thirteen

"mona." she quietly murmured, almost like a whisper.

"honey." mona smiled as she came in for a hug and luna cried as she hugged her.

"thank you." mona smiled as luna handed her a glass of water.

mona didn't even have the words to ask her how luna was doing. she knew it right after luna opened the door and mona saw her appearance. luna looked exactly what her mother looked after her marriage.

"i missed you." mona managed to say.

"me too." luna was on the verge of crying, again.

there was a silence between them, awkwardness. they didn't know what to talk about.

"sweety, you know your mother and i have been friends long before you were born, long before her marriage, since high school." mona hammered the wall of silence. and luna looked at her.

"i just felt like you should know something about your mom." she sympathetically smiled.

"since the high school, your mother has been in love with a boy from our class." mona stood up, put the glass on the table in the kitchen and settled down.

she continued, "she was so in love, i could see it in her eyes. she would rush to him whenever he called, she would help him all the time and she was available whenever he needed her."

"those were the beautiful days of her life." she smiled, reminiscing her past.

"but everyone could see how he used her yet she mistook it for love. hun, i don't know if you know this or not but your mum had hanahaki."

luna's eyes widened upon hearing mona. her head started spinning.

"but he left your mother. and it took her years to get healed."

"she was now finally doing okay when after years he showed up and he asked for her hand in marriage, and how could your mother say no? she agreed in a blink of an eye. i knew she made a wrong decision but she was helpless in front of love."

she paused for a minute, "they got married and had you." she smiled at her.

"but what your mother hid from me was that her hanahaki came back the moment your father came back. she didn't tell anyone. she was happy, content with the fact that he was by his side when he rarely even came home."

"one day when he came home, he witnessed your mother vomiting up flowers, in blood. it was an awful sight for him, he got s Ares and he spread everywhere that she was an addict. those disgusting sight was the effect of the drugs. that he couldn't live with an addict anyone, thus he walked away."

luna was dumbfounded. all this time she, herself thought her mother looked so fatigued, worn out because of her addiction but she suffered the same, miserable disease for years and handled it for all these years just to die because of her daughter.

her mother hid the disease so perfectly that luna had no idea how much her mother was going through. she loathed herself even more now, how misjudged her mother was in her eyes, in everyone's eyes.

"bu..but how do you know everything?"

"you mom and i talked about everything the day before she passed away. i wanted to tell you everything but was waiting for the right time, when you may be able to handle it."

"your mom wanted to move to another city for you, so you could have a better future. she wanted to forget everything of the past or make peace with it so she can give you a life you deserve."

luna was now sobbing, she thought she should have been the one to die, not her mother. her mother deserved none of it. she didn't want to hear any more of it. with each word coming out of mona's mouth, luna hated herself more and more.

watching luna sobbing like a little child, mona stopped. mona thought that this was more than enough, luna couldn't handle. she hugged the poor kid.

"i am sorry but i wanted to let you know before i leave the country."

"you're going away, too?" luna asked, sobbing.

"i am sorry honey, because of my work."

luna nodded.

they said their farewell and luna closed the door and lied on her bed, thinking of nothing yet everything consumed her.