Hannah’s hopes that her mom hadn’t been drinking evaporated. She wasn’t slurring her words, but she had that mean drunk tone.Ugh, I wish I hadn’t taken the call.Hannah could just hang up the phone or say she had another call and wait until next year to talk to her mother. However, the small part of her that still craved her mother’s time and attention kept her on the line. “Anyway,” Hannah said, “How about you and Dad? Did you stay home, or did you go somewhere?”
“We went to the VFW. They had a buffet. I must’ve eaten something that didn’t agree with me. I had the runs and came home.”
“You probably had something with milk in it. You know you’re lactose intolerant.”
“All I had was turkey with gravy, mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, and oh yeah, I had mac and cheese.”
“Aside from the actual turkey, everything you ate had dairy in it,” she said.
Her mother didn’t respond.
“Where’s Dad? Isn’t he there?”
“He stayed up at the VFW. I suppose he’ll be home at some point.”
Hannah sighed. “I’m sure he will.”
“Guess who else was up at the bar?” Her mother asked in a sing-song voice.
Hannah got that sick feeling in the pit of her stomach, the harbinger of Chad. “Do I have to guess?”
“It was Chad.”
“Of course it was,” she mumbled.
“He bought a round of drinks for everyone in the place. I still don’t understand why you couldn’t work things out with him.”
Hannah thought back to the Christmas when Chad had gotten mad at her for talking too much at his work party. He’d taken her purse and locked her out of the house. She didn’t have her phone or the keys to the car, so she’d stood on the porch shivering and hoping every few seconds that he’d open the door and let her in. But if she told her mom that, she’d say,Why didn’t you apologize? I’m sure he was just stressed out because of his job.
Her mother kept choosing her abusive ex over her own daughter, all because Chad had a cute smile and unfortunate charisma. People were always falling for his bullshit. Hell, she got it; she’d fallen for it for long enough to wind up living with him and slowly losing herself in the process.
“I’m sure that we are both better off. He’s there and I’m here.”
“Actually…”
The bottom fell out of Hannah’s stomach. She felt hot, and her back began to sweat. Her legs went weak, and she plopped down on the couch. Hannah hated the visceral reaction she had to the mere thought of Chad somewhere in her life, even if it was just with her loser parents.
“Hannah, honey, are you still there?”
Smoky, who must have sensed her distress, hopped into her lap. She began petting him. “I’m here. What were you going to say about Chad?”
“He moved to Illinois! I guess he has a job out there.”
Her blood turned to ice. Sweat stopped trickling down her back as she struggled to breathe. Of all the luck. When Hannah was nervous or excited, she had trouble not talking, and those emotional states caused a flood of words to rush out of her mouth. But when she was scared, not only did her body freeze, her brain froze too. She became incapable of forming words. That was probably because when she was with Chad, he’d crushed her voice. She opened her mouth to speak, and nothing came out.
She forced herself to take a deep breath and then she asked, “D-did you tell him where I live?” Hannah crossed her fingers, hoping for once her mother had been on her side and kept her mouth shut.
“Well, yes. I told him you lived in Marley Creek. I don’t have your address on my phone, but I remembered you work at that witch shop, so I told him that. And you know what? Even though you didn’t leave on the best of terms, he was still interested in hearing how you are doing.”
“I bet he was,” Hannah managed to get out.
“What was that?”
“Never mind. What else did he say?”
“Nothing much.” Then she said in a sing-song voice. “I wouldn’t be surprised if he pops into that store soon.”
Hannah was going to puke all over her living space. Bile crept up into her throat. She tried to stand and fell back onto the couch. She really, really hoped that Chad had been full of shit and hadn’t come to Illinois. Her mom had a history of getting information wrong.
