This choice: What If?: Instead of Haley coming home, her sister Tara did instead! • Go Back... Even if it hadn't been "her room" since high school, Tara hadn't woken up yet not knowing exactly where she'd landed herself.
Not through any of her own mistakes, mind you. But bad luck had not only made it impossible for her to keep living in Charleston by herself, but had also made her face the unfortunate reality that she literally couldn't afford to live anywhere else other than home. With her mother. In her childhood bedroom.
Ugh.
This was the sort of thing that she had woken up to every morning since coming home. Not because her mama made her feel bad about the company going under, or even because she particularly missed her crappy little apartment in Charleston. But waking up every day knowing that she had been forced to move back home because she couldn't make it on her own... it weighed heavily on Tara. In ways that no number of extra special breakfasts could really, truly make up for.
"Tara, honey!" her mother's voice called out from downstairs, "I made you an extra special breakfast!"
...although, she wasn't about to turn down one of her mama's signature breakfast platters.
"I'm coming, mama!"
Throwing off the covers, Tara West began yet another day at home in Spartanburg South Carolina.
She had changed a lot since the days when this was her room. Really her room. She'd let her hair grow out long and she'd dyed it blonde. She'd stopped wearing those band t-shirts and settled into more conservative fashion for the working world (though lately, laying around in her pajamas had suited her just fine). Perhaps most importantly, Tara had finally learned how to learn how to hide her big nose underneath makeup through countless amounts of tutorials...
Tutorials that she'd had ample time to study, now that she was living at home with her mommy.
"Ugh, stop beating yourself up about this..."
Tara threw a big t-shirt over her head and pulled up a pair of sweatpants. Not exactly the most dashing and debonair of getups, but she didn't have a lot planned for the morning. If it were up to Tara, she would have gotten back to work immediately. But her mother had been insistent that she lay around the house a little and "take some time off"... whatever that meant.
"Mmmmrw?"
"No." Tara pointed at her cat, Boots, "Mom feeds you enough."
Fuck, she feeds me enough...
The furry little fiend showed his tummy in rejection of Tara's philosophy, rubbing himself all over his owner's black leggings in a show of affectionate rejection...
***
"There she is!"
Mrs. West had been greeting Tara like that for the better part of three weeks now, each and every day like it was something special. Though, to her mother, it probably was nice to have her daughter back in town. She'd only had to live by herself for a few years once Haley moved out, but for someone like her, who thrived on having a full house to take care of, Tara could only imagine that it was a little lonely for her.
She was happy to lean into it a little.
"Good morning, mama."
"Good morning snugglebutt." Mrs. West gave her eldest daughter a kiss on the cheek, "Go ahead and pull up a chair, I made sure to make your favorites."
All of Tara's favorites had constituted blueberry pancakes with lots of butter, french toast, and even some of those prepackaged muffins that came from Ingles. Her mama had been spoiling her rotten ever since she came home, probably to make up for the fact that Tara's whole life seemed to fall apart. It was very much in character for her to say "I'm sorry that your job fired you and now you have to move home with your dear old mama" with food...
But again, Tara wasn't exactly complaining.
"Thanks mama." Tara gave her mom a quick hug, "It all looks great."
It sure did. Even after a few weeks of this treatment, Tara had yet to have grown tired of getting to live like an only child. While her younger sister Haley got to galavant around with her boyfriend Damien in the city that Tara loved and doing the sorts of things that she would have killed to do right about now, Tara was getting five star service for what felt like the first time in her life!
"Hey, there's an extra story on my pancake platter." Tara mentioned out loud, looking to her mother
"Well, it's not like you don't deserve it. With that awful Dyna-Corp firin' you and all..." she trailed off, knowing that she had stuck her foot in her mouth by bringing up Tara's former corporate overlords, "...Nevermind all that. You eat, hun."
"Thanks mama." Tara smiled a buttery smile, "I can really taste the love."
"That'd be the extra butter." Mrs. West laughed, "But you won't hear me sayin' anything about it!"
"Either way, it's really, really good to be home..." Tara smiled, cheeks bulging...   indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
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