It was summer holiday, but more importantly, my last summer holiday. I had just graduated high school, and college awaited me in just a couple of months. I had gotten accepted at a prestigious school across the country on the east coast of the United States.
"I can't believe my baby is going away!" Mom started bawling at the news. "How can you just leave and go across the country! You're going to be so far away!"
"I know Mom, but I have to do this," I began to explain. Mom just buried her head in her hands and continued crying. "You want me to live a successful life, right?"
"Of course baby, but, couldn't you have picked another school within this state?"
"Mom, no other school has the renown…" I began.
Mom quickly interjected, "I know, I know, I just don't want to see you leave me,"
"Mom I'm not leaving you, I'm just leaving the state," I laughed. "You have nothing to do with my decision to leave,"
She smiled limply at the last retort. She stood from the chair she was sitting and walked over to the sink. Her crying had subsided. I knew she still felt abandoned, just as my father had done to her when I was a child. I stood up and walked up behind her and wrapped my arms around her waist.
"I love you," I professed.
"I love you too Son, and I want you to be happy," She explained. Her arms covered mine as she stared forward. "I just don't know what I'm going to do all alone,"
"You have Debbie, and Sarah," I tried to cheer her up. They were her co-workers, and they usually got together on the weekends and went out drinking or dancing or both. "You can still go out and have fun with them,"
"I know baby, but I won't have any of my family here," She clarified. I was the only family she really had. Her parents had abandoned her when they found out my father had impregnated her. Mom had a sister too, but they were never really close as kids, and that didn't change even into adulthood.
"We should throw you a graduation party this weekend, what do you say, kid?" Moms' voice suddenly got brighter.
"That's a great idea, Mom" My voice brightening too.
"We can decorate, and I'll even let you have a few drinks," She winked at me. Mom never allowed me to have alcohol, until I was twenty-one, was her saying all through high school. Not that that had stopped me from doing it. I also started smoking pot on a regular basis during the last year. Little she knew.
The next morning was uneventful. I woke up from enough sleep as opposed to an alarm buzzer, I was always grateful for that during the summer holiday. I got out of bed and got dressed in my sweats and headed to the kitchen. Mom sprung through the door, bags of decorations in her arms.
"Help me out with these, would you?" Mom asked. I grabbed a few bags relieving her arms. I set them down on the table and dug through them. She bought streamers, banners, party hats, blowers, poppers, and other amenities like plates, napkins, forks, knives, and spoons. All of them had the same theme "happy graduation" on them.
"Do you think you got enough stuff," I said jokingly.
"No, I don't think so," Mom responded. She walked back out to the car. I saw her pull two brown bags from the backseat. She walked inside the house and closed the door with her foot. Setting the bag down, I could her the clinking of many bottles of alcohol. I almost knocked her out of the way so I could peer into the real bag of goodies. I started pulling out bottle after bottle.
"Jack, Jim, Cuervo, Hennesy, Comfort, Bacardi, Jesus Christ!" I read the labels as I pulled them out of the bag.
"No honey, they were sold out of Jesus," Mom laughed. I snickered at her lame attempt to be funny.
"Well, looks like the party is all here," I observed.
"You're forgetting Bailey, Hot Damn, Smirnoff, Budweiser, and Miller," She listed the bottles as she pulled them out of the second bag. "We're going to have one hell of a party!"
I just stood in awe of the selection of alcohol my Mom bought. I forgot about breakfast, thinking of how fun my party was going to be. "What kind of food should we have?" Mom asked, snapping me from my liquor induced trance.
"I don't know Mom, whatever you want, I got everything I need," I said with a big smile on my face. She pulled a pen and a piece of paper out of her purse. Thinking for a moment, she began to scribble a list of food out.
"So how about we break open this bottle of Jack?" I suggested.
