Page 35 of Coping Skills

“I’m sorry too, mija,” her mom whispered into her hair. “I wish things were different. I really do.”

“Me too.” She held her mom just as tightly, her arms under her mother’s, hands clasping her shoulder blades, her eyes squeezed shut. “Does he treat you this way too?”

Drawing in a shuddery breath, her mom nodded, but didn’t speak.

“Why do you stay?”

With another deep breath, her mom broke the hug, pulling back to look at Elena, tears gathering in her dark brown eyes. She gave a tiny shrug. “He’s my husband. And he’s hurt. What am I supposed to do?”

Elena examined her mom, her mouth open to respond, but she couldn’t come up with anything to say. She shook her head. “I don’t know, mamá. I don’t know.”

A watery smile came to her mother’s face, serving to highlight her sadness. “Me either. So I just keep going until I figure it out. I’ll let you know when I do.” Squeezing her hands, her mom let her go. “Have you looked any more into going to a support group for families of TBI survivors?”

And just like that her sadness for her mom and herself morphed into frustration. “No. It’s been a busy semester. I have a full class load plus all the work for dad’s clients still.” She leveled a look at her mom. “Which is something we need to talk about soon. I can’t keep doing that forever.”

Her mom nodded, turning back to the apple on the counter. “Can you last until Thanksgiving at least?”

Elena studied her mom’s profile before giving in, like she usually did. “Yeah. I guess so.”

“Gracias.”

“De nada, mamá.” She waited, but her mom wouldn’t look at her again. “I’ll let you know I’ve made it back safely.”

Her mom nodded. “Okay.”

“I love you, mami.”

“I love you too, mija.” She was whispering again, like she couldn’t manage to speak louder than that, and the guilt hit Elena then. Even so, she pushed it away. She couldn’t handle an hour of her dad. How would she manage two days? She couldn’t. She needed to leave to protect herself. Her mom would have to take care of herself as well.

“Bye.”

Her mom’s whispered, “Bye,” followed Elena out of the kitchen. She had to cover her mouth with her hand to hold back the sob that wanted to escape and pull out every trick she knew to keep her tears from falling. But she managed to get her things and get back in her car without breaking down in tears, and driving back to Spokane provided enough of a distraction that she didn’t feel the need once she decided to hit a drive-thru for lunch and a caffeine fix.

Now the big question was what should she do once she got back to Spokane? She’d promised Hannah and Matt a weekend to themselves in the house. It was a relatively trivial concern. They’d understand—at least Hannah would, and Matt always took his cue on how to treat Elena from his girlfriend, so she wasn’t worried about that. But she felt bad interrupting. And she really didn’t want to walk in on her friend getting spanked or fucked in the living room.

So that meant she needed to come up with some kind of plan.

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