Chapter 27: A Hug Can Make Things Better

“What are you doing here?” She repeated through clenched teeth. Anger pulsed through her body. She knew if she didn’t keep her grip on the keycard that was in her hand then her hand would connect with something and, inevitably, break it.

“I came to talk,” Charlotte replied. “That’s what we really need to do, just sit down and talk. You got my letter didn’t you?”

“Unfortunately,” Mack replied bitterly. “If Lynn had given it to me on time I would’ve been able to stop you from coming here.”

Charlotte shook her head slowly, not taking her eyes off of her daughter. “I would have come anyway.” She paused and looked around the room, more importantly looking at Justin’s things that were on the floor. “I see you’re not staying here by yourself.”

Mack stayed by the door and shook her head, crossing her arms over her chest. “Justin and I decided to share a room so the guys wouldn’t have to shove five in one. Last time that happened they threw Lance into a wall and had to pay for the damage. Johnny wasn’t happy.” She paused and lifted her eyebrows. “Do you have a problem with that?”

Charlotte couldn’t ignore the sharp edge to her voice. She forced a smile and shook her head. “I can trust you two.”

“Too bad I can’t say the same.” Mack walked past her and dropped down on her knees in front of her bag. Charlotte watched as she pushed her hair back over her ears and started digging through it. She sighed heavily and sat back down on the bed waiting for her daughter’s attention. When she didn’t receive it she started talking.

“Look, sweetie…we need to talk about this…”

Her daughter suddenly shot up and glared at her. Charlotte actually flinched under her glare. Her otherwise soft eyes were hard and were filled with hatred. Charlotte sighed. Did she really cause her own daughter, her own flesh and blood, to hate her so much? She just didn’t understand…

“Oh now you want to talk. Ok, let’s talk about how you fucking abandoned Dad and I and how you decided to just fucking shut me out of your life!” She snapped, tapping her fingers against her arms rapidly.

“Don’t take that tone with me young lady!” Charlotte said sternly. “I’m still your mother.”

“Ha!” Mack laughed bitterly. “You’re not my mom.”

“Yes I am.”

“Biologically maybe but what you’ve done recently, you don’t have the qualifications of being my mother.”

“Stop it!” Charlotte was on her feet now and was staring down at her daughter. The distance in their height wasn’t that great, maybe an inch or two, but it was still enough for Mack to feel like her mother was towering over her. “You don’t understand what happened.”

“Then enlighten me. Tell me why my mother fucked up her whole life!” Mack shot back.

“Sit down and I will.” The two women held each other’s gazes before Mack slowly sit down, sitting at the head of her bed, keeping her distance. Charlotte ran a hand through her ink black hair – the hair she shared with her daughter – and sat down as well. “I was in a tough place,” she started slowly. “My job required me to work more and more so I saw your father less and less.” She paused when her daughter made a snorting sound but continued quickly. “I was getting lonely. I would arrive home after he went to sleep and I would wake up before he would leave for work. I missed having a companion I guess. Then Paul came along and….we got along so well. I saw your father in Paul and we would spend so much time together at work and he was so nice and–”

“And you fell for the punkass and decided to shove a sword into Dad’s back by fucking his brains out?” Mack interrupted dryly.

“Mackenzie Charlotte!” She gasped. “If I had known being around those boys would do this to you–”

“Do what to me?” Mack interrupted. “Give me space? Gave me room to actually figure out who I was? Give me the attention I need when I needed it and left me alone when I asked for it. Actually felt like my family? Oh yeah, Mom, they’re bad. They’re evil. They’ve brainwashed your perfect daughter.” She rolled her eyes. “Newsflash Mom! I’ve always been like this!”

“What happened to my sweet little girl?” Charlotte asked pitifully.

“I’m not little anymore!” Mack shouted, punching the pillow that was next to her. The pillow caved underneath the force of her punch. “Don’t you get it? I’m not the same girl I was when I was five, Mom. The guys know that and they accept it! Why can’t you? Oh, that’s right, it’s because you’re banging your coworker!”

Charlotte stayed silent and waited for her daughter to calm down a bit more. “I know you’re upset. I was too when it really hit me what I was doing. I talked to your grandparents about it. I knew I had to tell your father so I did, but we didn’t want you to know. You were having a good time and we didn’t want to bring you down.”

“I all ready knew,” Mack informed her. She looked at her daughter in confusion. “The day I got home–the day you weren’t there–I overheard you and Dad fighting on the phone.” She slowly shook her head. “I knew something was funny but I didn’t want to admit to myself what I all ready knew. And yet, you took the cowards way out.”

“It’s not like your father is the innocent one!” Charlotte said, exasperated.

