Kora

"Welcome home ma."

I could feel the maid reach out to me the moment she opened the front door so I could get in but I just didn't give a damn. I must have given her a scare because no one had seen me in the state I was in, in such a long time. I didn't even understand the state I was in, all I knew is I was upset and I needed to talk to her. I needed to see her. She was the only one that could explain why he had changed. I don't know why I felt that way but something inside of me wanted to believe she knew something, anything at all that could explain why what happened had happened.

"Kora!" I heard my mum yell my name as I rushed up the stairs while Mike's toy rattled as he coo'ed. She must have been carrying him at that moment.

It was like everyone could see how upset I was. Especially since I was attracting a lot of eyes with the way my footsteps echoed down the hallway while I hurriedly cleaned the tears off my face, trying to hold on till I got to where my mind was leading me to now, to the second room at the end of the hallway. My heart was racing. Why wouldn't it when it was breaking into pieces every time I took a breath. I could still hear them, his words to me, the very words that crushed my soul.

I wanted to inhale, but it was so hard. It was so hard keeping my mind in one place. How could he? Why did he? There had to be some sort of an explanation. Something must have happened at school. Something that had made him change his mind.

"Kora!" Mum kept yelling my name. I could tell she was climbing up the stairs now as her voice became really close.

I kept my eyes glued to the halfway opened brown door as I heard faint chuckles coming from inside and the moment I barged in, it made her stop laughing for a minute. I watched Racheal's cold gaze shift to me, glaring at me with her phone still glued to her ears. She wasn't surprised I had just walked into her room for the first time in both our lives, but the look on her face just spelled it out.

Can I help you?

With the way she raised her thick brows at me, that had to be what she was thinking. I took a deep breath, pretending to not notice or care about the new color of her hair. Brown. That was not all, she must have had a breast enlargement because I could have sworn her breasts weren't as big six months back.

Why was I even concerned about her boobs?

I returned her cold glare.
There was no way she really wanted us to talk when she still had someone at the other end of her phone. My expression told her just that. I watched her roll her eyes.

"Stephanie, give me a second. I'm going to call you back real soon okay?" I heard her say right before she slowly took her phone away from her ear and hung up, holding it firm in her palms. She exhaled and then slowly raised her head to mine.

"What?" Now she was referring to me.
I could feel how my feet wanted to take more steps to her. It was already making those decisions without me even knowing, next thing I knew, I was almost close to her king sized bed. I could tell she was a bit shocked with the way she kept staring at me with her brows up and a side of her tiny lips upturned.

"Why do you keep walking up to me and not saying anything?" She muttered to herself, shifting uncomfortably on her bed as I got even closer.

She got up immediately.

"What?!" She yelled at me, looking into my eyes. "Why are you acting so weird?"

I halted and then looked at her carefully. I could feel my lips shake like they wanted to say something but the words I needed, they just wouldn't come out.

I swallowed hard.

I could feel myself push back the tears that were threatening to fall from my eyes.

"I-" I started. "I-"

I took a deep breath.

"Luke just broke up with me." I finally said. My eyes still on hers. I watched her throat vibrate the moment she forced saliva down them, the look in her eyes changing. There was a bit of silence that filled the room right before she drew a deep breath and then blinked twice.

"So?" She asked me rubbing her fingers together like she always did anytime she was nervous. She raised her hands to her chest and then folded it right above her tiny breasts. "What does that have to do with me?"

"You both go to the same school." I cut her off. "Luke would not just suggest a break up all of a sudden if there wasn't a reason. A good reason. He would never do that to me. Something must be wrong. Something must have happened in NAUN." I was raising my voice now for no reason, my eyes fixated on her, my voice shaking uncontrollably. "No," I continued. "Something happened and I'm sure about it. Luke won't tell me but you would."

She scoffed, a wry smile appearing on her lips as she shook her head like she was so embarrassed for me.

"You know something don't you?"
I was so sure Racheal had to at least have an idea what had happened. Did I ever mention Luke was one of the reasons Racheal didn't like me?

Yes.

