I've been dating Chloe for three months now and she's... great.
I mean, she is perfect, as in, she's the most beautiful girl I've ever seen, and I never had so much fun with anyone else before. She's always making me laugh, and no matter where we are, there's always something she wants to show me or someplace she wants to bring me to. Hell, I don't even miss my friends when I'm with her, she's that fun. I really love everything about her.
Which, really, means almost everything.
If I can convince her to let me hang at her place, she will always, without fail, tell me the same thing. As soon I walk into her house, I can't even put a foot across the doorstep that she turns to me and whispers:
"Don't disturb my mother."
I can't really explain why but this creeps me out. The first time I thought she meant it as in "my mother doesn't like when I bring boys home, so let's be discreet", but over time I noticed she really does say it in a weird way. It's not a request, or even an order, when she says it there's always something in her voice, some sort of danger.
Like a threat, almost.
Maybe you don't think it's weird yet, right? Like, maybe she means it as "my mother will kill you if she sees that I have a boyfriend" or "my mother is a bitch and you don't want to see her mad", but that's not even it, because I've actually never seen her mother. After three months, not a glance at her from the hallway, never met her around dinner, never even seen a picture.
But I've heard her. Every night I spend in Chloe's room, I hear a door open from across the hallway. It's followed by footsteps, and automatically, as soon as we can hear the sound of feet walking down the staircase, Chloe adds:
"That's my mother; you can't go in the living room."
It's weird, isn't it? I've come to the conclusion that she doesn't want me to see her mom before, because it makes some amount of sense. Maybe she's ashamed of her, maybe her mother is rude or unattractive, maybe she's always half-drunk on wine and she has a bad habit of flirting with her daughter's boyfriends. But then, why does she say it that way? Why is it not "oh god, my mother's awake, please avoid her she's soooo embarrassing", instead of "you shall not roam the house when Mother is awake"? Then, again, maybe I'm just overthinking things.
Or am I? It's like, for instance, why does her mom only wake up after 10pm? Chloe tells me she's just watching TV, but her mom is never up during the day, because she goes back to sleep in the morning. Most of her time is spent sleeping, she doesn't even have a job or leave the house. I really want to listen to my girlfriend, but this is driving me insane; am I supposed to never see her mom? Because I am absolutely in love with Chloe, and even though I don't like thinking about these things, I truly hope it lasts. I'm going to have to meet her mom one day and, well, if she's not letting me, I'll have to sneak out and meet her on my own. I'm just going to take a peek, I don't even have to introduce myself, I'll just quietly go down in the living room and see what's the deal, and if she doesn't look too much like a maniac, then maybe I'll say something to her. What are the odds that Chloe is the one who's blowing it out of proportion?
Tonight, me and Chloe are hanging out, she has been showing me something she's working on for college. She's studying to be a graphic designer, which I think is pretty cool. She's been showing me a fake website she's been designing for one of her classes, and she was very proud of it. She couldn't stop talking about it, and she's been waiting all week to show me.
She's so smart. It makes me wonder how in hell I got myself with her, since I don't have even half her talent, or her brains. Chloe keeps telling me I could be a chef, since I like to cook sometimes, but she's just being nice; there's no way I could get a career doing it. Instead, I have no clue what I want to do, so I'm working at my brother's garage. I suppose it can stress me out since I'm not really happy there, but it's not like I have anywhere else to go. Whenever I get anxious about it, though, Chloe holds my hands and looks into my eyes. I just lose myself in there, and she tells me how amazing I am and how much she loves me and how I could stay at home and make food while she brings home a million dollar a month from her designing gigs.
Damn, she's so beautiful. My best description is that she looks like a princess, like Snow White but with green eyes, and also much cooler. When I was getting to know her, I thought she looked like a badass since she was always wearing leather jackets and metal band shirts, but now that I actually know her I've learned that she barely listens to any of these bands and that she's too sweet to actually punch anyone in the face. She just enjoys the style, and while it does fit her, she's so much more adorable than she seems. She the most caring and loving person on the planet and she dresses like she stabs grannies in dark alleyways.
Eventually it was getting late and she had school in the morning, so she proposed we called it a night. It's been three months, but Chloe isn't very comfortable with, uh, the next step. But it's okay, I think. I'm not obsessed with it anyway, and I actually like to hang out with her, and we do kiss and cuddle, so there's that. Of course, I'd love to do it with her, I can't wait—but I can, because above all I'd feel stupid to lose her because I couldn't keep it in my pants. That's why, when I'd sleep at her place, we'd just cuddle with all our clothes on. We'd lay on her bed, over the sheets, and we'd hold each other until we fell asleep. Most of the time, I'd sleep on my back and she'd lay her head on my chest, but whenever she'd feel like it, I would spoon her and try to not get a boner (and fail every time). Tonight, she had just laid her head on my shoulder, which made it way easier for me to slip out of bed without waking her.
I had already decided that I was going to see her mom today. As per usual, we heard her leave her room about two hours ago. It was now midnight, and the time had come for me to meet Chloe's mom.
As quietly as I could, I walked into the hallway and went down the stairs. I calculated each step as to make as little sound as I could. I was approaching the living room, step by step, with only the sound of the TV to signal me that Chloe's mom was down there. When I was low enough, I had a chance to catch a few glimpses of her. I was hiding behind the wall, still in the stairs, peeking my head over at the couch to see what she looked like.
Since she apparently never left the house, I was expecting to see some old prune, like a sick and fragile old lady. I couldn't see very well, but I could spot some pitch-black hairs, exactly like Chloe's, but instead of being worn straight down, they were tied in a messy bun. I couldn't see very well, so I extended my neck. Her skin seemed smooth, and just as pale as her daughter's; she was wearing a long white fancy nightgown, the ones with the frilly sleeves, and she was eating some sort of crunchy snack. I could see her pick something from a bowl and eat it, at first I thought it could be popcorn, but the crunch it would make in her mouth was much harder, like the sound it makes when you snap some twigs. Also, she too had green eyes, and I was able to tell because they were looking straight at me. I froze.
I didn't know what to do, but from a distance I could tell she looked angry.
