Make Me Hate You

The day my mother left, there was an elemental shift in me.

I didn’t realize it then, because I was young and, for the most part, untouched by the cruelties of the world.

I lived in the sheltered little bubble of Bridgechester, in the warm hideaway of my best friend’s house and family, in the comfort of my aunt’s arms. I believed everyone when they told me something — Morgan when she said we’d be best friends forever, Tyler when he told me I was spectacular, my mother when she told me she’d be back for me.

But on that day, something shifted.