Devilish Witches and Fiery Mothers

Charlotte entered her room and after she shut the door behind her, she rested her back on it and smiled so wide one would think she'd been bewitched by some happy pills.

She glanced at her stunning room and a magnificent painting she'd bought for a couple millions of dollars that stood right above her bed frame and this triggered a feeling that prompted a memory slip.

*********.            **************

Younger Charlotte was weeping in her room as she sat on the edge of her bed with a hoodie that looked like the most expensive item in the room laying on her bed boldly.

"Ahh. Eiahhh." Charlotte kept crying in cacophonous octaves that could irritate any breathing creature.

"What's that, sweetie?" Jacqueline said as she entered the room and moved nearer to her crying teenage daughter. 

"Mum..it hurts... I miss him so badly." Charlotte said with indiscernible words that sounded like a broken siren.

"I know, baby. I know. But you've got to be strong. You've got a future ahead of you and who knows, maybe Liam would finally see you as a colleague and not a charity case." Jacqueline said these harsh words in a sombre tone.

"No. You're wrong. Liam doesn't see me as a charity case. He sees me as a…" Charlotte yelled right back at her mum before her words stuck behind her throat as though she was waiting on the right word that eluded her.

"He sees you as what? As a friend? No, baby. He couldn't possibly see you that way. His friends are way above you in class, style and prestige..and that's okay. You wanna know why?" Jacqueline said in a squatting posture with her hands on Charlotte's wrist.

"Why?" Charlotte asked softly, desperately seeking an answer that was a worthy justification for her mum's cruel words.

"Because no one ever makes a friend who's still below them. It's from a height of pity and disgust that they'd see you. All Liam sees is a pretty girl who seeks a life that he has. He only hangs around you because you make him feel better about himself." Jacqueline continued with a slow voice and a pitch that preached compassion.

How would a sermon of hate and lies be so full of empathy that mirrored the truth almost perfectly?

Charlotte, desperately in need of comfort, gave her mum's words a place in her heart as she cried the more and leaned on her mum who patted her head.

"It's okay, baby. It's okay. You're gonna be at the top someday and you'll realise that Liam is not the best you can do. For now, be obsessed about getting your way through to the top." Jacqueline said with a scaling tone as she slowly rubbed Charlotte's hair.

***********.                **********

Charlotte snapped out of the memory and sighed to herself with a faded smile and an intensified gaze.

"No one ever makes a friend who's still below them." Charlotte uttered to herself as though she was reminding herself while she walked to her bed.

********.         *******

"Good morning, Liam. Those doughnuts were really the best yesterday. And for that reason, I took the liberty of asking my boyfriend for tickets for us all to his concert tonight. Not to worry, you can't say no." Cillian said as he dropped a ticket on Liam's desk without an attempt to hear a response from him.

Liam, not bothered by the concert or whatever it was that Cillian had just recited with more gesticulation than words, looked towards Ava's desk and lost himself in the glance.

"Oh, yeah. She's not gonna be coming today. She called earlier this morning saying she wasn't feeling too well." Jerry said to Liam who wore a facial expression of concern as he stared helplessly.

Liam, whose countenance was not expressing happiness, wore an even sadder look as he fixed his eyes on the laptop that sat on his table. 

*********.                *******

It was the end of work for the day, and Liam who had been distracted through most of it got up to pack his stuff and head home for a bit before heading over to Cillian's boyfriend's concert.

"Okay. Bye. See you soon, Liam." Cillian said as he walked out of the room and Liam couldn't resist the urge to look at Ava's desk one more time.

Was he missing her? Was he right to feel whatever he was feeling? 

Liam understood that he was troubled and he wasn't much of himself, but he couldn't really identify why.

"I am your wife… remember that!" These words uttered by Charlotte were on repeat and constant transit in Liam's mind as he stood by the edge of his desk. 

Liam shut the door of the office behind himself as he headed for the elevator which was occupied by a person who seemed interested in waiting for him to pick up his pace and catch up.

Liam, unenthusiastic about getting that ride, did not seem to pay much attention to the elevator or the employee's patience as he kept a sluggish pace with his head nodding towards the ground and sideways.