My father and I had always been close, and it was like she was putting the final nail in the coffin that contained their marriage. I was upset, to say the least. My dad didn’t even put up a fight for me though, so after awhile, I just figured he didn’t want me either.
Little did I know, my mother had another marriage all lined up. This one was more her style. My step-father, Gerald R. Conklin the third, was the CEO of a marketing company that had been in his family for generations in Connecticut. That was definitely a bit of a culture shock when my mother whisked me away from our humble surroundings and moved me into an extravagant mansion. It was a whole new world.
My mother on the other hand, had always been a frigidly cold and uncaring, acting as if I was more of a nuisance than anything. She fit in perfectly.
I started to act out once I hit high school; I think mainly to try to get her attention. I had been threatened at least three times to be thrown out of the fancy private school that Gerald shelled out a ton of money for. When bad behavior at school just seemed to make things worse in our relationship, I turned to boys and drinking.
When Chris came along, she seemed to warm up to me just a little. One, because I had stopped acting out and two, because he was from an even richer family than ours. It was all about the social ladder with my mother. But any warm feelings from her soon cooled off again once my life was completely flipped upside down, something that I had never expected would happen to me.
“Oh, thank god. I’m glad that is finally over,” she replied with a wave of her hand. “I don’t think you completely understand how difficult it was to cover up your little…indiscretion. I guess you have your mother to thank for that one. Just think how your reputation would have been ruined the minute anyone got air of that. So I could only assume you were sniffing the nail polish while you were there,” she added sarcastically and pointed at my eyes, which I could only guess were bloodshot.
I pushed down the urge to roll my eyes. If she had tried to cover up my little indiscretion, as she put it, it was solely for her benefit. Whatever would her friends at the country club think if they knew what her daughter had done? People would be gossiping about it for years.
“Anyway, what exactly did you need to talk to me about? I have some applications to fill out and then I need to get ready for the day.”
“Oh please, don’t try and lie to me. Do you think I’m stupid? I need to hear exactly what your plans are now that you’ve finished up with that silly little community college you insisted on attending. How do you think that made me look while everyone else’s children were going off to Yale or Harvard, actually putting their private school education to good use? Embarrassing.”
I took a deep breath to calm myself down. I knew she was just trying to push my buttons and she knew exactly how to do it. Yes, I hadn’t gone to a four-year college right away like everyone else, but I really didn’t feel like I was ready. I had all ready gone through so much, I just felt like I needed a bit of a breather.
My mother snapped her fingers in front of my face, and I quickly looked up at that scowl focused at me. “Really, Adelaide, are you still high? Please pay attention. Don’t think I will allow you to sit around on your pampered ass and spend all of Gerald’s money. That is not going to happen. You need to figure out what you are doing, pronto.”
Wow. And what exactly did she do? At least I actually cleaned up after myself. Most of the time. Our maid, Belinda, basically had to trail behind my mother to answer to her every whim.
“You have got to be kidding me; you know I need a little bit of time to figure things out. I’ve been going to my therapy sessions like we agreed, and my grades weren’t that horrible, I’m sure I’ll be able to be get in somewhere eventually.”
“Oh, I’m far from kidding, Adelaide. Yes, you have been going to those little therapy sessions, but it doesn’t seem as if they are helping in the least bit. You are still out of control, and I just cannot handle you for much longer.” I rolled my eyes and slammed the door in her face, the sound echoing through my room. Couldn’t handle me for much longer? Really, when did she ever deal with me besides when I got in really deep shit? Other than that I was basically on my own.
I had no clue what I wanted to do with the rest of my life, and although the rest of my friends were going off to their fancy schools, I just had no motivation to join them.
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