I shook off those thoughts.
I'd rather leave those matters to professionals, or fiction. My life already had enough complications for me to stick my nose into the mobster world. No, thank you.
After the movie, Olivia and I went to her house and devoured two pizzas that would’ve been enough to feed a family of ten. We talked for several hours, accompanied by an unhealthy amountof beer and I ended up learning that her parents and siblings no longer acknowledged her in public.
“Thank fuck.” She said with a mouth full of pizza and I laughed, realizing how relieved that made her feel. “I hope the next time they call me, is to attend my parents’ funerals.”
I raised my can of beer, stretching my body against the soft back of the sofa. “Cheers to the eternal spite!”
She raised her slice of pizza. “And to fucking awful mothers!”
After what had happened years ago, she never forgave her parents for forcing her to terminate the pregnancy, and they were unable to get past what they considered, even to that day, a flaw in their daughter's character.
Olivia put up with them until she finished her degree and had her studies paid for, then she completely cut ties, and I would never blame her for that. Especially since I had done the same thing with my own mother.
Slowly sipping my beer, I nodded in answer to something she was telling about a guy she hooked up with a few nights ago, in some nightclub. However, my mind was traveling back in time.
My mother tried to contact me. Two years after kicking me out of the house, she showed up at the door of Aunt Lizzie's old apartment, wanting to talk to me. I remembered how my wounded heart had clung to a thread of hope the instant I saw her again, thinking that maybe, after all, I had a mother that loved me.
Only the Lord knew how wrong I was.
My half-sister, Savannah, had some kind of health issue. I never quite figured out what it was, nor did I care much about it. But I knew she needed a kidney transplant at the time. Of course, that was the only reason my mother visited me. Not because she missed her eldest daughter, not because she was sorry and wanted to ask for forgiveness. No. My mother came looking for me to demand that I took the tests and donate one of my kidneys to Savannah.
I kicked her out of Aunt Lizzie's apartment, yelling how much I hated her and how I never wanted to see her again.
Few months later, I found out that Savannah had received the transplant. The donor? Our mother, who knew from the beginning that she was a match, but tried to put my life at risk instead of hers.
That episode was the culmination of all the suffering I had been carrying since Lester's death. I freaked out, overwhelmed by emotions and unable to understand the events unfolding around me, and destroyed Aunt Lizzie's bathroom, inflicting cuts all over my body with a shard of the mirror I broke. After that, I spent a good while in a psychiatric hospital and never saw my mother, Savannah, or even Officer Daniel again.
The last information I had about them was from three years ago. Apparently, they moved to Florida.
“Daisy? Are you listening to me?”
“What?” I blinked, trying to understand what Olivia was saying. Then, I cleared my throat, feeling my cheeks warming as realization hits me. “Sorry. Got distracted.”
Olivia leaned back on the couch, her pitch-black hair spreading all over the beige fabric, and her eyes analyzing me.
“You need to move on, you know that, don’t you?” I tried to swallowed the knot that appeared on my throat at the sound of her words. “He loved you a lot, Babe. But he’s dead. He has been dead for twelve years. And you’ve wasted your youth mourning him.”
“I wasn’t thinking about him.” I murmured, knowing perfectly well what she was telling me was the truth.
“Well, then that’s news to me. ‘Cause every single time I saw that look on your face, you’re thinking about Lester.” She pointed out. “But tell me, what’s crossing your mind.”
I shrugged my shoulders. “Was thinking about my mother and the day she decided to reappear in my life just to ask me to donate one of my kidneys to Savannah.”
“Awwww! Such a good mom. Can’t understand how our mothers weren’t friends. They are both the biggest cunts I know.”
I laughed heartedly, and Olivia followed along. “Lord have mercy of us, Liv. We’re going to hell for talking so much shit about our mothers.”
“Oh, well. Remind me to bring a bikini, would ya? I heard it’s quite hot down there.”
Many hours and many beers later, I left Olivia's house. It was almost three in the morning. I was wobbling a little, but still knew my way back.
One of the advantages of having recovered my father's house was that it was located in one of the wealthiest neighborhoods of Silver River, where all the important people lived and where Olivia had also bought a house for herself.
Of course, she was on the opposite side of the neighborhood where her parents' house was located.
Walking slowly, I made sure I didn't stray from the side of the street, putting one foot in front of the other like a kid having fun on the edge of the road. I definitely shouldn't have drunk so much, but one day was no big deal. Besides, the night was warm and clear.
