To My Future Cheating Husband

VI. Here Comes the Bride

Ava's POV:

I held my mom while she continued baking. She refuses to allow me to help since I accidentally cracked some shells into the cupcakes earlier. I told her it was an accident, but she didn't believe me. According to her, I inherited my dad's cooking skills. Biologically, that's not possible, but she's my mom, the woman who feeds me, so she is always right.

Trevon stood across from me and narrowed his eyes while he cracked the egg with a single hand. Show off. He inherited his cooking skills from mom.

"Anything happened today?" Mom asked her usual question.

In the past, I used to ignore her. My butt would be in the bedroom or couch, texting, or scrolling through social media. "Yes, I got so much to tell you."

Mom stops spreading the whipped cream. "You want to talk about your day?" It isn't a shock that she wants to clarify my response. I haven't had a mother to daughter discussion with her since middle school.

"Oh my gosh, mom, today was so crazy-" she smiles and continues spreading the cream. "The lines were long for the class schedule. I felt like my legs were going to fall off standing there." I know she is listening very carefully. "But, I met-" I stop talking, remembering Trevon is standing in front of us.

I wonder if it's a good thing to speak about my encounter with Eli, one of Trevon's best friends in front of him. I don't want him to think something is going on between us when there is nothing.

"Did you meet Luke?" Mom intervenes, causing my stomach to swirl, remembering about that guy.

"Of course they did, after all, they're-" I flick a spoonful of whip cream at him. "Hey! Not cool!"

I held my fists on my waist, "Hey! Not cool!" I mock his voice, pitching my tone despite holding higher vocals than him.

Trevon wipes off the cream with his forearm while giving me a nasty glare. He turns towards our breeder, "Mom!"

"Mom!" I stuck out my tongue.

"Stop copying me!"

I lean in closer, "Stop copying me!" Trevon hates it when I mock his voice. I haven't done it ever since we graduated from elementary school, making the feeling so much more nostalgic.

Mom sighs, but the smile was still on her face seeing her kids teasing each other again. "Trevon, go change. Ava, stop mocking your brother. Aren't you too old for that?"

I grasp her arm, "But, mommy," I whined, causing her eyes to roll in amusement.

"Kiss up," Trevon coughs out, before going back into his bedroom.

"So, tell me. Luke?" Mom said teasingly, before wiping the counter from my cream attack earlier.

I sat on the counter, "Nothing is going on between us." She raises a brow before throwing the towel in the sink, preparing to rinse it out to clean the surface once more. "Mom, there was never anything between us to begin with...I was just delusional."

Mom pressed her lip together before twisting out the water, "Oh? But, for the past two years-"

"Delusional," I cut her off. "Nothing is going between us...If there is, it's all gone."

She wipes the counter once more, while my legs dangle in the air. There was a glance at me before she asked: "What happened?"

"Mom...Luke and I...we were-" how can I ever tell my mother that I had a fuckship for the past two years? I sat there, biting onto my tongue, trying to find the right words.

Mom laughs, a sweet low melody, "You don't have to say anything any further. I know what you mean," she said. She rewashes the towel before spreading it out and laying it on the towel rack.

"You do?"

Her lip curves upward before she grabs the plastic spatula to spread out the cream, "I've had my fair share of...close friendship before your father."

I gasp, covering my full mouth with my hand, "Mother!" I said it in a way as if the information was extremely scandalous.

She snickers slowly before peeking at all the doors to ensure no one entered. "I was young once so-" she shrugged, "I explored the streets."

"What changed?" I asked. Mom had always been so reformed, so elegant. I did not expect her ever to explore the streets.

"When I was your age, I did all the things...kids your age did. I partied, drank, did a little-" she places two fingers in front of her lips, then pressed a finger on top of a single nostril and inhaled, "that."

I fan my face, "Mother!" I continued my exaggeration, never expecting my mom to do that.

"When your grandmother passed." An event that occurred before my time, "I was so...depressed, so I fell in deeper."

I place a hand over my chest, releasing a sigh of contentment knowing the next part of the story. "And then you met dad."

She chuckles a thoroughly amused one, "Oh, no. I met your father way afterward." Well, I'll be darn, I'm wrong.

"So, dad had nothing to do with you cleaning up?"

"Love is a powerful thing, sweetheart, but it's not everything." She smiles dimly, "I met this girl."

"And you experimented!"

She shot me a nasty glare, "If you didn't come out of me, I would expect you to be some else daughter."

"So, you didn't?"

She smiles and shrugs, "Well-"

"Mother!"

We burst out laughing, "A little here, a little there." She decides not to give any in-depth information in regards to her sexuality. "She changed me."

"How?"

"She got married."

I stare at her, still shocked about my mom's past. Previously, I never asked her about anything in her life. Like other teenage girls, I never wanted to probe into my parents' lives, and in return, they shouldn't probe into mine. Right now, the game has changed, drastically.

She places the cupcake down, "Our relationship was an open one. I didn't know about her other relations until she asked me out for coffee one day."

"And?"

"Told me she was pregnant, and she's getting married."

"Wow," I never expected her to hold such a rich history. "So, you love her?"

She shook her head, "There was chemistry between us, but not strong enough to become love. So, no. I don't love her. I love her existence, but that was it." Mom whipped the cream onto her apron. "She even asked me to play the piano at her wedding."

"You know how to play the piano?" That explains the piano in the other living room.

"Oh, goodness, no." She waves it off, "I only know one song - Here Comes the Bride." Her eyes seemingly in the distance, almost as if reliving a nostalgic memory.

"We have a piano." In which neither Trevon and I know how to play. I'm certain dad doesn't either since he has butterfingers.

"Your dad brought it for me." She smiles, sticking the pan into the oven, "He said, he fell in love with me when he first saw me play the piano."

I cover my mouth, "You mean?"

"I met your dad at the wedding—a total loser. Don't tell him I tell you this, but he used to wear these huge glasses and braces. He burnt all the photos we took together and forbidden me to speak of his dark past. But, he didn't know I secretly kept one." We laughed together.

"Can I see it?"

"I'll show it to you later, and you'll see-" She tucked a strand of hair behind my ear, "your beauty comes from mama, not papa."

I continue kicking my dangling legs, "How did she change you?" I asked.

"Her getting married changed me. That day when I looked at her, walking down the aisle towards her future husband, I thought - I want that happiness. I choose to change myself, to obtain it. Sometimes, that's just how it works. No one will be there to pick you up. Sometimes, you have to learn how to pick yourself up."