Chapter 31: The pre-game
Luna waited until her mother had put on her favorite baking music, ‘Dear Future Husband by Meghan Trainor’, before dropping the bomb on her.
“Moira Lake invited me to a party,” she paused for two seconds, “and I’m going.”
The fast intro beat of the music rolled in comically at that very same moment. Mira Jones turned slowly to look at her daughter.
“What?” she asked softly.
Luna swallowed as she stared at her mother. She knew her mother was softhearted and calm most of the time, which made her weary of her on the few times she wasn’t either of those things. And Luna had a feeling this moment would be one of those times.
“Moira Lake invited me to a party,” Luna said again, “and I’m going. Not because I want to, but because I have to.”
“Why?” Mira asked, exasperation in her tone.
Luna turned back to what they were doing, they were in her mother’s kitchen in her home. They were baking, an activity that they both enjoyed doing together, and that they did at least once a month. The music continued to play in the background.
Luna mixed sugar with flour in a mixing bowl.
“Why what?” she finally asked her mother. She didn’t look at her mother. “Why am I going? Or why did Moira invite me to her party?”
Mira threw her hands up. “How about you take your pick? Both?”
Luna turned her head to look at her mother sideways. “Look, Mom, it’s not like I want to go either, believe me, I would rather be watching reruns of that tedious show you love so much- what’s the name again?- Grey’s Anatomy. I would rather be watching reruns of Grey’s Anatomy with you all night than going to this party,” she returned her gaze to what she was mixing, “but I can’t.”
“Don’t say you can’t,” Mira countered, her voice already vibrating with low anger, “don’t give me that crap. You can, and you will. You will stay here with me tonight and we will watch TV all night, but you’re not going to that party.”
Luna’s brows furrowed, she had known her mother would not take the news of her going to Moira’s party well, but she hadn’t known she would be so convicted about it.
“Respectfully, Mother, but you can’t tell me what to do,” Luna said. “You don’t have control over my life and I’m free to go wherever I want.”
Even without looking at her mother, Luna could feel Mira angrily seething quietly beside her.
“Fine, then go to your precious party. Go there and get humiliated, let them hurt you with their words and that hateful look in their eyes when they look at you. Go and get your heart broken again,” Mira spat angrily.
She whirled away from Luna as she finished talking. Luna turned fully to watch her go, her brows furrowed even more. Her mother must be more affected by the Lakes than she’d thought, because she’d never heard such bitterness from her before. In her entire life, Luna had never known her mother to be more angry than she obviously was now.
Realizing that, Luna left the kitchen counter to walk over to her mother, who was standing by the refrigerator. Mira’s back was turned to her so Luna walked over to stand in front of her, she placed both her hands on her shoulders and looked into her eyes.
“Mom,” she said softly, recognizing the anguish she so keenly remembered staring back at her whenever she looked in the mirror, months after her divorce with Justin became final.
Mira’s lips trembled, she shook her head. “I can’t watch you go through it again,” she said. She shook her head again, her voice trembled. “I can’t watch you got through what I watched you go through all those years ago, I can’t.” She removed Luna’s hands from her shoulders to grip them in both of hers. “Stay far away from them, Luna, forget about your vengeance, stay away from them. They’re not worth your peace of mind, sweetie, you don’t have to prove anything to any of them.”
“But I do,” Luna countered, “I do have something to prove to them, and to myself. I cannot truly heal until I’ve proven it, I cannot truly move on until I’ve done what I have to do.”
Mira closed her eyes for a moment on Luna’s words, her hands tightened a little on Luna’s before she let go. She opened her eyes.
“I don’t know what it is with you and that family,” resignation rang through Mira’s voice, she stared at Luna with sad eyes, “When it seems like you are almost free from them, you get ensnared into their world again. And it’s the same pattern all over again.”
Luna wanted to take her mother’s hands again, she wanted to reassure her that everything was going to be fine, but she couldn’t. She wasn’t going to be completely fine for a while, and she knew it.
“It’s not going to be the same pattern all over again,” Luna said instead. She also knew that as well. “I am not the young naive girl they took into their fold all those years ago, I haven’t been her for a long while. I’ve gotten stronger now, better, richer, more powerful. I’ve risen up to their level, they can’t beat down on me anymore,” Luna shrugged, “At least not without me beating back.”
“So you believe you have everything you need to protect yourself from these people now, don’t you?” Mira asked.
Luna nodded. “I do. I spent the better part of three years making sure I did, they’re not going to have the power to hurt me anymore, Mom, because I won’t let them.”
Mira stared at her daughter, Luna stared back. Finally, Mira nodded.
“I hope you do, because power brings something out of a person, something surprising.”
“What’s that?” Luna asked.
“Vulnerability,” Mira answered.