2.

2.

 

  “I don’t think this relationship is good for you.” Parrish’s mother, Tandy, told her.

     Parrish poured herself a cup of coffee and leaned on the kitchen counter. She rolled her eyes as her back was turned, hoping her mother wouldn’t notice. “I know that, Mom. I get it.”

     “I don’t think you do.”

     Tandy sat at the kitchen table and sat her cup down. Parrish followed, sitting across from her.

     “Doesn’t she recognize all that you’ve got going on? Personally, mentally, emotionally, physically?” Tandy began. “The fact that you’re only twenty years old "“

     “Uh, uh, uh. Twenty-one in four weeks and a day. Come correct.” Parrish told her while adjusting her septum ring.

 

     “Fine, then. The fact that you’re almost twenty-one, you’ve just left school and are figuring out where you’re going next…”

     “I said I would think about going back. I never said I had decided.” Parrish corrected.

     Tandy ignored her daughter’s comment and continued. “She’s a twenty-eight year old woman who is constantly on the road for work and she wants to begin a serious relationship with you, a twenty year old? It’ll never work!”

     “How do you know what’ll work and what won’t?” Parrish began. “I love her.”

     Tandy laughed. “Honey… this love won’t last.” She took a sip of her coffee. “I hate to be the Grinch, but it will not last. You two are toxic for each other… and too much of something bad is just no good. It’ll kill ya.”

     Parrish looked her mother in the eyes. “Well, I’m not dead yet.”

     Tandy sighed and shook her head. “You can’t just put what you’ve already started to a halt to run around with a thirty year old woman.”

     “Twenty-eight.”

     “Thirty. Twenty-eight. Whatever. It’s all the same.” Tandy told her. “Look, honey, you’ve got to finish what you’ve already begun. If you don’t go back to school soon, you’ll never go back. If you want to get what you want in life "“

     “What if it’s not what I want?”

     “Don’t be silly, Parrish. Of course it’s what you want.” Tandy told her. “You just need to take a little bit of time to get to a new school and get back into the groove of things. Don’t worry. You’ll make it happen. You’re a smart girl.”

     Tandy got up from the table and began making breakfast. Parrish continued to sit at the table, and said to herself, “Maybe I don’t want to be a smart girl.” She put the rim of her cup of coffee to her lips, sipping slowly.