mother.
Making a few phone calls, one to my attorney and the banker related to my trust, I then pack my bags and leave a note for my mother’s return.
As I shut the front door behind me, hopping into an Uber waiting to take me to the train station, I say good-bye to the home I grew up in. I say good-bye to the life that never was mine to begin with.
It’s a two-hour train ride back up to Oak Ridge University, where Lola and Maddie wait for me at the train station, with birthday balloons and cupcakes in hand for my arrival.
“Happy Birthday, Brin! Welcome back, girly!”
I hug them both and smile, tears piercing the corners of my eyes.
“It’s good to be home,” I say, knowing it’s the absolute truth. They are my home.
