Mother, Monster

Come my dear, we need to get ready, this is a wonderful moment’ she took my hand, pulling me gently onto the bed, pulling out clothes from the shopping bag in her hands.

‘You’ll be so pretty’, she giggled as she handed them to me, a peach flowered gown and matching heels.

‘Put them on’, she urged me, that fake smile still plastered on her face as my hand sank into the soft fabric of the gown, my tears soaking through it.

‘It was the first gift she ever gave me, the first time she bought clothes for me’, my heart broke again and again at this woman I called mom

When I kept staring, unmoving at the dress, she sits beside me taking my hands in hers and holding it towards her chest.

‘Tina dear, this is an opportunity to make us proud, to pay us back for raising you, to show how much you love us’, she looked into my eyes, that smile still there,

I ripped my hands away from hers forcefully, unbuttoning my shirt with shaky fingers, putting on my first gift from my mother.

‘Does a daug