It was up until a year ago she had confessed her feelings to him in front of all that crowd back at pre college school slash lessons even when she knew how involved we both were and when Luke turned her down publicly, it made the whole school laugh at her for months, and made her heart break a lot. She said she was over him at that instant, but I always knew she never was. She still loved getting herself updated with anything concerning him and that was why she couldn't stand me, because he chose me. At least that was what I thought. There was no way she wouldn't know why he was acting the way he was.

"Why are you asking me?" She asked me. "How am I supposed to know anything about Luke? Maybe he broke up with you because he was just tired of you. I wouldn't blame him." She scoffed. "I can barely stand you right now, I can't imagine what the past twelve years must have been like for him."

"No." I shook my head. I didn't want to believe it. "That's not possible. He wouldn't have done that to me. Something is wrong. I know it, I can feel it."

"Then go ask him!" She yelled at me. "Why are you trying to upset me?!"  She paused for a second and then exhaled. "Look here Kora, I'm not in the mood for any of this. Learn to know when to stop being so annoying and dramatic all the damn time. Get out of my room." She pushed me.

Another tear fell from my face. I stood my ground, staggering just a little bit.

"Kora!" Mum yelled my name as she rushed into the room. I just stood there, not even bothering to turn one bit.

"Can't you hear me?!" Racheal yelled again but I didn't move. I just looked at her. I watched her turn to her bed in a hurry and then reached for a cloth hanger she could hit me with before mum hurried to stand in front of me, to protect me. I was still so shocked to even move or be bothered by what was wrong.

"Racheal stop!" mum tried to be as calm as she could, spreading her hands in front of me so Racheal didn't do what she was thinking of. I could see the way Racheal stopped her hands halfway in the air, refraining from hitting me, biting on her lip hard. She looked like she was so annoyed and frustrated.

"That's enough." I heard my mum tell her again right before she slowly tried to reach for the hanger. "That's enough. Let me have that."

Mum pushed closer to Racheal to take the weapon from her, right before Racheal pushed her too. Unlike me, gravity wasn't really on mum's side, She fell to the ground after failing to maintain her balance.

"Mum!" I hurriedly snapped back to consciousness, bending over to see if she was okay. "Mum."

"It's okay." She tried to act like she was fine but I knew better. Mum had always been fragile, just as I was, a fall like that must have hurt her a lot.

Racheal scoffed.

"What's wrong with you people?" She asked us, glaring at us. "Why don't you guys ever understand the word 'space'? I can't even have my personal space in my own room." She said almost in a whisper, loud enough for us to hear. She was really trying to hold back from saying anything else. She just stood there watching me as I helped my mother sit up straight. She took a loud exhale.

"I'm stepping out for air. You both had better get out of my room by the time I'm back, or I swear to God-" she paused and then hurriedly turned to her bed and picked up her phone.

She stormed out of the room before I could even say anything else.

What was wrong with me?
Why did I just let her do that to my mum? I wish I had reprimanded her like I usually did, but at that moment, Racheal was the least of my problems. Call me a bad daughter but none of them were close to any of my problems at that moment.

I threw myself on the ground, right beside my mother. I couldn't take it anymore. My legs were already doing a bad job at playing support.

"Kora," she whispered, turning to me. It was like she could read through me. Like she could tell something was wrong just by looking at me, even though it was very obvious. She was able to link two and two together.

"Mum-" I had tears in my eyes. A lot of them and so I tried to avoid eye contact. "What am I supposed to do mummy?"

I slowly turned to her so she could see me.

"It's like my heart is tearing into pieces. I can barely breathe."

She exhaled. With the way she looked at me, I could tell she understood what I meant. She didn't even need to hear me say it, she knew me so well. It was one reason she was more than my mother. She was my best friend and it was another reason why I never kept anything from her. She always read me like a book.

"Mummy-"

She leaned closer to me and then hugged me as tight as she could.

"Oh my baby," she gave me soft pats on my back as I cried into her arms. "My poor baby."

"Mummy," I kept calling her name as I managed to hold on tight to her sunshine yellow woolly top. "Mummy."

She was the only one I had at that moment.
The only one left.
The only one that had not abandoned me, yet.

She was the only one.