“Hey honey …” her mom greeted her as she burst into the door and slammed it behind her.
“Hey sweet … heart …” her dad stuttered when he realized his daughter stormed right pass him at the stairs with a frowning face after her Saturday night out with her boyfriend.
Eduard looked at his wife in dismay.
“Uh oh,” Claire said.
“What? What do you mean ‘uh oh’?” Eduard jogged to the front window and saw Lee’s car slowly moving away from their house. “I can’t see his face … see this is why I told you she shouldn’t date until she’s 23.”
Claire peeked upstairs from the bottom of the stairs trying to listen if she could hear anything from Hazel’s bedroom. She looked worried.
Eduard rested his hands on his waist, “You’re gonna have to find out what that was all about … ’cause I …” he raised his palms, “I have absolutely no idea how to handle a teenage girl … never did.”
She made a face at him, her husband was a good dad but this was definitely out of his league. “I’ll handle it … give her time.”
Hazel held on to her tears as long as she could. She buried her face in her pillow once she got in her room. She couldn’t believe how her Saturday night had turned out.
‘This isn’t a break-up,’ he said.
‘I just want us to take time for ourselves and think about it,’ he said.
‘Being too close will make it harder to let go … we both know we have to let go at some point …’ he said.
Her head was dizzy beyond that point, she couldn’t remember the details of what he said afterwards because she felt like she went into a tunnel where his words echoed. Everything he said, how he tried to put the words together so that it wouldn’t feel so bad, it still felt bad.
It felt like a break-up. It felt like he was ending it early so he can leave easier. It made her so angry. How can he be so selfish? How could he imply that it was going to be easy for her after he leaves? Did he just tried to convince himself that he was doing the right thing? And that it was harder for him than it is for her?
Her face was wet with tears and she put on Harry Styles on maximum volume, the only man in her life that can ease her every pain. But after a few songs, she still felt horrible. She took out her phone and saw a text from Lee.
‘I still love you Hazy … this doesn’t change anything’
She couldn’t tap the screen any harder to hide those words. How could this not change anything? He wanted them to ‘move on’ with their lives separately. He just broke up with her. She sobbed.
She dialed Jan’s number hoping she could consolidate her and tell her what a bullshit excuse Lee just gave her to break up their relationship. But it went to voicemail. Not long after, she received a text from Jan.
‘Hey babe … I’m at Marlon’s party … where you at?’ Was the caption under the picture she sent.
She recognized the background. It was the glass door going to the pool area. Jan was posing with Mark, Kayla, Roger, Daisy, and some other faces she recognized from school. They were all smiles, blushing and glass eyed drunk.
If she zoomed into the picture she could see the crowd around the pool. Shirtless Marlon with a beer bottle in his hand and a girl in his arm. His city friends surrounded him, she could almost hear their laughter and shouting having so much fun at a party she wasn’t even told about.
“Shit!” she said to herself and decided to turn off her phone. It was adding more problem to her night. She turned to her desk instead. Saw her face in the mirror with tears still wet on her cheeks. She pulled out her drawer and took her journal where she can say anything and everything her heart’s desire.
‘I hate everyone!’ was the first sentence she wrote. She felt betrayed by people closest to her. ‘What a horrible day it turned out to be.’ ‘Lee just broke up with me.’ And at that last sentence, she broke down and cried again.
A knock on the door startled her.
“Hey Hazel … can I come in?” her mom’s voice followed.
It took a moment for her to ready herself. She felt like she had lost her will to live. She had never felt that bad before in her entire life. She dragged herself heavily to open her bedroom door. The moment she saw her mom’s knowing face, she collapsed into her embrace and cried.
“Oh honey … it’s gonna be alright,” Claire said as she stroke her daughter’s hair and kissed her forehead. “I promise … you’ll be alright.”
Claire walked into the room with her daughter still wrapped around her arms. Eduard peeked from behind but Claire shooed him away. She closed the door and laid down on the bed with Hazel. She let her cry without telling her what happened. But somehow she already knew.
“You know … when I first broke up with your dad … I cried for 5 days straight,” Claire said after a while. She was looking at the ceiling as her mind went back to her past. “I couldn’t see pass that day … what would become of me afterwards,” she chuckled.
“Thinking about it now … I realize how silly it was … but it was real … so trust me when I say I know how hard it feels right now … but you’ll get through it,” she turned to look at Hazel whose tears have subsided. “Just like every other teenage girl who broke up with her first boyfriend.”
Hazel was listening, she didn’t reply.
“He’s moving on … so will you … you’ll grow stronger, and grow up, you’ll meet someone else, and you’ll remember this day as the day you broke up with your first boyfriend … and that’s all it is,” she continued.
Her mom always had the right words to say, though it didn’t make her feel less horrible at that moment, but in time … those words will come back to her and she always find them to be accurate. She closed her eyes and let her mom cuddle her while telling stories from when she was her age. Just to have her there made her feel a little bit more peaceful. Because if all the people in the world decided to turn their backs on her, she knew her mom will always be there for her. That was the last thing on her mind before she fell asleep.