Mack stared. “What?” She asked dully.

“Your father isn’t as innocent as he perceived to be. It seems that he turned you against me.” Charlotte chuckled a bitter laugh. “Your father has a few problems of his own. His best friend is becoming his beer bottle. That’s why I took the extra shifts in the first place, so I wouldn’t have to deal with his abuse. He’s the one that drove me away, I didn’t choose to leave.”

Mack turned her head away from her mother’s gaze. No, she has to be lying. Dad wouldn’t do anything like that. God, why is this happening? Why the hell is my family falling apart? It’s not fair! She bit her lip to keep the tears that crept up on her from falling. Be strong, don’t let her see you cry.

“I did come here for another reason,” Charlotte spoke up. Mack turned towards her once she was sure her tears went away. Keep a stony face, she told herself. Charlotte reached into the big bag that was by her and pulled out a stack of papers that was held together by a large binder clip. It hung in the air of a couple of seconds as Mack eyed it before she took it from her.

“Titanic,” she muttered the title. “Hmm, didn’t expect them to make a movie about it.” She flipped through the pages and whistled under her breath. “What part?”

“A seventeen-year-old girl named Rose, one of the leads,” Charlotte replied.

“Ok, so who’s this so called agent of mine?”

“His names Rick Carpenter. He was a talent agent for MMC for a bit. I managed to get in contact with him, told him a bit about you, and gave him a few of your old audition tapes.”

“He wanted to be my agent without having new material?” Mack asked skeptically.

“He says even back then you had potential which could only get better with time.” She paused. “Give it a chance. Filming starts in July and you have a break in the middle of May, right? Just come home and audition.”

“Depends, do they all ready have this…Jack character set?”

“Mhm.” Charlotte nodded and waited as if wanting Mack to press who it was. When her daughter didn’t say anything she continued. “It’s Leonardo DiCaprio.”

“He was in that Growing Pains show wasn’t he? And in that Romeo and Juliet movie?” Mack asked, not being able to hide her excitement.

Charlotte nodded. “I thought you’d like it.”

Almost immediately the smile and the happiness Mack had drained from her and she was filled with fury. How dare she try to pull one over on me! She thought, gripping the script in her hands tights. Charlotte noticed her sudden change in behavior and prepared herself for another outburst but it didn’t come. “You know I’m not the type of person to forgive and forget easily,” Mack commented.

“I know,” Charlotte agreed quickly, I was just hoping. She looked down, noticed her daughter’s cast and quickly changed the subject. “What happened?”

“I fell,” Mack replied simply. “Dancing. Broke my wrist, have to wear it for a few more weeks.”

Charlotte slowly shook her head. She reached forward and pulled up the sleeve of Mack’s t-shirt. She tried to wiggle out of her mom’s grasp but she held on tight. “I meant this,” she replied, studying the bruises on her arm.

How’d she see that? Mack looked back and forth between the black/purple bruises as Charlotte sat there, waiting. “I fell,” she replied lamely.

“You’re not clumsy.”

“Missed step, I’m fine,” she said as she pulled her arm away. “One of the guys grabbed my arm to break my fall. I guess they grabbed too hard.” Charlotte didn’t say anything but she didn’t let go of her mother’s arm. “If the only reason you came here was to interrogate me–”

“I told you I came to talk,” Charlotte sighed, dropping her hand. “I don’t understand why you’re making this so difficult.”

“Mom, tell me this, has Dad forgiven you?” Charlotte didn’t say a word. “Right. If Dad hasn’t then I sure as hell am not forgiving you either.”

Charlotte sighed once more and stood, gathering her bag. “If you decide to take the audition give me a call.” She walked towards the door and hesitated, gripping the handle. Turning back she said, with tears in her eyes, “I didn’t want us to end up this way.”

Mack replied quietly, “You can’t always get what you want.” She barely winced when the door slammed shut behind Charlotte. Letting out a long sigh she flopped backwards, covering her eyes with her arms. The next thing she knew her body was shaking with sobs that she tried to keep inside but was having trouble stifling.

Faraway she heard banging on the door followed by the sound of a little click, footsteps, and then her bed sagged. Her nose was met with the smell of papaya, pineapple and jasmine before a warm arm was wrapped around her waist and hugged her tight.

“You gotta lay off that cologne,” Mack muttered without moving her arm.

“But you like it, I wear it for you,” Justin replied, propping his head up on his hand. “Are you ok?”

She let out a breath. “No point in me lying anymore you guys always call me out on it: no, I’m not fine. Nothing’s fine. Everything sucks.” She let out a shaky breath. “Can I have a hug?”

“Why do you think I’m here?”

She could practically see the smile on his face.